Seam allowance in software like Inkscape or Illustrator

Hi all,

not sure, if this belongs to here, but I hoped someone could help me. Is there a way I can change the line type or strength of the sewing line of a pattern? Whenever I try to do it in either Inkscape or Illustrator it will change for both lines. I can’t figure out how to handle the lines separately. Apologies, I know it is not directly Seamly2d related, but I hoped someone faced the same issue and came up with a solution.

Thank you. Regards Éva

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Hi, @Evica

The pattern gets saved in Seamly all nicely grouped up. When you open it in Inkscape, you need to ungroup it a few times to separate the different groups (Shift Ctrl g) and then you need to uncombine it (Shift Ctrl K). This will separate all the lines, even the notches, so be very careful not to lose the notches (I’ve done it multiple times).

Once everything is separated, you may pick the line that you want to change. :slight_smile:

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Wow, you just totally made my day, with Shift Ctrl K :smiley: Thank you sooo much!

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Hmmm… not that it helps now, but it’s possible that we could add the ability to define the color, linetype and line weight of the seamlines, cutlines, and/or internal paths of pattern pieces- if this seems like a useful option? Right now they’re hardcoded to black, solidline, hairline… except internal paths which are dotted.

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That would be great, but I think it should be applied to the cut line, rather than the seam line, since it is used to show the different sizes of patterns that are nested. Which makes me think that it would be a great feature for the gradation program where you can create different sizes of patterns, each with their own line-type & color. Otherwise, one would have to change this option each time you change the size of the pattern.

So it’s something that would need to be connected to a size in multisizes or an individual measurement chart, rather than the detail options, I think.

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Yes and no. Certainly we would want to be able to assign a color to sizes in a multi size nest… but there is also the need to define line colors and type even with a single size, as many cutters will use the color to decide what lines to cut. For example… right now we can’t define an internal cutout, as the internal paths are hard coded to a dash (or dot) line - which can’t be cut. So you’re having to manipulate the pattern in another program such as Inkscape.

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Internal paths can be coded at the creation:

image

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Doh.

But you can’t change the color… which is necessary for some cutters if you need to do a cut out… which I think is more to my point.

And the “Cut on Fabric” is a another do nothing check box… another unfinished feature? It should be used in the DXF exporting for cutouts.

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Oh, wow! I don’t do DXF cutting, so I’ve never used the feature. I do know that when I take things in to be printed & cut, my printers change the colour of the cut lines to red to be recognized by their Roland, so that the other lines don’t cut. So I understand what you are saying.

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Exactly. The cutter needs to distinguish between what to cut, and what not to cut. If we added colors to the layout or an svg export, one could cut directly from Seamly2D.

As far as DXF… the AAMA spec defines seam and cut lines… as well as other items like drill marks. So to fully implement the “Cut on Fabric” checkmark, one would expect those paths to be defined as cutlines in a dxf export. To my knowledge, they’re not. Also, it’s reasonable to expect if you check the “Cut on Fabric” , the line type would be changed to solid line (in the dialog) - as you’re not likely to want to cut a dash or dotted line.

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