Creating files for digital cutters?

Question

I am relatively new to Illustrator but have experience with other Adobe products such as Photoshop and Go Live...  I am trying to create .svg files that can be used with my digital cutter (Silhouette SD) but I seem to be stumbling around with the process of creating the actual artwork.  Ya know how Photoshop has the 'Flatten Layers' function?  I need the equivalent of that but in Illustrator.  the whole idea is that your finished work should be similiar to a silhouette image so that it will translate in the cutting environment.  If anyone out there has experience with steps to "flatten" shapes into one image that will save as an .svg,  I think that would be a step in the right direction for what I'm trying to do.  Thanks in advance and I appreciate any help or suggestions. Thanks!

Answer 1

Why are you pursuing SVG? The user manual for your device's software doesn't even mention SVG as one of its importable formats.
Ya know how Photoshop has the 'Flatten Layers' function? I need the equivalent of that but in Illustrator.
It's not at all the same thing. Forget Photoshop. Illustrator and Photoshop are from different sides of the graphics world.
All a cutter does is follow vector paths. That's it. Whatever shape paths exist in your file, those are the cuts the knife is going to make. So you need to remove undesirable paths or portions of paths which "cut across" areas that should not be actually cut by the knife.
And you need to turn into actual paths things which merely appear to be paths. The most obvious example is a Stroke. Stroke weight is applied as a printing effect. It is applied to a single path; it does not consist of two parallel paths which define the outer edges of the stroke. So any such merely apparent "edges" that you want the cutter's knife to follow have to be turned into actual paths.
There are numerous features in Illustrator to help you do those things. Telling you specifically which ones to use depends on the specific artwork involved. But one of the most useful commands for this kind of thing is the Merge Pathfinder. Merge causes fills of separate, but same-colored overlapping paths to union into single paths. It also causes fills of separate different-colored objects to "punch" (subtract) each other where they overlap. Like all of Illustrator's Pathfinders, it does a pathetic job in handling strokes. So if your paths have strokes applied, first employ the Outline Stroke command from the Object menu.
To understand this:
1. RectangleTool: Draw a rectangle. Orange fill, thick blue stroke.
2. Ellipse Tool: Draw an ellipse. No fill, thick red stroke. Position this to only partially overlap the rectangle.
3. Line Tool: Draw a which crosses over both the circle and rectangle. Thick black stroke, no fill.
4. Select all. Click the Merge button in the Pathfinder palette. Look at the results. Note that strokes simply disappeared.
5. Undo.
6. Select all. Object>Path>OutlineStroke. Note that strokes are gone, having been replaced by paths which merely look like the strokes, but which are in fact closed and filled.
7. Select All. Click the Merge button in the Pathfinder palette. Ungroup the results. Move the resulting objects apart. Note that areas of overlap are gone. The paths have all been re-drawn so as to abutt each other, but not overlap.
JET