# Vector files and reworking, unraveling

**URL:** <https://community.inventables.com/t/vector-files-and-reworking-unraveling/44715>\
**Category:** Projects\
**Created:** [October 31, 2017, 5:37pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/vector-files-and-reworking-unraveling/44715 "2017-10-31T17:37:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TimVannaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@TimVannaman](https://community.inventables.com/u/TimVannaman)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 5:37pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/vector-files-and-reworking-unraveling/44715/1 "2017-10-31T17:37:35Z")

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I’ve been in a coaster making frenzy lately and discovered [wordvecotrlogo.com](http://wordvecotrlogo.com) for some of the logo’s and artwork. I rub my hands together in glee as the thought of not having to trace bitmaps runs thru my head.

My brother loves Notre Dame so I created a simple coaster and am on to the holder artwork. I download the little fighting Leprachaun .svg file and immediately Vcarve gives me an error and says it only loaded a partial file. What gives? I load the bitmap in Inkscape and it comes out fine. I resave in Inkscape .svg format… NOPE! Same error. I monkey arround with doing the bitmap scan, but it’s too intricate. I go back and save original .svg as a .dxf file in Inkscape. BINGO! that worked! Work up a toolpath and immediately get errors with open vectors and such. I do the vector check in Vcarve and it repairs some zero length ones, but doesn’t report on open vectors.

I roll back my sleeves and dig into the morass that is that little fighting dude. I start seeing vectors running on top of each other, around each other and who knows what else. I find the open vectors and with some node editing, merge it into surrounding ones. That’s when I discover some of the neat tools Vcarve has for “merging” vectors. Sometimes that doesn’t work out well as a large part of my drawing disappears as VC was trying to optimize things. I guess you could call removing half my vectors optimizing. 🙂

Anyways, I end up having to do a combo toolpath to get the whole thing to look like what I want. A VC toolpath along with a profile (on line) toolpath gives me just about what I want.

Just because you find a .svg file doesn’t mean it’s usable for CNC porpoises as they like to have their vectors somewhat dumbed down. Many other .svg files I discovered have way too many offset vectors and I end up having to remove a bunch of them to remove clutter and such.

In a way it feels good to have hit this problem since it means I’m past the simple figuring out what a node was and how they are used.

Any other stories out there on unraveling .svg files?

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**Author:** ![WillAdams](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex009/user_avatar/community.inventables.com/willadams/32/67263_2.png) [@WillAdams](https://community.inventables.com/u/WillAdams)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 5:39pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/vector-files-and-reworking-unraveling/44715/2 "2017-10-31T17:39:45Z")

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Lost track of the number of times I’ve fixed the National Park Service logo — I think I saved a copy last time and will definitely put it up on Wikimedia.