Another "Eureka" moment - how to get detail cuts on welded shapes

One of the frustrating things about welding shapes in Design Studio is that the "detail" cuts on the shapes are eliminated once you check "weld." In the past, I have tried to work around this by adding back details using the markers but I haven't been entirely happy with the results - the effect is not the same as having those defining cuts.

This morning I suddenly realized that there might be a way around this problem now that we can use the "hide contour" feature. I was so excited to test out my idea!

I welded two monkeys from the New Arrival cartridge together (I flipped the second one so they could hold hands). Then I copied and pasted the monkeys on to a second mat and unchecked the "weld" box on each of them. I closed the file and reopened it to make the "hide contour" feature active for the copied and pasted shapes - hide the outer line of the monkeys and, holding my breath, clicked "preview" - this is what I saw



A few discouraging words passed my lips as I let my frustration get the better of me! But I am nothing if not determined (some would say stubborn) and I decided to just give it a try - after all when you preview a regular unwelded shape the detail lines are not dark like the cutting lines - so what did I have to lose?

First, I cut the page with the welded monkeys - below you can see it in the machine after cutting - there are no detail lines.



I left the mat in place and went to the page where I had hidden the outer contours, pressed cut and the Cricut proceeded to cut only the detail lines! Here is what it looked like after cutting the second page.



And below is a photo of the welded monkeys with the detail cuts!



If you look at this cut you can see that the holes for the eyes and noses came off the mat - this is because they actually were cut twice - details of welded images that are actual full cuts (like these tiny circles) have always cut on a welded object.



So I went back to my detail page and hide those circles as well.



Above is the cut just after unloading the mat - the cuts are made but the paper hasn't been pulled up.



You may be able to see it a bit better in the second photo with the excess paper removed.
By following this procedure you can have a cut that looks like this...



instead of this....



I also tried it with another little monkey welded to a phrase from the cartridge. Even though the preview screen looks like this



After cutting, first the welded page and then the page with detail cuts only, it looks like this - there are detail lines! (The cut is on an A2 card).



These little monkeys are doing the Happy Dance with me!



In case you have trouble understanding exactly what I did, I took a few screen shots. First, set up your design with the welding check for each shape - in preview it will look like this.



Then select each shape and copy and paste it to a new page in your file. When you copy and paste the shape is placed in exactly the same place on the new page so everything will line up correctly. Since you copied and pasted to get the shapes in the right place - the hide contour feature will not be available. Close the file and then reopen it to make the feature active.



Then left click on each line you want to hide - in this case the outline of the shape of the monkeys and the four small circles for their eyes and noses. When the line turns red, right click and choose "hide selected contour" (as shown above).



Make sure that the weld box is not checked for the shapes on the detail page.



After hiding the contours your page will look like this - the hidden lines turn blue.



Above is a view of the single monkey detail page (it is a bit easier to see the hidden contours here). Remember, you should not unload your mat between cuts to insure that the details lines will be properly placed.



Are you excited about this? I know I am and I have all sorts of ideas about designs I can make using this idea! Experiment with it and have fun - and let me see what you are making!

(I know I promised more medallions for today but I was too excited to wait to share this! I won't be available most of the rest of the day so, if you have any questions, please be patient - I will answer emails and comments tomorrow).

This simple file is available here so you can use it for reference (or make some cards!).

Monkeys with Details