(This video represents a much older version of Flexi, but the tool should operate the same for the most part. The rest of the content in this article is up to date.)
Flexi's Cut/Plot dialog has settings to automatically optimize the order of cutting objects. However, for manual control over the order in which objects will be cut, you can use the Change Cut Order feature in Designer.
- Select all objects
- Click Arrange, then Cut Order and Reorder
The display will change to wireframes, showing a number for each object indicating the original order of objects, which is the order in which they were drawn.
To change the order, do one of the following :
- Click the objects in the desired order.
- In DesignEditor, change the order of objects
- In DesignCentral, choose an automatic Sort method.
The Following parameters can be adjusted in Design Central
| Select All Colors if you want the reorder to apply to all objects regardless of their color. Select specific colors if you wish to reorder them separately. | |
| Select the point of origin for cutting. This corresponds to the point of origin of the knife blade. | |
| Different methods for reordering automatically. | |
| Optimize start points | Finds the best entry point for each object considering the path the knife blade will follow. |
| Ungroup all | Ungroups all objects in a group so they can be reordered individually. |
| Break text | Breaks text so the characters can be reordered individually. Breaking text cannot be reversed. |
Previewing Cut Order
Preview Cut Order shows in an animated preview how each object will be cut.
In DesignCentral you can adjust the following parameters
| Select Group or Layer depending on how you have objects grouped that will be cut together. | |
| Select All Colors or All Layers to see the preview of all objects. Select individual colors or layers to see their respective order. | |
| Cut Origin | Select the point where the knife blade will start. |
| Speed | Increase or decrease the speed. |
| Animation control buttons to play, fast forward, fast reverse, pause and stop. |