This lesson shows how to edit the individual lines of a template to use as a basis for our design.

Place a two layer 4 x 5 #604 Taos template into the FrameShop Design Editor.  

Bring into Trace via the Right-Click Menu or from the Cut Preview Screen.

Explode the Taos into the individual lines that can be edited separately.

Click Edit > Explode All.

The Taos is exploded and will turn gray. If you click on the Taos, only the line selected will be highlighted, showing that the Taos is no longer a single object.

We will delete some of the lines of the design.

Starting with the top left corner, hold down the CTRL key and select the small vertical lines and small diagonal lines to select them.

Click the Delete button.

The lines are deleted.

Do the same with the right side and the two bottom corners.

Now we'll Offset some of the lines to change the shape of the top layer

Click on the upper left diagonal line of the outside layer.

Change the Offset direction* to minus (-) by clicking the dropdown control and selecting it.

Leave the Reveal value at .25".

Click the Offset Circuit button.

RULES:

• Enclosed objects:

  • Positive value offsets to the inside.

  • Negative value offsets to the outside.

• Arcs and Curves Greater than 180 Degrees use the same rules as for closed objects.

• For lines, imagine a line's start point to be the center of a circle.The plus offsets clockwise and minus offsets counterclockwise. 

The line is offset.

Do the same with the right side and the two bottom corners.

We will now delete the original diagonal lines we used to offset the lines.

Hold down the CTRL key and click on each of the original diagonal lines.

Click the Delete button. 

The diagonal lines are deleted. 

We will join the segments to create the new shape with the offset diagonal lines. We will do this in sections so that the new diagonal lines won't try to connect to the adjoining lines in the wrong direction.

Hold down the CTRL key and click on the small horizontal line near the lower left, the long outside left vertical line and on the small horizontal line near the top left.

Click the Join button.

The lines are joined.

Click on the background to unselect the newly connected lines.

Hold down the CTRL key and click on the small horizontal line near the bottom right, the long outside right vertical line and on the small horizontal line near the top right. 

Click the Join button.

The lines are joined. 

Click on the background to unselect the newly connected lines.

Hold down the CTRL key and click on the new diagonal line on the upper left, click on the upper horizontal line, then on the new diagonal line on the upper right.

Click Join to connect them.

The lines are joined.

Click on the background to unselect the newly connected lines.

Repeat the steps to select and join the bottom horizontal line and the diagonal lines in the lower corners.

Now we'll connect the joined sets to create the finished design.

Hold down the CTRL key and click on each joined section; top, side, bottom, other side.

Click the Join button.

All but the last corner joins together.

Click the Close button to close up the last corner and completely join the design.

The object is completely joined.

Now we will connect the bottom layer. Because there won't be any confusion on how to connect the remaining lines, we won't have to connect it in separate sets first and then connect it.

Hold down the CTRL key and click on each element of the bottom layer.

Click the Join button.

All but the last corner join together.

Click the Close button to close the object.

The object is completely joined.

Because this design contains no arcs, there is no need to tangify it or convert into arcs.

Trace the CutArt.

Save the CutArt.

Load the CutArt.

Cut the CutArt.

Optionally, you can also bring the CutArt straight to the Cut Preview from Trace.

The Taos design is completed.

You can see how much we changed the design when you compare it to the original version.