New to Scal and Inkscape HELP PLEASE!

[ornaments]

Hi I am new to scal also. Have had it for a week or 2 and watched many videos and all the questions on here. First of all I would like to thank eyeryone who posts here. I have figured out how to trace and save svg but having problems getting rid of lines I do not want. The example I am uploading is a card with a butterfly. I want the outer part of the butterfly to not be cut out of the card. I just want the inside square and butterfly to cut. How do I do that? Thanks so much
Mary

cardbutterfly.svg

(16.79 KiB) Downloaded 160 times

[HeatherM]

Is this what you want?

butterfly card.png (8.44 KiB) Viewed 1582 times

First ungroup both pieces in your file. I would guess that you imported both into your file? Ink automatically groups any vectors imported into a file, and SCAL doesn't like groups and misplaces/mis-sizes them.
Then Path/break apart the butterfly. Delete the outer rectangle. Select all of the butterfly pieces, and Path/combine. Move to where you want it on your large rectangle. You can leave it like that, or select both and Path/exclusion. The one antennae wasn't connected to the rest of the butterfly. I used the node tool to move the pieces together, then Path/Union to make them one piece.

Also, if you aren't planning on using some kind of backing to hold the circles in the butterfly, I would delete those while the butterfly is ungrouped so that you don't have to worry about them getting free of your mat and messing up the cut. HTH

[ornaments]

Hi Thanks. I will play with my original. When I put yours into scal I see a few spots where the square around the butterfly isn't all the way attached to the butterfly. What tool Would I use to attach it? When I cut mine or the one I uploaded that you looked at in scal It cut the frame and butterfly out of the card. I wanted it cut so only the butterfly parts and the upper and bottom of the square that the butterfly was in to be cut out. Hope I made sense.
mary