The Combine tool in Cricut Design Space offers several powerful features for manipulating shapes and text, significantly enhancing design flexibility. As mentioned in updates around November 2022, these features provide options beyond simple welding, including functionalities that users previously sought, such as an alternative to an "unweld" button through the non-destructive options.
The key features available under the Combine menu in Cricut Design Space are:
Understanding the Combine Features
These tools allow you to combine or modify multiple selected layers in various ways, enabling complex design creation directly within Design Space. Here's a breakdown of each feature:
- Weld:
- Function: Joins two or more selected shapes or text layers into a single, permanent layer. Overlapping areas disappear, creating a clean outline for cutting.
- Practical Use: Ideal for joining script fonts or creating custom shapes by merging simple elements. Note: Unlike Unite, Weld is generally permanent and less flexible for later edits.
- Unite:
- Function: Merges two or more selected layers into a single layer, similar to Weld.
- Practical Use: Provides the same visual result as Weld (a single combined shape) but keeps the original individual layers accessible within the new "Unite" layer. This is a non-destructive operation, meaning you can easily undo the Unite or edit the original pieces later by clicking the "Unite" result in the Layers panel and selecting "Undo Unite." This is a key feature that provides an alternative to a dedicated "unweld" function for joined shapes.
- Subtract:
- Function: Removes the area of the top layer(s) from the bottom layer.
- Practical Use: Perfect for creating windows, holes, or cutouts within shapes. For example, cutting a circle out of a square.
- Intersect:
- Function: Keeps only the areas where the selected layers overlap. All non-overlapping parts are removed.
- Practical Use: Useful for creating unique shapes from the intersection of two or more objects or for cropping one shape using another.
- Exclude:
- Function: Removes the overlapping areas of the selected layers, keeping only the non-overlapping parts.
- Practical Use: Creates a shape that is essentially the opposite of Intersect – it keeps the edges of the original shapes but removes where they would join or overlap.
These combine features, introduced in Cricut Design Space, offer users greater flexibility and control over their designs, facilitating more intricate projects and reducing the need for external design software for certain tasks.
