SUPPORT
Help and FAQs
Everything below is also inside the app under Help, where the guide is searchable and works offline. For anything it does not answer, write to heyo@rabidsample.com or use Help, Contact & feedback in the app, which attaches your version and platform for you.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Does it work with my cutter?+
LineaForge ships profiles for the Skycut C, D and V series, the StarCraft SOLO, the Siser Romeo and Juliet, GRBL and G-code pen plotters, and generic HPGL cutters. If yours is not listed, add a Generic HPGL or G-code machine and tune it; the settings are saved against it. Tell us what you got working from Help, Contact & feedback and we will add it properly.
Is there a Pro version?+
No. There is one edition and it includes everything: weeding boxes, DXF import, cut order, per-object force and speed, line fills, 3D extrude, print and cut, and the toolpath preview.
How many computers can I install it on?+
Two at a time, on any mix of Mac and Windows. If you replace a computer, open Account in the app, deactivate, and activate the new one. Activation needs an internet connection once; after that the app runs offline.
I lost my activation PIN. How do I get it back?+
Use the PIN recovery page. Enter the name and email you registered with and we will show your PIN and email it to you.
Can I use it for pen plotting, not just cutting?+
Yes, that is the point of it. Every object can be Cut, Draw or Ignore, line fills turn any shape into pen strokes, Stroke Profile gives a path a brush-like width, and Image Path redraws a photo as stipple, hatching, flow lines, a single continuous line and more.
What files can I open?+
SVG, DXF, PDF, EPS and Adobe Illustrator files, plus PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP and WebP images. Text in a PDF, EPS or AI file should be converted to outlines first.
Can I print and cut?+
Yes. Turn on registration marks in the Plotter dialog, print the sheet with marks from the app, and the cutter’s camera finds the marks. The guide lists which machines have been confirmed on hardware.
What happens if the app crashes?+
Autosave keeps a private recovery copy of unsaved work. On the next launch, LineaForge offers to recover it. It never overwrites the file you saved on purpose.
Where is the manual?+
Inside the app, under Help, where it is searchable and works without an internet connection. The same chapters are on this site under Support.
How do I report a bug or ask for a feature?+
From inside the app: Help, Contact & feedback. The message arrives with your app version and platform attached, so we can reproduce what you describe. You can also email heyo@rabidsample.com.
GUIDED TOUR
A tour of the interface
What the app's guided tour points out on first launch, in order: each part of the window and every tool on the rail. Run the tour itself any time from Help, under Guided tour.
- 01
File
Create, open and save documents here. Import brings in SVG, DXF, PDF, EPS, Illustrator and image files. Export writes the whole artboard or just the selection in those formats, plus PNG, JPEG and WebP.
- 02
Edit
Every command from the canvas right-click menu, applied to the current selection: Arrange, Group, Offset path, Silhouette, Break apart, Simplify nodes, Guides, Mirror, Array, Warp to path, Weed box, Plot settings and the text commands. An entry that does not apply to what is selected is greyed out rather than hidden.
- 03
Plot
When the design is ready, Plot previews the toolpath and sends the job to your cutter or pen plotter over USB, serial or Wi-Fi, or saves it as a file. Print and cut is set up in its Output tab.
- 04
Fonts
Your favorite and recently used fonts, applied to the selected text in one click, with Google Fonts at the bottom for browsing and adding more.
- 05
Preferences, Help and Account
Preferences holds the settings for this copy of the app. Help has the searchable user guide, which covers every feature in depth, plus the contact form and the update check. Account shows your activation details.
- 06
Undo and redo
Every edit can be taken back with Cmd/Ctrl+Z and put back with Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z.
- 07
Grid, snapping and view
Show the grid, snap to it, snap to the scaffolding lines you drag out of the rulers, and snap to object centers. Switch the grid between lines and dots, halve or double its spacing, and toggle the document between inches and millimeters. The last two buttons hide fills, so you see the outlines a cutter follows, and mark the loose ends of open paths.
- 08
Array, Weed box, Vectorize and Image Path
Array repeats the selection in a pattern. Weed box adds a cut border so the excess vinyl lifts away in one piece. Vectorize traces an image into editable paths, and Image Path draws an image as pen patterns for a plotter.
- 09
The tool rail
Every drawing tool lives here, each with a single-letter shortcut shown in its tooltip. A shape tool hands back to Select after each shape; press Enter to get it back. The next bubbles go through the tools one by one.
- 10
Select (S)
Click to pick an object, drag to move it, and use the handles to scale and rotate it. Shift-click adds to the selection; drag on empty space to box-select.
- 11
Edit nodes (N)
Click a path to show its anchor points. Drag nodes and handles to reshape it, double-click a segment to add a node, and Option/Alt-click a node to switch it between smooth and corner.
- 12
Pen (P)
Draw a path point by point. Click for a corner, press and drag to pull out a curve, and hold Shift for 15° steps. Click the first point to close the shape, or press Enter to leave it open.
- 13
Pan (H)
Drag to move the view. With any other tool, hold Space and drag, or drag with the middle mouse button. The scroll wheel zooms around the pointer.
- 14
Orbit (V)
Turns the 3D scene, which is here because the experimental 3D mode is on in Preferences. The cutter still follows the flat outline.
- 15
Text (T)
Click on the canvas and type. The Text panel appears at the top of the sidebar with the font, style, tracking, leading and alignment, and can curve a word around a circle or along a path.
- 16
Marker (M)
A thick freehand stroke. Its diameter and smoothing appear in the toolbar's second row while the tool is active; more smoothing gives fewer, smoother nodes. Hold Shift for a straight segment.
- 17
Eraser (E)
Rubs a freehand stroke out of whatever it passes over, with the same diameter and smoothing controls as the Marker.
- 18
Stroke Profile (W)
Lets a stroke swell and taper. Click a path to add width stops along it, then drag each stop's handle away from the path to widen the stroke there, or toward it to narrow it.
- 19
Round corners (C)
Click a shape to mark its corners, then drag up or down on the canvas to set the size. Pick Round or Chamfer in the floating panel, and click corner dots to treat only some of them.
- 20
Eyedropper (I)
Select the objects to restyle, then click the object whose look you want. Its fill, stroke color and stroke width are copied onto the selection.
- 21
Knife (K)
Drag a line across paths to cut them into open pieces. Hold Shift for 45° steps. With nothing selected, everything the line crosses is cut.
- 22
Crop (F)
Drag a marquee around the area to keep and press Enter. Everything outside the box is trimmed away, images included.
- 23
Rectangle and Square (R)
Drag corner to corner, hold Option/Alt to draw from the center, or click to drop a default size. Hover the button to pick Square, or press R again to switch between the two.
- 24
Ellipse and Circle (O)
Works like the rectangle: drag the box the shape fits in. Pressing O again alternates between Ellipse and Circle; a circle keeps its two radii equal.
- 25
Line (L)
Drag from one end to the other. Hold Shift to hold the angle to 15° steps, or Option/Alt to grow the line out from its midpoint.
- 26
Polygon (G)
Drag from the center outward. The number of sides, 3 to 64, is set in the toolbar's second row while the tool is active and can be changed later in the Inspector.
- 27
Star (X)
Drag from the center outward. The number of points and the inner radius, which sets how spiky it is, appear in the toolbar's second row.
- 28
Arrow (B)
Drag from tail to tip. The shaft width, head size and barb sweep come from the toolbar's second row, and a drawn arrow keeps four orange handles for reshaping it on the canvas.
- 29
Join (J)
Welds the selected open paths into one outline wherever their ends meet, and closes the shape when the chain comes back round. Cut with the Knife, rearrange, then Join.
- 30
Node tools
Hover to open the row: Break node, Join endpoints, Reverse path, Align handles and Equalize handles. They act on the node selected with Edit nodes.
- 31
Boolean
Hover to open the row. Union, Intersect, Difference and Exclude combine two or more selected shapes, and Knockout cuts a gap around the top one. Union on a single text object welds its overlapping letters.
- 32
Zoom
Zoom in or out, fit the whole artboard in the window, or fit the selection. The scroll wheel zooms around the pointer at any time.
- 33
Fill and stroke
The stroke swatch sits behind the fill swatch. Click either to open the Color Chooser, use the arrows to swap the two, and the small button to set the active paint to none. New shapes take these colors.
- 34
Document colors
Every color your artwork uses, kept in step with the document. Click a swatch to make it the current color. Right-click one to select everything painted with it, which is how you pick out one sheet of vinyl.
- 35
The canvas
The artboard is the page or mat you will cut from, with rulers along its edges. Drag out of a ruler for a scaffolding line, scroll to zoom, and right-click for a menu of edits that apply to what is under the pointer, the same commands as the Edit menu.
- 36
Project tabs
Each open file has a tab here, with its own undo history and save state. The plus opens a new document in a tab of its own.
- 37
Artboards
A project can hold several artboards, one per sheet of material. Switch between them here, add more, or double-click one to rename it.
- 38
Inspector
Exact values for the selection: dimensions, opacity, stroke width and dash pattern, alignment, shape settings such as a star's points, and effects. This is also where an object is set to be cut, drawn or ignored by the plotter.
- 39
Objects
Every object and group in stacking order. Click to select, double-click to rename, drag the grip to reorder, and use the row buttons to show, hide, lock or delete.
- 40
That is the tour
The user guide, under Help, covers all of this in depth and has a search box. You can run this tour again at any time from Help, under Guided tour, or switch it back on in Preferences.
USER GUIDE
The LineaForge user guide
Twelve chapters, from the first launch to troubleshooting. These are the same pages the app ships with.
- 01Getting started9 sections
- 02Documents and files10 sections
- 03Drawing tools20 sections
- 04Selecting and editing22 sections
- 05Objects, color and layers28 sections
- 06Text and fonts12 sections
- 07Images, vectorize and Image Path7 sections
- 08Export and print21 sections
- 09Plotting and cutting28 sections
- 10Preferences, updates and your account20 sections
- 11Keyboard shortcuts9 sections
- 12Troubleshooting19 sections
CONTACT
Still stuck?
In the app, open Help, Contact & feedback. The message arrives with your app version, platform and license details attached, so there is nothing to look up. For cutter problems, paste in the output of USB diagnostics from the Plotter dialog.