Slice, weld, attach, group, flatten and contour, and which one you actually need
10 min read
Six tools in Cricut Design Space rearrange your shapes, and they are easy to mix up because several of them look like they do the same thing. They do not. Picking the wrong one is the reason a title cuts as separate letters, or a design lands on the mat in pieces you did not ask for.
Here is the whole thing in one line each:
Slice cuts one shape out of another. Two layers only.
Weld fuses several shapes into one permanent shape.
Attach holds shapes where you put them on the cutting mat.
Group holds shapes together while you design, and does nothing to the mat.
Flatten turns a layered design into one printable image for Print Then Cut.
Contour hides individual cut lines inside a single layer.
The rest of this covers when to reach for each one, and what to do when the button is greyed out.
Slice
Slice takes exactly two layers and cuts where they overlap, like a cookie cutter. You get several new layers back: the piece that was cut out, the shape with the hole in it, and the leftovers.
Use it to punch a shape out of a card front, to cut a photo opening in a mat, or to take a bite out of a rectangle so it tucks behind a title.
The part people miss is that Slice always returns more layers than you started with, and most of them are rubbish you need to delete. After slicing, drag the top layer aside and you will find the offcuts sitting underneath. Delete what you do not want before you forget they are there, because they will cut.
A worked example. To put a heart-shaped window in a card front, place the heart on top of the rectangle, position it exactly where you want the hole, select both, and click Slice. Delete the heart that comes back and the spare rectangle, and keep the rectangle with the heart-shaped hole in it.
Why Slice is greyed out
Nearly always one of these:
More or fewer than two layers are selected. Slice is strictly a two-object operation. Three shapes at once will not work, even if it seems like it should.
One of your selections is a group. A group counts as one object but Slice will not accept it. Select it, click Ungroup, then pick the two individual pieces you want.
You selected a text box. A text box is a container, not a shape. Ungroup it to letters first, then slice with a specific letter.
The layers do not actually overlap. Slice needs shared area to work with.
One layer is hidden or locked. Check the eye icon in the Layers panel.
If Slice is available but nothing appears to happen, it usually did work and the results are stacked exactly on top of each other. Drag the top layer away and look underneath.
Weld
Weld fuses everything you have selected into one single shape, and deletes the overlapping lines where the pieces met. Unlike Slice it accepts as many layers as you like.
The big use is script text. Cursive fonts are drawn as separate letters, so without welding your machine cuts each letter as its own piece and a connected word falls apart into a pile. Nudge the letters until they overlap slightly, select the word, and weld. Now it cuts as one continuous title.
Weld also builds compound shapes: three overlapping circles welded into a cloud, several rectangles welded into a banner.
Two warnings worth taking seriously. Weld is permanent once you save and reopen the project, so if the title might need re-spacing later, duplicate it and hide the spare copy before welding. And weld flattens everything to one color, because one shape can only have one color, so never weld across layers you intended to cut from different cardstock.
If your letters weld into a blob, they are overlapping too far. Undo, pull them apart until they only just touch, and weld again.
Attach, and why it is not Group
This is the pair that causes the most trouble, because Group looks like the useful one and Attach is the one that matters.
Group is a canvas convenience. It lets you move several shapes together while designing. When you click Make It, Design Space ignores your groups completely and rearranges everything to save material.
Attach is the instruction that survives to the mat. Attached shapes keep their exact positions relative to each other when they are cut.
So when a carefully arranged layout explodes into scattered pieces on the cutting preview, the fix is Attach, not Group.
Attach does one other essential job: it tells the machine which layer a draw or score line belongs to. A score line for a card fold does nothing on its own. Select the score line and the card base together and attach them, and the machine scores that piece in the right place. Without it, the score line gets its own sheet of cardstock and scores nothing useful.
To undo it, select the attached set and click Detach.
Flatten
Flatten turns a layered design into a single printable image for Print Then Cut. Your printer prints the colors and the machine cuts one outline around the outside.
This is the right tool when you want a printed sticker or a printed-then-cut embellishment, and the wrong tool any other time. If you flatten a design you meant to cut from separate cardstock, you lose the separate cut layers. Unflatten reverses it while you are still in the project.
The distinction from Weld: Weld makes one cut shape, Flatten makes one printed shape. Weld is for cardstock, Flatten is for your printer.
Contour
Contour hides individual cut lines inside a single layer, which is how you simplify a design without redrawing it.
Select one layer, click Contour, and you get a window showing every closed path in that shape. Click any of them to switch it off. Use it to remove the interior detail lines from a mandala that is too fussy, to close up the holes in a stencil letter, or to drop one unwanted element from an otherwise perfect design.
Contour only works on a single ungrouped layer with more than one path in it. If the button is greyed out, either you have several layers selected, or the shape genuinely has only one path and there is nothing to hide. Ungrouping first solves it more often than not.
Nothing is deleted, so you can reopen Contour and switch the lines back on.
Ungroup
Ungroup breaks a group, a multi-layer SVG, or a text box into separately editable pieces. It is the quiet prerequisite for half of the tools above, which is why it is worth knowing where it is.
Downloaded cut files usually arrive grouped so the design does not fall apart on import. Ungroup once to get the layers, and sometimes twice to get individual elements.
For text, ungroup turns a text box into individual letters so you can kern them by hand, which is exactly what you need before welding a script title.
Ungrouping a design you did not intend to take apart is easy to undo, so it is a safe thing to try when a tool is greyed out and you cannot see why.
Which one do I want?
Cut a window or a hole in something: Slice
Make cursive letters cut as one connected word: Weld
Keep a layout exactly as arranged on the mat: Attach
Add a fold line to a card: Attach the score line to the card base
Move pieces around together while designing: Group
Make a printed sticker: Flatten
Remove unwanted detail lines inside one shape: Contour
A tool is greyed out: Ungroup and try again
Try it on a real file
These are quicker to learn on a design you did not have to draw. Every download here includes a layered SVG, so there is something to ungroup, slice and weld. Start with the free SVG collection or with free cut files for Cricut.
How do I slice in Cricut Design Space? Select exactly two overlapping layers, then click Slice at the bottom right of the Layers panel. You will get several new layers back, including offcuts you should delete. Slice will not accept three objects, a group, or an un-ungrouped text box.
Why is the Slice button greyed out? Almost always because you do not have exactly two individual layers selected. Groups and text boxes each count as one object but are not accepted, so ungroup them first and select two specific shapes. Also check that both layers are visible and unlocked in the Layers panel.
What is the difference between weld and slice? Weld joins shapes into one and removes the overlapping lines between them. Slice does the opposite: it cuts one shape out of another where they overlap and gives you the pieces separately. Weld takes any number of layers, Slice takes exactly two.
What is the difference between attach and group? Group only holds shapes together while you are designing on the canvas and is ignored when you click Make It. Attach carries through to the cutting mat and keeps shapes in their exact relative positions, so Attach is the one to use when a layout must cut as arranged.
How do I weld letters together in Cricut Design Space? Type your text, ungroup it to individual letters, nudge them until each letter slightly overlaps its neighbour, select the whole word, then click Weld. Cursive and script fonts need this or the machine cuts every letter as a separate piece.
Can I undo a weld? You can undo it immediately with Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z, but once the project is saved and reopened the weld is permanent. If the text might need adjusting later, duplicate it and hide the copy before welding.
How do I contour in Cricut Design Space? Select a single ungrouped layer and click Contour at the bottom right, then click any interior line in the window to hide it. If Contour is greyed out you either have more than one layer selected or the shape has only one path, so try ungrouping first.
What does flatten do in Cricut Design Space? Flatten merges a layered design into one printable image for Print Then Cut, so your printer prints the colors and the machine cuts a single outline. Use Weld instead if you want one shape cut from cardstock, since Flatten is for printing rather than cutting.
