Grouping a design for canvas organization does not establish its intended cut arrangement. Cricut's material-saving placement can rearrange separate pieces on the mat. When relative positions must be retained, inspect the appropriate same-material layers and use Attach, then check the mat preview before cutting.
Decide which relationships matter
For a fictional fan-sign decoration, stars need to remain around an initial at approved distances. If they are cut loose for later hand placement, automatic nesting may be acceptable. If the arrangement will be transferred together, preserving those distances matters.
Cricut documents Attach as holding cuts in the same relative positions on the mat as on the canvas. Its guidance recommends attaching by layer or color. Attach can also fasten another operation to a cut layer, but this article concerns cut placement. Cricut: Use Attach.
Compare canvas and mat before spending material
This is a proposed review procedure, not a completed machine test. Save the project and record the intended width, height and relative spacing of the decoration. Open the preparation preview and identify which relationships changed. Do not start the cut merely to discover whether the grouping survived.
Return to the canvas, select only the pieces intended for that one material arrangement and apply Attach. Reopen the mat preview. Compare the initial's position and each star's distance from it with the intended arrangement.
If elements must be made from different materials, preserve those groups deliberately instead of attaching the whole colorful illustration indiscriminately. The canvas's visual grouping can otherwise conceal different production needs.
Do not solve a placement problem with the wrong operation
Welding shapes changes geometry; flattening prepares a different kind of printable relationship. Neither should be chosen merely because its name sounds like “keep together.” A cut layout can need several separate contours whose relative positions remain fixed.
Likewise, Attach does not mean every tiny path has become one outer sticker contour. If the task is a printed illustration with a single perimeter, inspect that separate Print Then Cut requirement. Keep the current problem's evidence focused on arrangement rather than borrowing a successful setting from another workflow.
Check one physical sample
After the mat preview is correct, use a suitable sacrificial piece and the manufacturer's supported material settings. Compare the resulting spacing, orientation and overall size with the approved arrangement. Keep the material and operation choices in the project note.
Pass when the intended same-material pieces retain their relative positions from canvas to mat to sample. Fail if the preview is rearranged, different material groups collapse into one unsuitable job, or an operation changed required contours.
Imagild may provide the decorative image concept. Native cut geometry, Group, Attach and mat preparation belong to external Cricut Design Space. A flattened picture of the arrangement is not automatically an editable set of cut pieces.