Too many nodes in Font???

[WinterFabrication]

I'm trying to make a piece for a car show trophy....

I selected the text, typed it, enlarged it, converted text to path, added border around it.

When I save as DXF and import into SheetCAM it won't recognize the letters as a single path....

I go back to Inkscpae and some letters I can delete nodes and it won't distort the font, open again in SheetCAM, and now the letter is a single path. So it worked for that particular letter....

Some of the letters I delete nodes but it takes away all of the font shape and can never get a closed path without distorting the font beyond recognition...

Any ideas?

[islander261]

Hi

First don't convert file to DXF to import into Sheetcam, it will accept native SVG files. Part of your problem may be the conversion to to DXF.

Now the bad news, text unless the font was specifically created for cutting is usually a real miss mash of open paths as you are finding out. After you convert your text to paths use the path editing tool to select paths and join them together using one of the joining methods. The node editing functions should show under the tool bar when you are in the path editing mode. You can either join to ends by making them into a single node or join them by adding a segment. If the path ends are top of one another you will have to move one of them aside so you can join them if you can't select both of them. Then you can fix the resulting distorted path by deleting the moved node. I find that manually adding lead-ins usually works better on text than letting Sheetcam do it. Yes it is a slow process but unless you have a font made for cutting it is the only way I know to get every letter correct. If your still stuck post or email the file and I can fix it for you.

John

[Capstone]

I'll echo what Islander says.

The DXF conversion step is completely unnecessary and is definitely the problem with this process. Inkscape does a lousy job of dxf conversion, but luckily SheetCAM works with the native .svg files even better IMHO than DXF.

Simply convert the Font to Paths, fix the drops and then let SheetCAM do the rest. I've yet to see any of the kinks you seem to be having. The one thing maybe you're not doing is using the "Exclusion" command to "cut" the letters out of the background, which is what I do before I fix the drops on the R, D and B, is this case.

It doesn't get much cleaner...

[acourtjester]

Like many things different strokes for different folks. I use the "difference" option in the path menu to convert letters to stencil fonts. Put the words on the screen then draw a thin box then move it over the letter you want to stencil. have it highlighted then hold down the shift key and highlight the group of letters then go to path and click on difference. That will remove the thin box. you can only do one letter at a time then to to fill and stroke remove the fill then select a color in stroke the will give you the letter outline to save with SVG. The thin box shown in red is what I use.

[WinterFabrication]

Sorry I didn't update sooner....

I opened the drawing in SheetCAM as its native .svg and it worked great! Thanks!

[Doc Hollywood]

Hey guys, can I get clarification on somthing?
When I modify and or trace stuff in Inkscape, and especially add lettering ect ect, save it in any, any, format....open in sheetcam, it's totally messed up in sheetcam. Broken segments all over the place on and on. Am I causing this by editing the image? When I'm doing it, I'm fairly certain I'm joining all the nodes and lines. However, sheetcam tells a different story.

Please advise.
Thanks!

[WinterFabrication]

When you open it in SheetCAM, are you opening as .SVG? That solved all of the "node" issues that I had.

[acourtjester]

Doc I don't know if this will help but when I trace I remove the fill color and you can also reduce the line size with the stroke command, And if you change the stroke color to show what is traced. This way I only see the actual lines of what I am tracing to see if there are extra things I need to tend to.

[Doc Hollywood]

Matt,
i tried in both dxf and svg. I will use svg going forward. Seems to me svg caused me some sizing issues, i'll have to check that out.
Jester, i will try your trace technique to see if that helps me spot the issues before i save the file.

Thanks guys! Much appreciated.

[WinterFabrication]

When importing a .svg file you have to scale as 1:1.

.dxf is 1:25.4 I believe