Spline-free stencil letters DXF or DWG? 6

[blades741]

Hello all,
I am looking for a simple block-type font for stencil letters/numbers that will NOT create splines when exploded. Our laser cutter software has issues with splines, so I'm looking for characters made up of simple line & arc type construction. I'm not holding out much hope for a TTF or SHX that will fit the bill (as most end up creating splines when exploded), so even a simple DWG or DXF file that I can pull characters from would suffice. Thank you for any help!! - Bill

 

[JNieman]

using the Express Tools "text explode" I've had stencil fonts break up into lines/arcs and sometimes splines. However, since it can sometimes be hard to find a free font that perfectly fits the bill... I've lately just fallen on exploding the font I /want/ and drawing polylines over the spline, snapping as I go, to make it match. If you buckle down and 'just do it' it really doesn't take much time. It's just a PITA that makes you think "There has to be a better way!"

But yea, that's resulted in 'perfect' geometry for our lasers and other programming. Even when exploding text that came out as simple lines/arcs I'd still have to run "Overkill" and clean it up ad nauseum, so it never actually saved me any time. Just trace a font.

You can even just put the TTF font in there as an MTEXT object, turn OFF your osnaps, and trace it with plines/lines/arcs that way. Six of one, half dozen of hte other.

 

[Pinwards]

If you get splines after exploding, you can also use the command _SPLINEDIT or _PEDIT to turn a spline to a polyline composed of straight line segments. The accuracy you specify affects how many segments it uses to simulate the spline with line segments.

Edit - I just learned that setting the variable PLINECONVERTMODE to 1 makes the Polyline conversion from spline use arcs instead of line segments. Even with an accuracy of just 1, I ended up with a very nice Pline of arcs instead of the spline i used to test it. This might be very useful.

#

 

[JNieman]

Damn. Star for Pinwards. I never knew of PLINECONVERTMODE nor its effects. Some days you come across a setting you wish you knew of 10 years ago...

 

[blades741]

Thank you JN & Pinwards. Actually, that's what I ended up doing after talking to some co-workers & finding out that the laser can deal with polylines, so I simply converted the splines to plines.

I would still love to find a DXF or DWG file of 'clean' stencil letters that could be inserted as blocks.

Thank you again!
- Bill

 

[sparky112]

WOW, I have to convert splines into poly lines all the time. in order to get a tool path smooth enough, I set the precision way high. PLINECONVERTMODE gives me smooth lines that are kinder to the tool path (less code). thumbs up to PINWARDS

 

[berkshire]

Blades 741,
There is a font style called airborne that has no curves, it is simple line construction only. This is a later edition of a style called military block, first used for putting registration numbers on aircraft.
Since there are no arcs in it, It does not create splines when exploded.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[blades741]

Berkshire, Awesome font! Although I was able to clean up the original font via. PEDIT, this font will ultimately save the time & hassle of doing that. Thank you!

 

[blades741]

Ok, using the font that Berkshire posted, I created a stencil-type font with characters that will be cut-out friendly (link below). Not a 'font' in the true sense of the word, but a collection of blocks within a DWG. When exploded down, they contain only lines. These will work well with our old laser cutter with limited memory (old, limited memory... I've used those very words to describe myself before!). It contains only A-Z and 1-0 (no special characters other than -).

Now, if anyone knows of a LISP routine that can take these blocks and insert them at a predetermined spacing & scale, that would be the icing on the cake!

 

[btrueblood]

Thanks Blades for the file, it may come in handy one of these days.