[ssutton]

Hi All,
I am in the middle of a sign job and I have noticed when I cut large (10 inch) letters that there are noticeable segments along the arcs in the letters that are composed of strait lines. I know that this is coming out of my CAD this way (TurboCad 17) when I explode it. I can sand them out but I would like a software that could explode them with true arcs. I downloaded Outline Art but it keeps locking up my computer, however it did run long enough to export the test and they looked great when I viewed them in CAD. Also, when I try to go to the website to pay for the software I get a URL error.

Does anyone know of a cheap and effective software that will explode standard text and make an arc component DXF file?



Thanks,
Scott

[RomanLini]

CorelDraw should do it. You can create the text char and then "convert to curves" which makes it a graphics object.

At that point you get a lot more control over the curves and nodes etc.

Maybe your CAD program also has an option to convert the text object to a "graphic" or "2D curves" object?

[tpworks]

TC17 will only convert to curves after you explode the text, it does fine on letters without islands like an "L" or "l" but a "g" or a "p" gets distorted.

[CNC-Joe]

There is a guy that offers a program to do this - TTFtoDXF - his name is Andrew Clayton, and his website is:

Gcode2000, TTFtoDXF

I believe it still operates for serveral days in a demo mode, but he wants $100 for a registered copy of it.

I'm interested in finding any freeware routines at doing this.

[tpworks]

Here is a freebe I found back in the 90's suprising it is still available.

DeskNC

[DMF_TomB]

an old Autocad method

1) select text and use WMFout and save this file
2) use WMFin to put this windows metafile into AutoCad
3) then when this is selected and Exploded it should be individual lines and arcs

Autocad has ability to export and inport Windows WMF files. Some generic Cad programs do not have this ability.

[CNCpatriot]

I tried the FONTCAM app in the Autodesk app-store.

http://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/AC...tcamtrial%3aen

Works well.

[JC50]

Adobe is offering a free download of their outdated Creative Suite Version 2. It includes Adobe Illustrator, which does a great job of converting fonts to editable vectors. I was using an old copy of Illustrator and downloaded this last week. You can get either the whole suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc) or just selected programs. It is working well for me so far.

The link is: Adobe - CS2 Downloads

Sorry, I can't seem to make it a clickable link.

[victorofga]

inkscape converts true type to bspline.. it will be in autocad or draftsigth as curves.. and all spline node is on curve..

but due its spline it wont be closed but lines and splines..


rhino also makes conversion between bezieers and bsplines..


splines can be in dxf..