Hello,
I am trying to create a sign with curved text and running into issues when I try to explode the text into lines to create a DXF file (I have tried in both AutoCAD and DraftSight Professional). Would anybody be ably to provide some tips on how to do this?
Thanks,
Aj
Can you please describe which issues exactly happen? Also are you able to use any other program to explode it there and import it in CAD? Rhino also has the ability to explode.
Hey Troy,
Here is what I typically do for straight text:
Here is what happens for ARC Text:
The only other program I have is Fusion 360 but i do not find it enjoyable to use.
Inkscape is so easy to do this in…
I like CAD…but I do alot more in inkscape…
This discussion reminded me of something I wanted to try. I’ve recently gotten LightBurn for my Laser Cutter/Engraver and was surprised by some of its editing capabilities, including a few different ways of gluing text to curved lines (or curving text without lines for that matter). But what really struck me was their generalized approach to text graphic processing including ‘welding’ text together when parts overlap - you know, the kind of thing you want to do if you’re making a sign, to make a random example.
I wondered if I could use the tool’s capabilities and then export a processed art work to SVG. Well, as I said, this dialog kicked that idea into high gear so…
Here’s an image sample I found on the web:
I imported this into Lightburn and used their Trace Image command to get a line drawing from it. This took all of 10 seconds to ‘tune’ to get this:
I exported this as an SVG and loaded it into Inkscape to see that it was useable:
The really cool thing is that I didn’t do anything special to get the text ‘welded’ together, for example:
Now I haven’t gone through the whole process of making a sign on the cutter, but this was very promising given that I’m a TOTAL newbie on LightBurn. One word of warning, however, LightBurn is expensive. It costs $40 USD for one time purchase 
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
