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View Full Version : Fonts good for welding ?



Kasey Maxwell
04-01-2012, 7:37 PM
Hi all, this might sound strange but anyone have a list or just your favorite fonts that work great for welding together then to cut out ? I normally use Arial Black Bold and that works good but more varieties would be swell........

Thanks in advance !

Ernie Balch
04-01-2012, 7:48 PM
This might not be what you want but I found it interesting. look up the scrollsawworkshop blog there are a couple of free programs that let you type text and it welds the letters together with a bar. I just cut and paste the result into Corel and laser out the piece. Some of the programs are for desk names others for keychains it might give you some ideas.

ernie

Craig Matheny
04-01-2012, 9:12 PM
Ernie get curve works to create all the cuts in the intersections and then use removeUnderlyingDups.gms removes the duplicate lines. The fonts we use are Arial Bold all Caps, ShowCard Gothic all caps and Magneto for the scripts upper lower case. We do custom key chains all day long. Good luck

Ernie Balch
04-02-2012, 10:06 AM
Craig, Curve works looks interesting, I remember looking at it back in the days of Corel 8. I have several other programs with most of these features that I routinely use, but it requires me to move from package to package.

Apparently Curve works puts everything into a single program. I will give it a try, I have a large number of logos to cleanup and vectorize this week so the timing is good.

ernie

Larry Bratton
04-02-2012, 12:32 PM
Ernie,
Note that Curve works requires Corel Designer also. That's a $1000.00 program!

Craig, Curve works looks interesting, I remember looking at it back in the days of Corel 8. I have several other programs with most of these features that I routinely use, but it requires me to move from package to package.

Apparently Curve works puts everything into a single program. I will give it a try, I have a large number of logos to cleanup and vectorize this week so the timing is good.

ernie

Michael Kowalczyk
04-02-2012, 1:55 PM
Kacey and Ernie and anyone else that needs to do this, try this one
http://www.laserjumpstart.com/art-welder/

works as a macro in Corel Draw and a lot less than the above. You can use a lot more fonts. No worries about duplicate lines either.

Ernie Balch
04-02-2012, 4:37 PM
I don't have Corel design, maybe thats why I could not get a couple of the features to work in Curve works. In any case I wound up going to current favorite, Aspire 3, for my vectorizing and node editing. I had about a dozen logos to scan and vectorize prior to output as screen printing positives.

I watched the videos on art-welder but I was more interested in the "box it" program. I liked the 3D pieces. Some of those designs make my head hurt to think about doing the layout.

ernie

Mike Null
04-02-2012, 4:55 PM
I must be missing something. It seems to me that all this can be done in CorelDraw.

Larry Bratton
04-02-2012, 5:15 PM
I must be missing something. It seems to me that all this can be done in CorelDraw.
It can. I make wood monograms, which require a good bit of manipulation and welding. If I need to thicken the lines up I convert to curves and add an outline with the Contour tool. I use Commercial Script BT for some. Just for plain cut flat letters I normally use Arial Bold.

Michael Kowalczyk
04-02-2012, 6:32 PM
Hey Mike,
Yes you can but if you are doing lots of different text/names with the ability to do many different fonts at the press of a few keys, is much easier than trying to repeat a certain format and do "What ifs". Like typing a name once and having several different versions in a matter of seconds instead of minutes or longer. Time is money and one or a few fonts do not fit every occasion. Some times Macros are worth it and sometimes their not. Doe anyone feel like a nut now!!!

Steven Cox
04-02-2012, 9:25 PM
I must be missing something. It seems to me that all this can be done in CorelDraw.

I agree with Mike but I'll add this if you've got a font (or fonts) that you like but it needs to be thicker, then a little time spent of creating creating a new font based on the original will be worth the effort. There's a few good tutorials out there for creating TTF fonts and from memory there's even a help topic on Font Creation in Corel's help files. The advantage is once you have it, it's ready to use just type & weld!. Granted it takes a bit of time to create fonts but if you are using it all the time, then the time invested should be worth it.

Yes, time is money, but all too often we tend to waste time looking for so called alternate solutions and or trying to learn new software when the answer is right there.

Craig Matheny
04-04-2012, 1:38 PM
Ernie,
Note that Curve works requires Corel Designer also. That's a $1000.00 program! Larry I am not sure what you are talking about but I run curve works macros all day long on x5 maybe a different curve works?

Craig Matheny
04-04-2012, 1:52 PM
Kacey and Ernie and anyone else that needs to do this, try this one
http://www.laserjumpstart.com/art-welder/

works as a macro in Corel Draw and a lot less than the above. You can use a lot more fonts. No worries about duplicate lines either. Mike I own Art Welder love it for certain things but when welding letters it drop off the inner lines by using curve works you locate and cu228643t all intersections and then run remove duplicates (free macro) delete the line you do not want change the others to different color done.228644

Steven Cox
04-04-2012, 7:50 PM
@ Craig

Again why can't you do this in Corel ??? Type the text, Choose/Change the font. Select the Shape Tool & Adjust the Kerning, then select the Weld tool & click on the text and you are done. Or am I and others missing something???

228681

Mike Chance in Iowa
04-04-2012, 8:46 PM
To answer Kasey's original question, Cooper works, as well as several from the Sign DNA Font Foundry.

Craig Matheny
04-04-2012, 9:05 PM
@ Craig

Again why can't you do this in Corel ??? Type the text, Choose/Change the font. Select the Shape Tool & Adjust the Kerning, then select the Weld tool & click on the text and you are done. Or am I and others missing something???

228681 Steven look at the example I posted here notice your way (the same as Artwelder) the inside defining lines (red lines) of the fonts are all gone my way each letter is defined. If you can do this quickly with out any macros let me know I do an average of 50 custom key chains a day and they take 2 minutes to setup the file and go to the laser to cut.

Mike Null
04-05-2012, 9:16 AM
Craig

If they take two minutes each then Corel is much faster.

Steven Cox
04-05-2012, 11:17 AM
Steven look at the example I posted here notice your way (the same as Artwelder) the inside defining lines (red lines) of the fonts are all gone my way each letter is defined. If you can do this quickly with out any macros let me know I do an average of 50 custom key chains a day and they take 2 minutes to setup the file and go to the laser to cut.

Craig, Have a look at the attached file, this time I used a different font with a bit more shape. It took less than 30 seconds to type and weld in Corel X4, no macros just Corels type & Weld tools. Additionally if you look at the Artwelder graphic you've done it shows in Corel as 11 objects, for a true weld this should be one object. The version I've done is one object and even if you break it apart it's only 7 objects and the outside path remains as one object - not broken.

228732

Glen Monaghan
04-05-2012, 11:36 AM
Steven,

Unless I'm missing something here, I think the op wants the end result to have not only the cut outline produced by the weld (or similar process), but also wants to have engraved lines for the overlapping edges (shown in red in the curve works example). Simply welding eliminates those overlaps entirely and so isn't suitable for the requested result.

-Glen

Craig Matheny
04-05-2012, 1:00 PM
Craig

If they take two minutes each then Corel is much faster.
Mike it takes to minutes for the complete layout typing text modifying text 2 copies and then layout.

However I would really love to know how in Corel it is done... I can weld and do all that but how do you keep the defining lines that are shown in the red in my sample when welding it removes all inner lines. Mike look at the sample and let me know if Corel can do this the way I need it I would love to save money...

228736

Mike Chance in Iowa
04-05-2012, 3:37 PM
Unless someone else knows of a faster way, or versions above X3 have a new feature, this is how I would do it in X3. See attached ver 9 file.

To leave the red lines shown in your example, you would need to select the first B and weld with "leave original source" selected and then select the O. When it welds the B to the O it will keep that item selected. Now weld the BO to the last B. You now have 3 (green) objects in your Object Manager. One is only the B, another is only the BO and the third is the BOB. You would then need to add some points to the necessary intersections on the right side of the O and then break apart the curve and delete all except what would be the red line. Do the same with the first B. Add necessary points and break apart the curve and delete unnecessary lines.

Craig Matheny
04-05-2012, 3:58 PM
Thanks Mike that is what I thought So yes it can be done in Corel but it takes time where with curve works it breaks all intersections then remove duplicate lines does just that then delete the unwanted lines. Thanks everyone for the explanation.

Ruben Salcedo
06-29-2012, 5:28 PM
Craig,

I also have ArtWelder, but I do like the defining lines in your examples, do you care to share a little more in the steps to accomplish that? I also have curve works and the other macro for eliminating dubs.

Thank you.

Ruben

Ruben Salcedo
06-29-2012, 8:15 PM
Craig,

I got it, thanks any ways for the tips in this thread.

Ruben