Curved text in turbocad?

[kevin_r]

HI!
Does anyone know if you can make curved text in Turbocad 8? I am currently using desk engrave just for the text, so it would be great to do it all in one program.
Kevin

[gerald_d]

Hi Kevin, what do you mean by "curved text"? Please tell us more about:

- With a straight cutter or V-Cutter?
- Is the depth of cut (z-value) constant?
- Only cut out the outline of the characters, or pocket the body as well?
- What type of fonts are you wanting to do?

Not that I know the answers about TurboCad, but I feel that you will get a better response if you give more information.

[kevin_r]

Gerald
Thats what happens when you post in your sleep!
I need to make text follow an arc on a sign instead of just going in a straight line. I will be making some signs that are curved, and I want the letters to follow the same arc. The program I use now is desk engrave for the letters only, but it would be easier if I could use the same program for the text and sign.
Kevin

[rgbrown@itexas.net]

Keith,

I don't use TurboCAD. I can tell you how I did similar work in my 'Flat' CAD program. I would use a similar process in RHINO, which I am trying to go to exclusivily..

I layout the text and figure the 'spread' and the angle of the individual letters. I 'explode' the text, the individual letters are then rotated and moved to the desired location. Then I usually had to redeaux and fix where I miss-figured.

Ron Brown

[gerald_d]

Aahh!! The Deskengrave can make text on an arc, but you want to dump Deskengrave and do it all on TurboCad if possible? Is that what you mean? Over to the TurboCad experts for a reply.

[gerald_d]

Ron, I didn't see you sneak in there above me. DeskEngrave is fantastic freeware - look at the second from bottom item on this download (http://www.deskam.com/download.html) site.

[rgbrown@itexas.net]

Thanks for the link Gerald

[Mayo]

Ron: Why would you want to take the time to "figure the 'spread' and the angle of the individual letters" and then rotate and manually move each letter? You can do all that automatically and visually in most versions of Corel Draw. The earlier versions of it can be bought quite inexpensively. You can also so the same effects (and more) in SignLab, Casmate and FlexiSign and probably every other sign making program, although at greater initial software expense.

I don't use TurboCad though so I can't answer the original question.

Just my dos centavos...

[rgbrown@itexas.net]

Mayo,

There are several reasons I don't do it the way you mentioned. First, I cut very few signs.

Second, I don't have COREL Draw
Third, I don't have SignLab
Fourth, I don't have Casmate
Fifth, I don't have FlexiSign
Sixth, I don't want to spend the money for another CAD program
Seventh, and my final opinion on this, I don't want to spend the time to learn another damn CAD program.

I have used TurboCAD in the past, although not much. When I purchased RHINO, I decided to use it for anything it was decent for and quit other CAD programs I have.

I can now build complex objects and define toolpaths in RHINO.

Ron

[prosigns]

How does one get a (Mac) flexisign pro file to work on (IBM) part wizzard. Flexi has a long list of file formats, but I can't get any to work. I'm an old mac user, this is my first experience with IBM, not good to this point. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong. I dump the file on a disc (from mac), open part wizzard (On IBM) click on import vector data, look in floppy drive folder, it's blank. I type in file name and they all show up (I saved serval different formats on the disc. from flexi) I click on a file and get a message (Faile to import data). Any help would be appreicated!

[Mayo]

Here's what I've been told:
Get a floppy disk that's been formatted on a PC.
If your Mac OS is 8 or better, it will read a PC disk. Save your Mac file as a PC file onto the PC formatted floppy disk. You may need to convert fonts to curves first. I don't use PartWizard so I don't know what file formats it can open or import, but your most likely suspects I think would be .ai or .eps or .dxf.

[Brian Blomker (Unregistered Guest)]

I have been trying to get letters cut on an arc.
I created the text on an arc in corel draw. My problem is trying to get it into partwizard. The text will not load.
Any sugestions on what I am doing wrong.

[cedarknight]

Brian, have you tried converting to curve, then exporting as an .EPS. Then import vectors into Part Wizard?

[paul_n]

Brian:
If you post your email address I can forward a one page document that will outline the steps to export a file from Coral, or contact me offline.

Paul

[rfitzgerald1@nc.rr.com]

Kevin - I use TurboCAD v.8. In the past, I have rotated individual letters to follow an arc. When you Explode the placement of the letters shifts a bit to the right and their size may enlarge a bit so a little adjustment is necessary before saving as a .dxf Also, the V.10 coming out is supposed to have this function built in but I haven't bought the new version. I bought V.9 this December but haven't loaded it yet and now they have just released V.10!!! V.9 may have this function but I won't have time to work with the new version until next week. I'll let you know.