fonts for lasercutting

[wiechard]

When i explode fonts for lasercutting the fonts are not smooth.
I want the font build up out off as very little smooth lines.

Is autocad the best programm or do i need another programm for converting fonts for lasercutting to get them to be cut smooth????

[Eddie]

If you're exploding text...with the curved section of text (Eg.... "S") you try pline joining the lines after exploding and maybe converting to spline

[csiarch]

Whoops! First, what font are you trying to use?

Second, (not to rain on your parade, Eddie) but joining certain segments of certain fonts then splining them may produce unexpected results. For example, if AutoCad native Romans is exploded and massaged per your suggestion, I'm fairly certain that the spline result will not resemble the original image because the segment end points and bulge height for a thoeretical arc between endpoints will not be the right values to produce the
desired curves when splined.
Hope I'm wrong on this.

The ideal solution would more likely fall into the category of using a font with the curved portions of characters defined as continuous arcs in the first place. If such a font is exploded, joining and splining should more closely resemble the original (unexploded) shapes.

The attached version of RomanS.shx is defined with bulge arcs and octant arcs instead of segments if you care to experiment.

[Eddie]

Good point csiarch...I should've considered this before typing away...