tmerrill wrote:Now you will use the Weld Selected Vectors tool (icon is in the Edit Objects section) to join the small text with the large text but there is one thing to be careful of - after you select all the text, hold down the shift key and deselect all the "islands" in the letters unless they touch a part of the text you are welding to. If you don't do this, the islands will disappear when you weld, but you can simply do an undo and try again. When you have all the vectors selected/deselected click on the Weld tool icon.
When happy, select the border again and this newly created shape and calculate a slightly deeper pocket toolpath. I used 0.2" in the example.
Tim
Hi Tim,
This is almost working for me. I'm a little unclear on "islands". I thought I deselected them, then large portions of the sign also disappeared.
Bob
"Focus"
Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek (Developer of the microscope.)
By islands I am referring to the central area of some text, such as in the 'B', 'a' and 'e' in this example.
If you have all the text selected (just drag a lasso around everything with your mouse) as shown in the first picture, then click on the Weld Selected Vectors icon, the results will be as shown in the second picture - which is not what you want.
So after you select all the text, hold down the shift key and deselect the islands as shown in the third picture. Now when you click the Weld icon, the results will be what you want.
I got this to work for me. I have several uses for requests I have. Thanks Tim, but I want to understand how it works. I understand the steps, but if you could expain the magic behind it, as it may help us all to understand the process. We all appreciate the time you take to respond to posts on this board and that is why you have so many happy customers. Just a short theory response would appreciated. Plus if any one has an idea how to color, finish this type of carving I would be interested.
Thanks Tim, I got this to work for me and will help in some requests I have. I wonder if you could expand and tell us how this works in a short theory response. I think I get it but, can't get my arm's all around it. We all appreciate you responding to posts on this board and that is why you have so many happy customers.
Also, if anybody has ideas on how to color and finish this type of carving and want to share them I would be interested.
Thanks for the comment, but just to clarify I am nothing more than a long time user of Vectric products and a very happy customer as many of you are. I just enjoy giving back and helping people when I can.
As for your question, there are 3 tools that can save you a lot of time, the Weld tool that we have used here, the Subtract tool and the Keep Overlap or Union tool. You can manually do the same processes with the Trim Tool, but typically that takes a lot longer.
As for what each tool does, take a look at page 89 in the VCP help contents and it will provide easy to read descriptions with pictures. As to how each tool does it, that's Vectric's programming magic.
