<UltimateCodeWarr>
This kindof worked, but all the letters are stacked vertically: linear_extrude(height = 100, convexity = 1) import(file="stencil_TNH.dxf");
<J25k67>
origin is an import parameter?
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<JordanBrown>
Well, imported into Inkscape that's got all of the individual letters(?) in the same place.
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<JordanBrown>
I don't see any layers in it called "fan_side", so I would expect that variant to either yield an error or nothing.
<JordanBrown>
But you can select individual objects; this works OK:
<teepee>
using a dxf stencil font seems a bit awkward nowadays
<teepee>
unless for some historical reasons exactly those shapes are needed
<UltimateCodeWarr>
Hi Guys, I tried using the UNCONFORM font to do a sort of stencil, but it was Grungy/not crisp.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
Would produce a not ideal stenicl.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
*Stencil, and even worse CNC cutout
<UltimateCodeWarr>
Other Stencil Fonts were Stylized where they would cut into letters that didn't need to be cut into, was looking for more of a minimal font.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
I wish there was some sort of OpenSCAD function called draw letter (size, x,y,z,thickeness) or something.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
Anyhow, I just took Courier New Bold and Bridged the letters so they wouldn't look ugly when CNC
<UltimateCodeWarr>
The code is prototype-messy, but it will draw the sign
<UltimateCodeWarr>
It's giving me grief to export it to dxf
<JordanBrown>
I know nada about exporting to DXF. Let me experiment a little.
<JordanBrown>
But if you really want to export to a 2D format, you probably want to work in 2D throughout.
<JordanBrown>
Yeah, it doesn't want to export it into DXF because it's a 3D object and DXF is 2D.
<teepee>
yes, openscad can only handle 2d dxf
<JordanBrown>
(I dimly remember that DXF can actually do 3D, but maybe I'm wrong and if it can then OpenSCAD doesn't know how.)
<teepee>
yep, I think that's the case
<UltimateCodeWarr>
projection(cut=true){
<UltimateCodeWarr>
/8drawBackPlate();
<UltimateCodeWarr>
/cutSign();
<UltimateCodeWarr>
drawSign();
<UltimateCodeWarr>
/bondCubes();
<UltimateCodeWarr>
}
<JordanBrown>
So you need to either work in 2D in the first place (probably the better option) or use projection() to turn your 3D object into a 2D object.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
That seemed to work, will open up in libercad
<teepee>
if possible drop the "cut=true"
<JordanBrown>
But it will likely all get simpler and faster if you just lose all of the linear_extrudes.
<JordanBrown>
and switch out 3D objects like spheres and cylinders for their 2D equivalents.
<JordanBrown>
But it does depend on whether you want things like rounding on the top edges, like you could do with a mill, or just need 2D drawing like you would do with a laser cutter.
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<JordanBrown>
Caught up on personal e-mail, switching over to pretending to do real work...
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<UltimateCodeWarr>
That last font site had some sort of drive by virus crap on it
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<UltimateCodeWarr>
Had to clear my cache to get rid of that stupid popup virus scamware
<teepee>
I don't see that stuff
<teepee>
ublock + privacy badger + dns block = pretty quiet web pages :)
<UltimateCodeWarr>
That font is cool, but I don't know why they need to mess with letters that don't need to be stencilized
<UltimateCodeWarr>
And just about all of those stencil fonts do it too!
<UltimateCodeWarr>
I need function over form
<teepee>
it's a re-creation of physical sencils if I understand the notes correctly
<UltimateCodeWarr>
For Plasma CNC, every time you create a new segment, you create a new pierce point and that will eat up your Plasma Consumables.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
There needs to be some sort of CNC Friendly Stencil Font
<teepee>
probably, but maybe not one also in the free/ofl category
<UltimateCodeWarr>
I had originally printed out a bunch of 8"x8" tiles and glued them together for a super stencil to do the sign. Couple of issues happened. The sign warped like a roman shield when I welded it to the pole mount. It was also diamond plate front, so when I put the stencil on to spray paint it with rattle can, the warped metal and
<UltimateCodeWarr>
the diamond plate stand-offs caused the spray paint to feather under the stencil where it looked more like subway graffiti art rather than a crisp sign.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
So I had to go back to the drawing board and just get the sign cnc cut out.
<teepee>
oh, and the mask can't even sit flat, I can see why that does not work too well
<UltimateCodeWarr>
I wish I had one of those nice 36"x36" 3d printers so I could have made just one stencil template. If I didn't use the diamond plate, it would have worked out better.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
I wanted to design a way to "True up" the sign in case it was hit by grafitti, just respray it quickly.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
Those forrest service signs take a beating, they are usually torch cut out of 1/4" plate steel.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
They have to survive Forrest fires/ vandals / bears
<InPhase>
UltimateCodeWarr: s = "HELLO WORLD!"; for (i=[0:len(s)-1]) { c = s[i]; translate([8*i, 0]) import("stencil_TNH.dxf", layer=c); }
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<UltimateCodeWarr>
InPhase -- not seeing anything show up
<UltimateCodeWarr>
Do I need to turn something on?
<InPhase>
UltimateCodeWarr: I'm staring at the result right now.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
Yeah, you are right, it's just micro
<InPhase>
It's the size of the input file. :)
<InPhase>
But this seems to be the straightforward way to use that stencil dxf.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
Thx much, appreciate it. Would have never figured that out, there wasn't much in the way of documentation
<InPhase>
I've never seen a dxf structured that way.
<UltimateCodeWarr>
Was that an inkscape one?
<JordanBrown>
It's not all that different from the SVG I used to make Santa a couple of years ago.
<JordanBrown>
UltimateCodeWarr: OpenSCAD is like Lego; it supplies a lot of little bricks and you need to figure out how you want to put them together.
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<JordanBrown>
WRT figuring out the structure of the DXF, I loaded it into Inkscape. It was a small blob in the lower left corner. So I blew it up to full page. Then it just had really thick lines, so I changed them to hairlines.
<JordanBrown>
That started to make some sense; I started to see pieces of letters in the jumble of lines.
<JordanBrown>
I looked at the Layers and Objects list, and that made it more or less clear.
<InPhase>
JordanBrown: I took an alternate strategy. I didn't feel like opening it in another program to see the layer names, so I randomly put 0 in as a layer, and got stupidly lucky that 0 the integer processed as 0 the string layer name, and a 0 was rendered. Then I realized it was probably just letters. ;)
<JordanBrown>
Whatever works :-)
<JordanBrown>
But I figured that Inkscape was likely to give me more information on a DXF and more options for doing something with it.
<InPhase>
Yes, that's probably a smarter approach. :)
<JordanBrown>
Unfortunately, one thing that is problematic is getting metrics for the letters. The only-barely-documented dxf_dim() function might be helpful there.
<InPhase>
Yeah. It could be nice to wrap it up in a general stencil routine.
<JordanBrown>
But using a real font would be a lot simpler.
<InPhase>
I was wondering if that import reloads the file N times for N letters.
<JordanBrown>
I'm sure it does.
<InPhase>
I am assuming yes.
<InPhase>
But I don't think we have any other option. import can be assigned, but it is not meaningful to do so here.
<JordanBrown>
Windows includes a font named Stencil that looks pretty much exactly like you might expect.
<JordanBrown>
that kind of import can't.
<JordanBrown>
at least I assume it can't.
<JordanBrown>
Well, it didn't *fail*, but it mysteriously returned 999.
<JordanBrown>
Hmm. import() as a function does not appear to be documented.
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<JordanBrown>
Looks like it's unconditionally a JSON import.
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<UltimateCodeWarr>
Glad you guys had the Knack to be able to figure it out.