How to keep inner parts of letters?

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viktak
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How to keep inner parts of letters?

Post by viktak »

Hello FreeCAD gurus!

I've been wondering what the best way is to accomplish the following:
I created a faceplate with letters cut in in. My method is to create a solid plate, create extruded letters, then boolean diff the two, and I have a nice faceplate with my letters cut in it.
The problem I am facing is that certain letters, like O, P, B, etc, loose their inner, unsupported bits. For example, the O becomes a circle shaped window, rather than staying a circle. In other words, when I print it with a 3D printer, the center is missing.
This is understandable, I am not contesting that. I would like to keep the center with some supporting tabs or whatever they are called.

Is there a recommended way of doing this, Even better, is there a tool/setting just for this?

Thank you in advance!
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thomas-neemann
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Re: How to keep inner parts of letters?

Post by thomas-neemann »

viktak wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 12:47 pm
is such a font a solution?
Bildschirmfoto_2021-10-25_15-38-17.png
Bildschirmfoto_2021-10-25_15-38-17.png (29.72 KiB) Viewed 840 times

https://www.typografie.info/3/Schriften ... ncil-r575/
Gruß Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Thomas Neemann

https://www.youtube.com/@thomasneemann5 ... ry=freecad
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onekk
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Re: How to keep inner parts of letters?

Post by onekk »

If you trasnform a letter like an O and do a cut with this shape, the "center" is not supported, so you have to add some "bridges" to keep the center in place, you have to add these "bridges" yourself, so maybe small little "boxes" fused in place will do the job, maybe with a smaller height of the main plate.

Same thing if you intend to cut out a plate with a cnc, no one will ad such bridges at you place, like tabs in CNC cuts, that with complex forms are usually placed in the worst place where you don't want to have to file them out, so you need almost everytime to move some of them out of the way.

I hope I'have guessed right your post if not some example will be more useful than a bunch of words to illustrate your problem.

Regards

Carlo D.
GitHub page: https://github.com/onekk/freecad-doc.
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onekk
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Re: How to keep inner parts of letters?

Post by onekk »

Font above are made to be painted with "spray", so they are simply placed over the surface and and moved where needed, so they have the "tabs" I was speaking about.

Obviously the Black parts are those that have to be cutted from the plate.

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Carlo D.
GitHub page: https://github.com/onekk/freecad-doc.
- In deep articles on FreeCAD.
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viktak
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Re: How to keep inner parts of letters?

Post by viktak »

thomas-neemann wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 1:40 pm
viktak wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 12:47 pm
is such a font a solution?

Bildschirmfoto_2021-10-25_15-38-17.png


https://www.typografie.info/3/Schriften ... ncil-r575/
Yes, it is. Does this type of font have a name? Like spray-painted font? :)
viktak
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Re: How to keep inner parts of letters?

Post by viktak »

onekk wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 1:42 pm If you trasnform a letter like an O and do a cut with this shape, the "center" is not supported, so you have to add some "bridges" to keep the center in place, you have to add these "bridges" yourself, so maybe small little "boxes" fused in place will do the job, maybe with a smaller height of the main plate.

Same thing if you intend to cut out a plate with a cnc, no one will ad such bridges at you place, like tabs in CNC cuts, that with complex forms are usually placed in the worst place where you don't want to have to file them out, so you need almost everytime to move some of them out of the way.

I hope I'have guessed right your post if not some example will be more useful than a bunch of words to illustrate your problem.

Regards

Carlo D.
Yes, that's what I thought of by myself. Was just wondering, if there is a "shortcut" for that.

Thanks for the tip though!
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thomas-neemann
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Re: How to keep inner parts of letters?

Post by thomas-neemann »

viktak wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 1:54 pm
here you can apparently download it. i don't know the site

https://www.font-journal.com/c/22/stencil
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onekk
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Re: How to keep inner parts of letters?

Post by onekk »

No shortcut, as those bridges are heavily dependant on font type and even font size, it is difficult to guess what is right and what is wrong for someone and not everytime, what is good for one people is good for another one.

More general we are speaking of aestethic (sorry for the possible misspelling) so it's heavily subjective.

You could use as @tomas-neeman is suggesting a font that already have such bridges if this would satisfy your needs.

Having done some similar work in the past, I create some "boxes" slighly more high than the character and then fuse them in place, maybe finding letter "center" in the horizonthal plane, and usually they are decent in aestethic, I usually cut the letters from plywood and they are usually the front of boxes.

Regards

Carlo D.
GitHub page: https://github.com/onekk/freecad-doc.
- In deep articles on FreeCAD.
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Blog: https://okkmkblog.wordpress.com/
viktak
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Re: How to keep inner parts of letters?

Post by viktak »

Yes, thank you guys. I also found a site with similar fonts: https://www.fontspace.com/category/stencil.

Apparently, it is called "stencil" font, very aptly named...

I am going with this solution, thanks to all of you for chiming in!
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papyblaise
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Re: How to keep inner parts of letters?

Post by papyblaise »

this font is called "Army" there are several, maybe depending on the country (USA, FRENCH .....), standard in Windows fonts, but also on the Net

yes , they are "Stencil too
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