un-grouping letters

[blacktrain]

If I create a word by typing, for exampe: (GOLDEN) and want to V-carve it, when I select the word GOLDEN the whole word is grouped, but if I select to un-group it, it still is grouped. Is there a way to un-group the word? I appreciate anyone's help. Thanks...

[garylmast]

[Adrian]

If I create a word by typing, for exampe: (GOLDEN) and want to V-carve it, when I select the word GOLDEN the whole word is grouped, but if I select to un-group it, it still is grouped. Is there a way to un-group the word? I appreciate anyone's help. Thanks...

It's not grouped. It has the same appearance as grouped vectors but it's not. Text is a special type of vector in VCarve that you can perform various operations with such as kerning, bending around curves, changing font etc.

You can convert it to curves with the icon Gary shows (or right click and choose Convert to Curves from the menu) but note that you will lose the ability to work with the text as actual text. If you want to change the letters or the font etc you will need to start again with new text.

If you want to v-carve the whole word there is no need to convert it to curves and it can actually be a bad idea depending on the font. The v-carve toolpath works differently with overlapping text compared to overlapping vectors.

[Leo]

WHY -- do you want to ungroup it?

[scottp55]

Just mentioning.
It's a REALLY good idea to copy the font to a separate layer Before Converting to Curves if needed!
You can Hide that layer then, but if you muck up the vectors beyond repair...
You have the original font to start over.
It also is nice if later you forget what font you used on that particular project,
You can go back in and identify the font...which you Can't do once it's converted.
Excellent tip that someone here gave me!!
scott

[blacktrain]

Thank you for the quick reply. I like to have the ability to un-group the letters of a word because sometimes if your board is not perfectly flat some letters may be cut deeper than others, by having the ability to un-group you can select just the letters you want to make a little deeper without cutting all the rest, and then you can get them really close to being all the same. Thank you again...

[martin54]

Thank you for the quick reply. I like to have the ability to un-group the letters of a word because sometimes if your board is not perfectly flat some letters may be cut deeper than others, by having the ability to un-group you can select just the letters you want to make a little deeper without cutting all the rest, and then you can get them really close to being all the same. Thank you again...

If I am doing any sort of work that requires the surface to be perfectly flat & parallel to the spindle then I take a skim off the surface of my material block just to be 100% sure, that way I don't have to worry about some letters not being cut quite as deep as others.

If you want to cut each letter individually the you will need to convert to curves, really great tip from Scott about copying the original text to a new layer before converting so it is there for future reference. Wonder who gave him that tip

[Adrian]

If you zero to the table/spoilboard rather than the material surface all the letters will be engraved to the same depth.

[Leo]

Thank you for the quick reply. I like to have the ability to un-group the letters of a word because sometimes if your board is not perfectly flat some letters may be cut deeper than others, by having the ability to un-group you can select just the letters you want to make a little deeper without cutting all the rest, and then you can get them really close to being all the same. Thank you again...

Ahhhh OK. So then I need to ask, WHY is the board not FLAT, and what can you do about it.

How do you compensate for a not flat board by ungrouping the text? The depth of the text cannot be compensated that way as far as I know?

One thing a lot of folk do is to surface the top of the board where the text is going to be in order to get that nice flat surface to get the nice text that you want.

Another possible method is a feature called - "project to 3D surface"

Do either of these make any sense?

In order to make the text separated you can do a couple of things.
1) Make each individual letter separately, then place it in position
2) Convert to curves as mentioned above - BUT - be careful. The inside of letters like O, or e, or R Will no longer be "together" If you try to move the O by clicking on the outside, the inside will not move with it. In that case you can now group the letter O.

[martin54]

If you zero to the table/spoilboard rather than the material surface all the letters will be engraved to the same depth.

While I wouldn't argue with that if the board is not flat to start with then the text isn't going to look right Better to surface the board before the vcarve I would have thought

[TReischl]

The basic rule of any type of woodworking is:

Start with straight, FLAT and square stock.

Doing anything else results in all sorts of weird contortions trying to make things work. In the case of cnc the FLAT is the most important.

[laflippin]

I was also going to suggest making each letter individually in the rare cases where you may need to treat the letters in a given word as separate entities...kudos to Leo for pointing out that solution first. Even when executing projects using perfectly flat workpieces there are instances where individual control over the characteristics of one or more letters in a wordis desirable.

[Leo]

I was also going to suggest making each letter individually in the rare cases where you may need to treat the letters in a given word as separate entities...kudos to Leo for pointing out that solution first. Even when executing projects using perfectly flat workpieces there are instances where individual control over the characteristics of one or more letters in a wordis desirable.

My question still stands.

How does making a letter separate from the other letters help to correct the depth if the board is not flat?

[laflippin]

Hi Leo, I definitely agree that workpieces should almost always be planed to flatness and that using individual control over letters is not a good strategy for replacing your planer. That has been adequately pointed by many in this thread. My point of agreement with you really referred to the other specific aspect of the OP’s question—simply, how does one “ungroup” text. There are situations where that is useful, even if mitigating against unsurfaced wood isn’t one of them.

[Leo]

Hi Leo, I definitely agree that workpieces should almost always be planed to flatness and that using individual control over letters is not a good strategy for replacing your planer. That has been adequately pointed by many in this thread. My point of agreement with you really referred to the other specific aspect of the OP’s question—simply, how does one “ungroup” text. There are situations where that is useful, even if mitigating against unsurfaced wood isn’t one of them.

Yes - I completely understand and I fully agree. I do it often.

- BUT.

The question about ungrouping the letters from blacktrain is an attempt to correct the NON-flatness of the board by ungrouping and doing something with the separated letter to account for the depth inefficiency.

So my question is ---- How does separating the letter fix the problem? Maybe blacktrain has a suggestion that works and others don't understand. Maybe WE can learn something from HIM or HER.

The question goes to the Original Poster Blacktrain. My question is an attempt to help Blacktrain to work out his problem with inconsistent depth of text, or I can learn something new..

I don't mind trying to help someone else to understand, but blacktrain may not understand, and I want to help him to get the answers he needs.

Please don't be offended - it is Leo that is not always diplomatic.