Making a font appear filled in aspire drawing

[endgrainguy]

As vectors define fonts by their outlines, when I want to use an Apire generated drawing to ultimately print with, I have a problem in that I'd prefer my letters to be filled, --not outlined. I'm going from saved svg file to Inkscape to pdf for printable file. Is there a way in Aspire I can fill my letters before exporting to svg? Or can someone suggest a single line font that may work well... final printing wants letters about .1" high. This is for a precise angle scale where i want crisp readable letters. My skills in Inkscape etc are poor and i have a quantity of drawings generated in Aspire with this issue.
Thanks!

[endgrainguy]

Well, since posting this I thought of a quick, if inelegant solution--select all my outlined characters, and offset them in a thou at a time till they are essentially all filled . takes a couple minutes, and when I look at printed output it's perfect... I'm sure there's a better way!

[martin54]

It should be fairly easy in inkscape to select a solid fill for a closed vector & give them a colour, I would probably export them as EPS files & import them into my signmaking software rather than much about with offsets

[gkas]

Select a toolpath color in the Preview Toolpath. If need be, generate a dummy toolpath that cuts very shallow filled text.

Filled Color Preview.crv3d

(2.61 MiB) Downloaded 38 times

[martin54]

Select a toolpath color in the Preview Toolpath. If need be, generate a dummy toolpath that cuts very shallow filled text.

Filled Color Preview.crv3d

That does work but again it's extra work especially if there are quite a few toolpaths & you then have less options to save the file so it can be imported into another program

I do use this sometimes to show a customer how a project might look, someone asked recently if another type of wood could be selected as the toolpath colour which isn't possible but a great suggestion

[adze_cnc]

Aspire (or any other Vectric product) is not Inskscape or Illustrator and as such doesn’t behave like either. If you could learn to do this in Aspire then you certainly can learn to do this in Inkscape. As martin54 intimated you are trying add a fill to a stroke, See here for more info on how to do that in Inkscape.

[endgrainguy]

Thanks for these replies. I need accurate vectors for printing, so my version doesn't allow saving preview as a workaround. In Inkscape I can't figure out hoe to fill an 8 or 9 or4 or 0 without filling the interiors ....

[martin54]

Thanks for these replies. I need accurate vectors for printing, so my version doesn't allow saving preview as a workaround. In Inkscape I can't figure out hoe to fill an 8 or 9 or4 or 0 without filling the interiors ....

For text you need to look at the text tools & look at increasing the stroke width, sure if you google it you will find an answer.

[adze_cnc]

For 8, 9, etc. Adobe Illustrator has a concept of “compound path”. With that it knows to fill in between the two paths rather than fill in the paths separately.

Apparantly Inkscape also has that ability: link. Basically select the items that you want to make compound and press “Ctrl+K”.

[martin54]

For 8, 9, etc. Adobe Illustrator has a concept of “compound path”. With that it knows to fill in between the two paths rather than fill in the paths separately.

Apparantly Inkscape also has that ability: link. Basically select the items that you want to make compound and press “Ctrl+K”.

Yes I was forgetting that it probably isn't text anymore

In my signmaking software it is known as a combine mode, once the vectors are combined it acts the same way as the compound path you have mentioned

[garylmast]

After you type a "True Font", change it vectors. Then select it and under Modeling, create a shape.
Gary

[adze_cnc]

It’s not about creating an object to cut with CNC it’s all about printing the 2D view with filed shapes. Such as in the image the FixitMike posted recently.

[garylmast]

It’s not about creating an object to cut with CNC it’s all about printing the 2D view with filed shapes. Such as in the image the FixitMike posted recently.

The 3D view can also be printed. If you don't like that, go to a different software.

[endgrainguy]

Thanks for all this info. I finally did learn to do it in Inkscape, though it was fussy and temperamental. The Lesson is go with single line fonts, which are easily changed in Inkscape. Funny how for someone with more experience in Aspire than a vector illustrating program it's almost easier to cut fine details exactly as wanted in wood than to print them!