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SJay

Weld or Merge in SignCut Pro

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Hello:

I have the most recent version of SignCut Pro1.96 for Mac.  I created text in AI CS6 and then sent it to SignCut using the included plug-in.  The text needs to be welded or merged.  I can not see this function in SignCut.  Does anyone know if it has that capability to merge or weld text?

 

Thanks

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I don't use my Illy much any more but it's along the lines of 

'expand' your text, select the letters to weld, then pathfinder>merge.

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Unite is a better method if you can get it to work for you. Merge will create a separate object in every open space that the cutter will cut. You can go in and select one of the unfilled sections then select all with the same fill characteristics up in the select menu or on the appropriate button on the toolbar along the top but it's an easy thing to forget and the cutter will appear to make double passes on each opening.

 

I would also suggest after expanding the text (Shift,Command,o is the shortcut) that you then do a Command,8 which will make the text a compound path. All the functions in the pathfinder menu will work properly at that point, however, keep an eye on the compound path over in the layers because a lot of the time if you preform a function on text illustrator makes it back into a group. Not a biggie unless you have more to do with it at which time the behavior is usually superior as a compound path. 

 

Might want to toggle the preview/outline at the top of the view menu to see just the lines. This is what your cutter see's and if you have lines crossing that happen to be in the same color (as in text that overlaps etc) then you won't like results.

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Off topic but I swear every 6 ime somebody describes doing something in illustrator I get a headache. Is it really that complicated?

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It's really overkill for my needs, and I build some fairly complicated files at times.

 

I much prefer the abilities of Inkscape over Illustrator.

Seems way more direct (less clicks) at tasks... and VinylMaster is more direct than Inkscape for certain operations.

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It just sounds complicated for the most part. If you understand it then it's no biggie. There are certain things you have to know kind of like the order of operations in math. BEcause the program is so vast and has the ability to design for varying applications it doesn't assume anything about where your workflow is headed. The Merge function is one of these. If you merge it looks exactly like what you thought you were going to get but the program does not throw away all the little objects inside what appear to open spaces. Meaning you can go back through and add color or stoke to each one. In vinyl this is not applicable but other uses it might be. The Untie function does what most most newbies think the merge does and will just weld things together without creating anything else. There are certain objects that won't Unite/Weld and you have to Merge and then get rid of the unfilled spaces.

 

Anyway, as complicated as it sounds, those who know their way around do it in just a few clicks. I'm slow by comparison to the graphic design guys who do it 8-10hrs a day. 

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Thanks for all the suggestions.  What I ended up doing -- In Illustrator under the type menu I created an outline.  Then using the pathfinder I used the unite button.  That basically welded all my text.  Sent it to Signcut and it worked.  I did save the AI file under a different name so I could go back and edit the original text if I needed to.

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Thanks, Goose. Had to look it up and found,

 

"Unite creates 1 shape, making everything visually the same, regardless of their current fill color. Merge removes all overlapping areas (i.e. it removes the part of the black rectangle behind the red circle) but retains all visibly different shapes and only combines shapes with the same fill."

 

I know it's what you said but, having it eplained in two different ways made it perfectly clear.

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