I’m trying to export a logo rendered in Layout which contains text, as a DXF file, however, my exported files are missing the text portion of the logo design. Do you guys have any suggestions on how I can export the file as DXF without loosing the text portion ?
How did you check that the text is missing? If the logo is inside a SketchUp model viewport, and you placed the text on the LayOut page, in the export the text will be placed on a paperspace layout while the logo will reside in model space. Not all viewing applications can display paperspace objects.
If you can post your LayOut file or the exported DXF do so, otherwise we are mostly guessing.
I sent the DXF file to a CNC shop, where they told me the text portion of the logo was not there.PureBiomass LOGO.layout (37.9 KB)
What font is this supposed to be?
PURE is in Arial-Regular
and BIOMASS is Helvetica-Bold.
The triangle stands in for the A in Biomass, and the letters were individually placed to reduce the space between them.
I don’t have Helvetica on this computer so I can’t set it up for you.
Instead of creating the text using the Text tool in LayOut, do it in Sketchup with 3D Text with no extrusion. You can move the letters inside the text components as needed without having to place the letters individually. Either send that to LO and export to DXF or export directly from SketchUp. If you export from Sketchup, make sure you set Camera to Parallel Projection and choose the appropriate standard view. Then use the 3D export option.
Ok, Thanks! I’ll try that
As first guessed, all the text is there, but it is on the Paperspace layout.
You can see that I am too missing some of the needed fonts, and it seems that text height, too, has not survived the translation too well.
When designing logos, the custom is to supply them as drawings instead of text to avoid this kind of errors created when the look is dependent on resources to be found on the user’s computer. Dave’s trick of using 3D Text in SketchUp instead of regular text in LayOut provides this, as LayOut doesn’t have a function that would explode text into outlines.
One alternative, too, is to use some graphic design software like Illustrator ($$$)or Inkscape (free). These have the advantage of exploding the text into bezier paths that are resolution independent whereas the jagged outlines created by 3D Text will become visible if you zoom in close or use the logo at a very large size.
Thanks for the advice.
I rendered the logo in SkechtUp as suggested, and was able to export it as a DXF directly from SketchUp. However the curved regions letters in SketchUp have very few segments, which is translated to the DXF file.
This will be an issue for the CNC machine, as it will follow the segmented path instead of a smooth curve, as I’d like.
Do you guys have any suggestions on how I can increase the number of segments in the curved regions of these letters ?
PUREBIOMASS LOGO 2017.skp (163.8 KB)
Did you use the 2D export or the 3D export option?
I used the 2D option. I don’t think 3D will produce a better result unless I change the number of segments in each curve. When I go into the entity info for any particular curve of the letters, it shows me the number of segments, but the digits are greyed out and not changeable.
Try it.
The 3D export still had the line segments.
As a work around, do you think there’s another setting that can be changed to maximize the line segments for all objects rendered in a particular file ?
Anssi, I’ve downloaded Inkspace and whipped up the logo. But I’m not sure how to explode the text into bezier paths. Could you please give me some guidance as to how I should do that ?
When I exported from Inkspace as a DXF file, the only visible object was the triangle.
Path Menu → Object to Path
Thank You ! That worked perfectly
This topic was automatically closed 91 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.