Stencil Font would be helpful for Laser Cutting

[codom]

Is there any plan to add a stencil font to SketchUp for Schools (Web version)? Without it, we can only etch a font on our laser cut jobs. With a stencil font, we can cut out the letters without losing the interior spaces of such letters as A, B, D, O, etc. Plus, cutting is a much faster process than etching. Come on SU; help us out, please! Thanks!

[Cotty]

I would create a template with the alphabet needed and reuse those characters, have you tried this?

[codom]

Thanks Cotty! Do you mean use another piece of software such as eMachineShop or the like to create an alphabet using their text tool, export it as a DXF file, and then import it into SU? Or do you mean to create the template by hand, building the letters one-by-one using the SU tools (arc, line, etc.)? Or something else entirely?

[Cotty]

@codom

building the letters one-by-one using the SU tools (arc, line, etc.)

I had this in mind, unless you have to use the Chinese alphabet.

[DaveR]

If you have the tools available to make a DXF file, you could do that at least until additional fonts get added.

[codom]

Thanks for the suggestions Cotty and DaveR, but I’m not sure i want to put in that much effort into something that would take the SU developers seconds to implement. I think I’ll wait and make do with the four fonts they allows us to use. I’m never fond of “improvements” that send us backwards.

[TheOnlyAaron]

It would be easy enough to modify any font geometry to include the geometry that “links” the cutout portions… no need to create letter from scratch.

[john_drivenupthewall]

@TheOnlyAaron, a lot of ‘stencil’ fonts are not outline fonts but just polylines with appropriate gap to avoid fall through…

nice and discrete and easily filled for finishes after assembly of parts…

john

[codom]

Thanks, TheOnlyAaron! That will work! Still, I wish my students had more fonts from which to choose. I understand not giving away the store with the free EDU version, but I wish we had more than four fonts.

[Bep]

Look for it in the 3D-warehouse

[codom]

Thank you, Bep. I found one stencil font, and was able to mess around with it, grouping letters to make them useable. All of these suggestions above are helpful, but they just take too much time. I typically laser cut labels with 100 people’s names, so this is time prohibitive. I guess I’ll resort to using another CAD program, which is too bad. I liked using SU in my classroom because it was the one piece of software that could handle 3D printer parts, 2D laser cut parts, and engineering drawings. I am disappointed that Trimble’s vision is so short sighted.

[Box]

You could install a desktop version, Make 2017 for example, and quickly do the text there.