devFoam - FAQ	Back to start page.
Cutting a text

Cutting a text

You can create here 1 or more text lines rendered with a Windows font.
If you need more advanced features like a modified  text see How can I cut a more complex text?

To cut a single text You can start the process clicking the first option in the  Startup dialog or by the menu "Cut - Cut a text ".
The following dialog will appear:

You can write 1 or more line of text in the edit control placed in the left-upper part of the dialog.
Using the options in the 'Font' frame you can select the Font name, style, height and these more advanced options:

• Upside down: revert the font to upside-down. The order of the lines is not affected
• Backwards: revert the font front-rear. The order of the letters is not affected
• Width factor: you can specify the width of the font. The larger the value, the wider the font. Default = 1.0
• Oblique angle: you can apply a slant angle to the font
• X Spacing factor: you can modify the horizontal space among the letters, using 100% the default spacing defined by the Font will be applied
• Y Spacing factor: you can modify the vertical space among the rows, using 100% the default spacing will be applied

Using fonts like Webdings, Wingdings and so on, you can also cut symbols and shapes, see the example below:

Now you are ready to go to the next step, to create the Cutting path
You can select between:

• Simple cutting - the text will be cut without moving the letters. This can be also useful if you want to use the outer part of the foam to create a negative text
• Advanced cutting - you can apply here Nesting, select different number of letters to cut, create more cuttings for more foam blocks if one is not enough for all the letters. If some letter includes more parts (for example the 'i' has a dot/circle/square in the upper side) you will be prompted if during the Nesting you want keep the parts together or not.
• Save to a .DC1 cad file. The text will be saved as a .DC1 cad file, so you can use it later for example to create a tapered text loading two times (on left and right sides) this and applying different scale factors

I suggest also to take a look at this page, to better understand some important concepts of devFoam: DevFoam FAQ and important concepts