How to convert .eps to a 3d cuttable pattern? HELP PLEASE

[Schramm]

I own a 48" Graphtec plotter for cutting vinyl as part of my mirror business that I use for cutting vinyl templates for glass etching. Needless to say I have well over 1,000,000 designs which are in both .ai and .eps format but what i want to know is there a software that I can buy or a way that I can turn some of these designs into
carvable patterns? I did know if Carvewright sold some software that may work. Also would like to know how to convert some of these fonts that I have purchased from letterheadfonts.com to 3d carvable fonts as the ones that come with the program are beyond boring (at least for me).

Any help you would appreciated.

Thanks
Rob

Below is a table top that me and my daughter did which is all about the Titanic.

[dbfletcher]

Take a look at this thread or just search the forum for "ai2mpc". There is a free program out there that can convert Adobe Illustrator v. 8 files to mpc files. If you can convert your files .ai & .eps files to dxf than you could also use LHR's dfx importer. I typically recommend trying the free stuff first and if that doesnt meet your expectations than open your wallet for the paid programs. As far as the fonts things goes, I didnt look at the site you mentioned, but if the fonts (typeface is more correct) are a TTF you should have no problem using them. Many of us have noticed that after your install a ttf in windows, for some reason, you generally have to exit and restart designer to get it to show up.

http://forum.carvewright.com/showthread.php?15325-Is-it-possible-to-Convert-from-Vector-to-MPC-or-PTN&highlight=ai2mpc

Over a million designs!!!! How do you ever find the one you want?? Remind me never to come to your shop and ask to browse your design catalog.

[Alan Malmstrom]

A pattern for designer is made of a raster. The darker colors of a raster heightmap are higher when carved than the lighter colors.

If you want to turn vector illustrations or text to carvable patterns you would have to simply turn it into a raster image. You can turn things into raster by opening them in a program that supports them and see if there is a way to save as a jpg or bmp or png or posibly export as one of these. Or you could simply do a screen capture and then paste the clipboard to a raster program. You may have to edit the raster image to make it more usable as a height map for carving though.

I have done a tutorial on how to use a free raster program if you want to look at it here: http://forum.carvewright.com/showthread.php?19214-Gimp-Tutorial-1

As far as fonts go you should be able to use any font you have loaded on your computer in the CarveWright Designer Program.

Alan

[Schramm]

Been a decorative painter for 25 years and have designed and made mirrors for 18 years, in all that time I have never allowed any of my customers to look at my books as most of them cannot pik one color from a four color chart. I normally just ask a series of questions and from there I come up with what they want based on there answers. Dont always get it the first time but rarely cannot figure it out. I dont mind buying the software, I will try the free software but normally free things are a thing where you get what you pay for, "NOTHING". LOL

Thanks for your help.
Rob



Take a look at this thread or just search the forum for "ai2mpc". There is a free program out there that can convert Adobe Illustrator v. 8 files to mpc files. If you can convert your files .ai & .eps files to dxf than you could also use LHR's dfx importer. I typically recommend trying the free stuff first and if that doesnt meet your expectations than open your wallet for the paid programs. As far as the fonts things goes, I didnt look at the site you mentioned, but if the fonts (typeface is more correct) are a TTF you should have no problem using them. Many of us have noticed that after your install a ttf in windows, for some reason, you generally have to exit and restart designer to get it to show up.

http://forum.carvewright.com/showthread.php?15325-Is-it-possible-to-Convert-from-Vector-to-MPC-or-PTN&highlight=ai2mpc

Over a million designs!!!! How do you ever find the one you want?? Remind me never to come to your shop and ask to browse your design catalog.

[Schramm]

How do I do that as I have many fonts in my computer that are custom but when i go into the font library I cannot figure out how to bring that font forward into the program.

Thanks
Rob

As far as fonts go you should be able to use any font you have loaded on your computer in the CarveWright Designer Program.

Alan[/QUOTE]

[Schramm]

Ok so I see that some of my normal fonts are loaded into the fonts on the designer however I have very custom ones that are not there and i do not see them in the library. Could it be that because they are ones that cannot be shared that they will not inport?

[TerryT]

I may be wrong on this but I believe the Carvewright software only uses the "Truetype" fonts that are on your computor. I don't think it will recognize any specialty type fonts.

[Schramm]

Terry,

I believe that you are correct as every truetype font that I use is here, the LHF are not.

[Alan Malmstrom]

Yes, True type fonts are what you would have to have. Post Script fonts are not available in Designer, that's probably what you have. Do you have a vector art program like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw or something that you have used these fonts with before? Perhaps you would want to make your pattern in the program you used to use for the Graphic Plotter. Does that program export or save as any kind of raster file like jpg or png? If so you may be able to make designs in there and export as raster. Then import it into designer as a pattern.

There is another way to use the carvewright using vector lines too. And I'm not very familiar with it. It involves useing conforming vectors software and the 1/8 inch bit to carve out vector line shapes.

Alan