Is the DXF upgrade what I (should) use?

[karossii]

I have a customer for whom I've made a few smaller signs, and one larger sign...who now wants a new, even larger sign. It is fairly simple; mostly letters and a bell shape, which she wants all standing proud from the wood - plus a 3/4 or 1" border around the sign standing proud from the wood. And the overall size is 30" by 38".

I was debating just cutting the letters and bell shape, and then the border shapes, and gluing it all to several glued-up boards, or even a plywood back, and then cutting the backing out around the sign's shape.

I was debating buying and trying to use the DXF importer to assign the cut paths.

But then I thought of using it, if I can, to assign carve regions and just carving the boards instead of trying to glue everything in the right place.

Does that sound like something the DXF importer would work well for? (Or, would it work at all for this?)

How could I have it carve everything except the portions I want standing proud?

[bergerud]

I think cutting out the pieces and attaching them to the back board would be the way. Have you thought of simply tracing the non text shapes in Designer?

[karossii]

I thought about it.
For that I would need the 2D Tools' trace image feature, though.
At least, to do it well.
And I haven't gotten that add on yet.

I decided to bite the bullet while the sale is still going, and got the DXF import.
I can still import it to be cut out.
Or, if I choose, I can import it and make the areas desired as carve regions.
I get better flexibility that way.

[bergerud]

You would still need a tracing program to trace the bitmap and export as DXF. See if you can use this file. I started tracing.