Combining letters into one object

[Pgritton]

I am trying to make a design wherein I have two capital B's. One of the B's is flipped so that the two B's are back to back. I want them close enough to each other so that the small little tabs at the top and bottom combine rather than over lap. This is nesecary so that I can apply a contour for cutting.

I have converted the two letters to curves, combinded them and then edited the nodes so that they are combined rather than overlapping. When I do this the two center cirlces of one of the B's fill in. The other B's two circles remain as they should. If I look at the letters in wireframe the lines are where the should be. If I was only going to cut the design it wouldn't be that big a problem but I need to cut and also print it.

Any suggestions for a solution? Thanks in advance.

 

[RebeckaR]

What program are you working in?

 

[Alan D]

Not sure I'm understanding the question correctly (any chance of uploading a file) but this maybe because of curve direction and you may find this with combined objects imported from other programmes. In node editing mode change the direction of the curve.
Just for my info are you allowed to put your email address on a post? if you were I could post my email for you to send the file to me.
Alan D

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

Sounds like one of the paths is not closed.

Your going through a lot of trouble to do something simple. Instead of editing the nodes, place the objects right were you want them, select them both, and choose the weld option (under arrange>shaping ). Much simpler and quicker than editing nodes. I use it so much that I have a tool bar with it on my desktop.

 

[learned the hard way]

Don"t combine the two objects. Weld them.

 

[fastcut]

Just a thought...in case your software impaired like me, cuz I didn't know there was a "weld" option. I work in Omega. But how I would solve this...take your two B's, line them up, and put a teeny tiny outline around them and then erase the originals.

 

[Alan D]

In Corel you would trim rather than weld. I think the difference in terminology between programmes is very confusing, weld in Corel would lose shapes of a different colour. I think Signlab has some of the best weld options I've seen and used.
Kottwitz Graphics is right might be an unclosed path.
Alan D

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

I have converted the two letters to curves, combinded them and then edited the nodes so that they are combined rather than overlapping. When I do this the two center cirlces of one of the B's fill in. The other B's two circles remain as they should. If I look at the letters in wireframe the lines are where the should be. If I was only going to cut the design it wouldn't be that big a problem but I need to cut and also print it.

I just went back and re-read what your saying. When you look at the finished image, you seem to have "lost" the centers of the b. When you look at it in wire frame, they are still there.

Sounds like they were not part of the combigned image. Can you select just the centers and move them, or does it select everything? If you can select just the centers, then you need to select everything and combine.

Just a thought...in case your software impaired like me, cuz I didn't now there was a "weld" option. I work in Omega. But how I would solve this...take your two B's, line them up, and put a teeny tiny outline around them and then erase the originals.

You can do that on some programs, but since this is the corel forum, I am assuming that Pgritton is using Corel. It doesn't have an outline feature per say. You can get an add on program like Signtools that gives the option.

 

[fastcut]

You can do that on some programs, but since this is the corel forum, I am assuming that Pgritton is using Corel. It doesn't have an outline feature per say. You can get an add on program like Signtools that gives the option.

:Oops: My bad...I didn't even notice!

 

[Pgritton]

Thanks for the responses, Heres where I am at. Following the suggestions of the previous posts, I put two B's back to back and then welded, worked great. Here's the catch, the B in the font, Bookman, has small tabs that stick to the rear on the top and bottom, I also need this "tab" sticking out in the middle of the back of the B. So I typed a B, converted it to curves so I could edit and then once I had the edit done, I duplicated it, flipped the duplicate and put them back to back, just overlapping. I next selected both and welded. One of the B's went totally black, i.e. it's two cirlces filled in. The other did not. I'm using X3

 

[Jillbeans]

Try breaking apart the curves, only welding the outer parts of the BBs, then combining the innards after the weld.
...sounds like you are Shovelheads biggest fan!

Love....Jill

 

[flyinhawaiian968]

I bet this is what's happening. When you combine the centers in the image (see attachment 1), they go away, right? You want it like attachment 2, correct?

Select the nodes for the centers, reverse curve direction (its a node editing tool if you have node editing toolbar at the top of your screen, see image 3), then combine with outside object.

Seems X3 has issues with this, and it confused me for about 3 weeks before I found that it does this weird thing when you combine elements on top of one another and when they are reversed for their paths.

Chris

 

[Pgritton]

You da' boss!

You da' boss, that worked! You just solved three and a half hours of frustration!

Thanks a bunch :U Rock:

 

[Alan D]

I said curve direction in my earlier post.
Apparently there is a couple of ways of describing curve direction and it was altered in X3 so you sometimes come across this anomally with imported objects and even files from previous version of Corel. One to watch out for.
Corel does have an outline tool - either the bitmap one on the toolbox (which can be converted to an object for cutting) or 'contour' which is found under the effects tab. This was changed in X3 to be made up of bezier curves and not loads of straight lines as in earlier versions.
Alan D

 

[DOGraphics]

I said curve direction in my earlier post.
Apparently there is a couple of ways of describing curve direction and it was altered in X3 so you sometimes come across this anomally with imported objects and even files from previous version of Corel. One to watch out for.
Corel does have an outline tool - either the bitmap one on the toolbox (which can be converted to an object for cutting) or 'contour' which is found under the effects tab. This was changed in X3 to be made up of bezier curves and not loads of straight lines as in earlier versions.
Alan D

You were right

Feel Better ?

this is for you

 

[Alan D]

Oh yes much better thanks. I'm going for a lie down now that my job is done.

 

[flyinhawaiian968]

Hehehe! That was funny! I just explained it a bit better, that's all. Pictures always help!

And I'm glad I solved the problem for ya in 3½ hours, sure wish I could have done that for myself rather than the 3½ weeks I took to figure that one out!

Chris