Question CorelDRAW Macro For Stud Mounted Letters?

[Dog5point0]

Hello,

I am currently using a mix of software but I use Corel often for its macros, ECut is a great macro for CNC and Fabrication work and has been a game changer for me. However, I am struggling to find a way to automate the process of adding stud holes to FCO letters. Right now I end up just adding .25" circles manually where I think a stud should be. I have tried to use the Eylets function in ECut to add these automatically but no luck.

Is there any existing macros or tricks that yall could share with me to automatically or even partially automatically add stud holes for making things like FCO Acrylic Letters, Channel Letter Backs, Etc.

I've included a screenshot of how I currently set up a FCO Letter set, manually adding the circles, and then nesting them for the CNC.

Thanks in advance for any advise!

 

[JBurton]

This is probably the one thing you shouldn't automate.
It would likely cause stuff like you have here, 4 holes in a square configuration allows the installer to turn an O upside down, same on the I. Then what happens if it just skips a letter because it's an open curve or something else silly?
At any rate, in corel, I draw a circle, click and hold while I drag it around tapping space bar to drop copies where I want them. I find it helpful to size the diameter to match the narrowest stroke, to ensure the stud will be in the center or at least consistently spaced from the edges.

 

[White Haus]

in corel, I draw a circle, click and hold while I drag it around tapping space bar to drop copies where I want them.

Love this trick and use it every day!

For the OP - sorry to answer your question with a question......... how do you make your patterns for those letters? When you're drilling 1/4" holes for studs, are you adding pads on those locations or tapping the holes manually after?

Been wanting to play around with making letters in house w/ studs and patterns but can't quite wrap my head around the workflow.

Thanks.

 

[JBurton]

Love this trick and use it every day!

For the OP - sorry to answer your question with a question......... how do you make your patterns for those letters? When you're drilling 1/4" holes for studs, are you adding pads on those locations or tapping the holes manually after?

Been wanting to play around with making letters in house w/ studs and patterns but can't quite wrap my head around the workflow.

Thanks.

If OP isn't going to answer, I'd be happy to.
I like to lay everything out mirrored initially, and add additional markings like up arrows or numbers if it's a complex set of letters. Those all get marked with a V bit, at a near zero depth. The marks for the holes initially are something easy to see when zoomed out, say 1", before they get contoured down for machine, at which point they are either the size of the stud to get glued in, just under to use a tap on, or the outer diameter of a pad or stud gun tip for visual alignment. At 3/8" thick, a 1/4" deep hole should be fine as long as your router table is relatively flat. Use the clutch on a drill to keep from blowing out the front of the letter with the tap if going that route. Pattern is literally the same file, just mirrored back to original. Use ecut nesting feature to nest the grouped letters onto your sheet.
Oh, and if I thought ahead, I added a + to the original mounting holes, in a different color, so I can just ungroup and select all objects of a specific color to group and save along with the letters, or delete from the machine file. (I almost always forget and end up dropping +'s just like the mounting holes, although this time with all 'snap to' objects unselected except for center, so I don't end up snapping to half a circle.

 

[White Haus]

If OP isn't going to answer, I'd be happy to.
I like to lay everything out mirrored initially, and add additional markings like up arrows or numbers if it's a complex set of letters. Those all get marked with a V bit, at a near zero depth. The marks for the holes initially are something easy to see when zoomed out, say 1", before they get contoured down for machine, at which point they are either the size of the stud to get glued in, just under to use a tap on, or the outer diameter of a pad or stud gun tip for visual alignment. At 3/8" thick, a 1/4" deep hole should be fine as long as your router table is relatively flat. Use the clutch on a drill to keep from blowing out the front of the letter with the tap if going that route. Pattern is literally the same file, just mirrored back to original. Use ecut nesting feature to nest the grouped letters onto your sheet.
Oh, and if I thought ahead, I added a + to the original mounting holes, in a different color, so I can just ungroup and select all objects of a specific color to group and save along with the letters, or delete from the machine file. (I almost always forget and end up dropping +'s just like the mounting holes, although this time with all 'snap to' objects unselected except for center, so I don't end up snapping to half a circle.

Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

That all makes sense so far. For the pattern, just pen plot on paper? I guess as long as you're using the same file, all your hole locations will all correspond with the actual letters right?

 

[GAC05]

"Stud mounted letters"? That sounds like something we should ask Tex about.

 

[JBurton]

For the pattern, just pen plot on paper? I guess as long as you're using the same file, all your hole locations will all correspond with the actual letters right?

Yup, here's one I knocked out yesterday, this one is to be tapped for 3/16 studs. You can either plot or print your pattern on tyvek if it's long or complicated. I'm a big fan of a + or X for the mounting pattern, you can make them as big as you like and they are still super accurate, even with a hole ripped in the center. A small circle disappears once you start drilling, and a larger one is hard to find the center of accurately.

 

[Dog5point0]

This is probably the one thing you shouldn't automate.
It would likely cause stuff like you have here, 4 holes in a square configuration allows the installer to turn an O upside down, same on the I. Then what happens if it just skips a letter because it's an open curve or something else silly?
At any rate, in corel, I draw a circle, click and hold while I drag it around tapping space bar to drop copies where I want them. I find it helpful to size the diameter to match the narrowest stroke, to ensure the stud will be in the center or at least consistently spaced from the edges.

Thanks for everyone's answers & pointers!! Sorry for my late reply, I don't get on here all that often and I guess I had email notifications turned off.

I see your point about the symmetrical stud placement causing install issues. I've never thought about that before, I try to keep everything symmetrical and the same that way 2 of the same letters have the exact same stud placement, but I never thought about being able to flip letters upside down on accident.

I did manage to rig up a CorelDraw LED layout plugin to help automate my stud placement some, its not perfect but it gives me a decent starting point to save me some time during setup.

For the OP - sorry to answer your question with a question......... how do you make your patterns for those letters? When you're drilling 1/4" holes for studs, are you adding pads on those locations or tapping the holes manually after?

Been wanting to play around with making letters in house w/ studs and patterns but can't quite wrap my head around the workflow.

As for this, I normally drill the holes in the back of my acrylic letters, and use threaded heat inserts that we melt into place with a soldering iron, you can direct tap the acrylic holes too but Ive had alot of issues with the acrylic breaking or studs going thru the letter faces during install so we opt to use the metal threaded inserts. Then in Flexi I convert all those circles to cross marks and send a pattern to my plotter that we just draw on brown paper with the pen.

 

[JBurton]

I see your point about the symmetrical stud placement causing install issues. I've never thought about that before, I try to keep everything symmetrical and the same that way 2 of the same letters have the exact same stud placement, but I never thought about being able to flip letters upside down on accident.

Just an example at ISA in vegas last year:

Highlight from ISA

Had to pass this sign multiple times on the way to the trade show floor, as did 10k other attendees.

www.signs101.com

 

[ChaseO]

At any rate, in corel, I draw a circle, click and hold while I drag it around tapping space bar to drop copies where I want them.

I've been using Corel my entire life and I didn't know about the spacebar trick. Thanks!

 

[JBurton]

I've been using Corel my entire life and I didn't know about the spacebar trick. Thanks!

Two that took me far to long to discover:
1. Click and drag to select, you can move the initial selection point by right clicking while still holding left click, makes selecting singular things within another object easier.
2. ctrl+click will select individual elements in a group, so you can change the properties of one object in a group without ungrouping.
There was a thread that I think turned into a 'favorite shortcuts' thread a while back, it's probably lost to the chaos at this point.

 

[White Haus]

Yup, here's one I knocked out yesterday, this one is to be tapped for 3/16 studs. You can either plot or print your pattern on tyvek if it's long or complicated. I'm a big fan of a + or X for the mounting pattern, you can make them as big as you like and they are still super accurate, even with a hole ripped in the center. A small circle disappears once you start drilling, and a larger one is hard to find the center of accurately.

Thanks for the info, that's super helpful! Going to experiment a bit with this as soon as I get a chance.