(probably) Silly n00b cut vinyl question!

[CropMarks]

OK- I needed something to test the waters on this cut vinyl, both for myself and my clients, so I got a cheap Seiki cutter that does a pretty good job, I've scrolled out a bunch of internal stuff and a few vehicles for people (so I'm not TOTALLY inexperienced- just mostly!)

I'm running the FlexiStarter software and here is the issue I'm having:

I'm doing a simple one color vinyl app on a 4x8' sheet of pvc. My client wants the typeface to be nice and bold. When I do my illustrator layout, I'm adding a thick stroke to get the bold effect, but when I import the file into Flexistarter, it wants to scroll it out at the edge of the letter, not the outer edge of the stroke. This, of course, causes me to lose the bold effect. (And no, I don't have a bold version of the font as a standalone version...)

Any suggestions on how I can get the software to recognize the outside of the stroke?

 

[J Hill Designs]

convert stroke to path, un-compound, delete inner path

 

[sinetist]

Instead of adding a thicker stroke to the letters convert the letters to curves then offset the paths by the desired amount then delete the original paths.

 

[Tharnpheffa]

Delete the stroke and make an outline however thick you want in Flexi.
It's under Effects.

 

[scarface]

I'd use flexi but the problem your having in Illy is the strokes in the font of the lettering.

Do this....

right click the text, create outlines, look in the appearance tool bar, then double click contents and bring the stroke from the top to the bottom.

This is easier to do in flexi but this is how you do it in Illy.

 

[CropMarks]

Super cool- you are all rockstars! I have not done it yet, but all of your solutions make perfect sense to this n00b...
:U Rock:

Thanks for the help.

 

[CropMarks]

convert stroke to path, un-compound, delete inner path

Thanks, that's what I ended up doing and it worked great!

Delete the stroke and make an outline however thick you want in Flexi.
It's under Effects.

hmmm... this sounded good, but when I took it into flexi and went to effects, the only option I had was "contour cut", which basically showed me an outline but did not seem to give me any control over it...?

Thanks again everyone, my sign is made and I learned something new!

 

[Mosh]

Before you cut look at it in the wireframe mode. That is what the cutter is going to cut.

 

[splizaat]

CropMarks -- If you are outlining something to make it thicker you can stroke it, select it then Object>path>outline stroke. Then you need to use pathfinder to merge it all together into one thick piece....