If I wanted to break up this closed vector, in hopes that I could get CC to just follow the outside of the letters but not cut the profile at the top of the stock, how would I one go about that?
Node editing mode seems like a likely place, but it wants to keep the object enclosed.
Carbide Create doesn’t have the ability to convert a vector from closed to open — you would either need to export as an SVG to edit in a program which could do this, or edit the file so that you could then punch the original out of an offset copy to make closed geometry which would have the desired result.
the waste space inside the a was too delicate to leave to a contour operation. Turning it into a closed vector for pocketing early in the cut was challenging.