Letters pocketed to bottom of stock while keeping center?

[charlo177 (charles g bowen)]

Hey all, digging for some knowledge. I am trying to pocket or contour letters to the bottom of the stock as to leave a cutout. this is so backlight will show writing. i cant seem to find a good way to keep the center of the letters as pictured in attachment. any info will help thanks for the advise in advance.

[charlo177 (charles g bowen)]

[mhotchin (Michael Hotchin)]

Post your C2D file.

If you want tabs, you need to pocket down to the height of the tab, then do a contour pass from that depth to the bottom. However, as a contour, it wont clear the whole width of the pocket.

[mhotchin (Michael Hotchin)]

I think to get what you want, you will need to draw in the tabs (the entire width of the pocket), then use one pocket operation to get down to the height of the tab, then pocket over multiple areas between the tabs.

If this is what you are shooting for and you need more details, let me know and I can post a step-by-step of what I did to get this.

[charlo177 (charles g bowen)]

thats it except maybe for visual thinner tabs and top of stock to bottom so it will show more light and still be strong

[mhotchin (Michael Hotchin)]

If the tabs are top to bottom, then that simplifies things.

Start with your letter, and draw in geometry to show where the tabs will be. If the tab geometry is more than one vector, group them together:
In this case It could just be one rectangle, but showing using multiple:

Select the letter, then the tab geometry last:

Boolean Subtraction, check “Group Output”, it should look like this - blue is what will be kept:

Hit OK, then assign pocket operations:

[charlo177 (charles g bowen)]

yes! exactly sorry for the delay i was figuring that out as well. Thank you so much for the help.

[mhotchin (Michael Hotchin)]

You can do multiple letters at one time, just group all the tab geometry together.

[charlo177 (charles g bowen)]

this is way easier then what i was doing lol glad you replied.

[charlo177 (charles g bowen)]

[Bozo (Bozo T Clown)]

There is a font called Stencil which will do this but it is a different look.

[Tod1d (Tod (with 1 'd'))]

Are the backs of the letters just open, or will you have some kind of diffuser (acrylic, clear poly…)
If you have a backer / substrate you could attach the material to the backer first, then just cut down to the backer.

[cnackers (Chris Nackers)]

@Tod1d

Are the backs of the letters just open, or will you have some kind of diffuser (acrylic, clear poly…)
If you have a backer / substrate you could attach the material to the backer first, then just cut down to the backer.

This is what i was going to say as well, i’d use an acrylic backer so you can do a full cut on the letters without having to leave tabs. That would look way better.