Hello we make Sign letters with LEDs set inside, what i want to know is there a quick we of doing this.
For example say a letter F, we want to go inside the stroke path 3mm then add circles 3mm diametre with a gap of 1mm basically going all around the inside of the stroke of the letter, so we can cut the letter out on our laser cutter and cut the 3mm holes for Led's to be inserted. it is at the moment very time intensive manually adding these circles and was wondering if there was a quick way to do it.
If you wanted to do this semi-manually, you might do something like:
I have never used it myself, but you might want to look at Alexander Penkin's LED Tool to see if that might do what you want.
As I see it, there are a few ways to accomplish your goal, but simple? No. Quick? Maybe faster than what you are doing now. (Time is money!)
1. Do a Blend of 3mm circles along a path that you draw inside the letter. i.e.: Draw a path, 3mm inside the letter, create two 3mm circles then activate the blend tool to create a series of circles from the pair of 3mm circles, and place them along the new, inside path. Adjust the number of circles, up or down, as required. Repeat for each letter in the sign. Or...
2. Create a spray pattern, consisting of one 3mm circle. Save that as a custom spray pattern. Now, inside your letter, create a path, 3mm offset from the letter edge, and then use the spray tool, adjust the spacing between spray objects to 1 mm (plus th 3mm diameter of the circle) and apply to the created inside path. And...
3. Least useful, as this will work only with the vertical or horizontal portions of the font characters (not letters like 'O', 'C', etc) is to create a pattern of 3mm circles, 1 mm apart, both horizontal and vertical. These can be Power Clipped inside the letter. Again, this will work on letters such as 'E', 'F', 'H', etc. But no the round letters. So this method is only partially useful.
You may want to look at some macros that others have come up with, especially the ones for electrical light layout or for rhinestone applications. (Rhinestone layout is very similar to what you are doing with the letters on your signs.) There are several CorelDRAW macro authors around and I believe that they will offer suggestions as to which macro could best suit your needs.
Are you in the united states? If so you'll need to be a U.L. certified manufacturer to make sell and install these letters.
Good Job we aren't in the USA then isn't it
I'd check the local laws before you invest too heavily. In general the letters need to be 5" deep with a minimum of 1 1/4" stroke to hold the leds. Depending on the quality of the bending equipment. The trim caps and faces need to be set 1/4' to 3//8" larger than the cans themselves.
We use simply vector drawing and export PDF or EPS if the sign is over 200 inches.