Michael wrote:
Normal TrueType fonts are set up to be a filled area instead of a single central curve line, but I think that there are some out there for CNC that are made up of only central lines and not filled.


This is exactly what I want to do: Reduce the original truetype to a a central curve line.
Freeform works but it is very tedious.
The best result I achieve so far is by using Offset and adjust the distance value then deleting extra lines. But it still require a lof of manipulation and does not equally well for all font.
MOI being what it is for miracle could there be a single magic button somewhere to do do this :)
Gaston

Hi Gaston, I see what you mean - produce the skeleton from an existing font.

No unfortunately there isn't anything built in to MoI to help you calculate that, and I probably will not be able to do anything for that anytime soon... It's a rather difficult problem to solve well with an automatic algorithm, fonts are not restricted in any way to have even thickness in them, and the skeleton may have things like many branches within it (like for example with a Y) instead of just one continuous line.

I think that most of the time when someone wants a skeleton font for CNC they will end up using a font that is defined as a skeleton already in its basic definition.

Like if you find some of those "single stroke" fonts, that's how they are set up - those fonts are not filled-area fonts but defined only by stick-like single lines, like the old style fonts for AutoCAD.

If you could find those kinds of fonts they would be set up for what you need already, rather than trying to reverse engineer the skeleton from a "filled area" style font.

- Michael

Thank you Michael,
For the record here is the solutions I found to use this kind of font in MOI3D.

1. For fancy shape, resembling existing fonts (filled area style font), I use Offset to reduces the font to a skeleton with very acceptable result.

2. For simple stick font, install a free program called DeskEngrave by http://www.deskam.com/deskengrave.html
At installation the font Stick40.ttf is added to \Windows\Fonts and therefore usable in MOI3D.

Gaston

Hi Gaston, a few other resources where you may find some stick fonts:

http://www.featurecam.com/general/support/engrave_fonts.asp
http://www.mr-clipart.com/files/freestuff/files/31012101.zip

Some for sale here:
http://www.mr-clipart.com/int/anzeigen_font.php?art_id=2&seite=1&Anzahl=16

There may be something like an extra line added to close the start to end when you use them in MoI, you may need to use Edit/Separate to break it into segments and delete the extra line.

- Michael

Very helpful.
Thank you
Gaston

This not what you are looking for?

Brian

http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=bones

Free Font 3D http://www.armanisoft.ch/webdesign/elefont/Elefont.html

A curiosity!
http://www.alphabetsynthesis.com/

@ Pilou,
> A curiosity!
http://www.alphabetsynthesis.com/

Maybe we can make a MoI community language with these alien fonts, very cool :)

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@DAny
My try :)
And the True Type file result linked :)
So you can decode :D

Happy Halloween !