Sign making
Panels, lettering and stencils with their fixing holes and routed borders, ready to cut.
Sign panels and blanks routed, cut or lasered from sheet, with their fixing holes, routed borders and lettering, stencils, and vinyl graphics for them.
What you can design
7 parametric designs come in the library's Sign making folder (File › Run Parametric…): open one, type your sizes and the drawing follows. Open any of them in the viewer to try it.
The trade's tools
For a drawing whose industry is Sign making, the toolbar and Edit › Tool offer these tools beside the general drawing, editing and dimensioning tools. Each is parametric: change a size, or move a point it was drawn on, and what it made follows.
Tab (micro-joint)
Tabs (micro-joints) left uncut in a cut, to hold the part in the sheet.
On the toolbar's Bridge or Tab button
Lead-in and lead-out
A lead-in and lead-out in the waste, where a closed cut starts and ends.
Weed Border
A weed box round the design, a margin out.
On the toolbar's Weeding button
Weed Lines
Cuts across the waste, stopping at the letters.
On the toolbar's Weeding button
Contour Cut
A cut round a printed design, a distance out, for print-and-cut.
Tiling
A design larger than the roll split into overlapping panels.
Colour Separation
The same registration marks on every colour's layer.
Corners
A panel's corners rounded, clipped (dubbed) or notched.
Fixing Holes
Fixing holes in a sign's corners and along its sides, or round it.
On the toolbar's Holes button
Routing Inset
A border routed a distance inside a shape.
On the toolbar's Allowance button
Outline Text
Lettering cut as its outlines.
Stencil Bridges
Bridges holding a stencil letter's islands.
Exports
File › Export › Export… lists these formats first for a Sign making drawing:
And the formats every trade uses:
Machine profiles
File › Send Using Machine Profile sends the drawing to a machine in one click, with the format, options, layer names and pens it needs. These come with the app:
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CNC router (DXF, depth in the layer names)
DXF and DWG
CNC routers through Vectric, Alphacam, Enroute, Fusion or the machine's CAM
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CNC router (G-code, tools from the layers)
G-code
Routers whose control runs G-code (Fanuc-style, Mach, LinuxCNC, grbl / FluidNC)
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Emulator: CNC (G-code)
G-code
ParametrIQ machine emulator
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Emulator: Graphtec cutter (GP-GL)
GP-GL (Graphtec)
ParametrIQ machine emulator
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Emulator: laser (LightBurn)
LightBurn Projects
ParametrIQ machine emulator
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Emulator: laser (SVG)
SVG for Glowforge and xTool
ParametrIQ machine emulator
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Emulator: plotter / cutter (HP-GL)
HP-GL
ParametrIQ machine emulator
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Emulator: plotter / cutter (HP-GL/2)
HP-GL
ParametrIQ machine emulator
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Graphtec cutter (GP-GL)
GP-GL (Graphtec)
Graphtec CE / FC / CE LITE cutting plotters
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Kongsberg table (DXF)
DXF and DWG
Esko Kongsberg (i-cut Production Console, iPC)
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Laser CAM by colour (DXF)
DXF and DWG
CO2 and fibre lasers whose software sorts by colour (RDWorks, LightBurn's DXF import, LaserCut, Trotec Ruby, Epilog)
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LightBurn laser (project)
LightBurn Projects
CO2, diode and fibre lasers run by LightBurn (Ruida, Trocen, TopWisdom, GRBL, Galvo)
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Print and cut (PDF, CutContour)
Dieline PDF (Print-Ready)
Print-and-cut RIPs: Roland VersaWorks, Onyx, Caldera, SAi Flexi
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Sample table (HP-GL, a pen a tool)
HP-GL
Aristo, Elitron, Valiani, Data Technology and other tables that read HP-GL
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Vinyl cutter (HP-GL)
HP-GL
Roll and flatbed cutters that read HP-GL: Roland CAMM-1 (CAMM-GL III, HP-GL mode), Summa (HP-GL/DM-PL), Mimaki, GCC
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Vinyl cutter with camera registration (HP-GL)
HP-GL
Roll cutters with a camera or an optical sensor that a registration extension can drive (here the simulated camera, to try it out)
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Zünd Cut Center (DXF)
DXF and DWG
Zünd G3 / S3 / D3 with Zünd Cut Center
Read more
The help's page for the trade describes each tool, design, report and export in full.
Other trades
Get ParametrIQ CAD
Included in every plan. Install it, activate it, and start with File › New or File › Run Parametric…