Formatting Text

I am trying to figure out a way to either format text in Grasshopper or link a Word file and have the formatting (text wrap, tabs, line spacing etc) modeled and manipulated from the Grasshopper components..

Ultimately I would like to create curves from text body to be CNC milled. I have tried a couple different fabrication components that create single line text for engraving however, this is generally limited to the formatting features of the text panel component.

As much as I have looked and experimented, I can't seem to find a great way to do this, is there a plugin or component that I have missed that might be able to handle some of this? Has anyone done something along these lines?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on October 25, 2017 at 4:22am

Rich text is easy to draw on screen, hard to convert to geometry. GDI+ has some ways to convert regular text (single font all the way) into graphics paths, but it notably lacks high quality formatted text layout.

I have no good solutions for you, except maybe look at vector formats such as svg or pdf or eps, maybe some program in that space allows you to both generate complicated text and extract the vector data.

Permalink Reply by Armin Seltz on October 26, 2017 at 4:39am

I haven't tried it, but svg is basically just an XML file, which you can read in Grasshopper. Whatever you do, don't use Word for text layout. Illustrator (starting from CC) can export as .svg and has great typographic tools for laying out text. If you need even more options use InDesign first. You can easily convert text to vectors in Illustrator. If you have to use Word, export as PDF and import into Illustrator, but it will usually come with lots of unwanted stuff, so its best to use Illustrator from the start.

I am sure there are other alternatives out there, which can handle text layout and exporting to svg like Sketch.

Oh, of course the easiest way would be to just export your vectors to .dxf in Illustrator and open that in Rhino, then referencing the curves.

I don't think there is any way around using professional tools for text layout first and then importing the resulting vectors in to Grasshopper.

Permalink Reply by Anders Holden Deleuran on October 26, 2017 at 4:45am

Inkscape (which is free) comes to mind here, as it exposes the xml directly (using a live xml editor, but also has a sweet Python scripting interface).

Permalink Reply by Armin Seltz on October 26, 2017 at 6:55am

Interesting, didn't know about it, but will check it out right now! Thanks

Permalink Reply by Anders Holden Deleuran on October 26, 2017 at 7:14am

It's pretty great, fully featured and open, but also quite difficult to get used to when coming from Illustrator (I find).

Permalink Reply by Kurt Huizenga on October 26, 2017 at 11:29am

I will have a look at that, thanks for the good word!

Permalink Reply by Kurt Huizenga on October 26, 2017 at 11:28am

Yeah I had thought about using Illustrator to layout the text in single line font, and then export the vectors into rhino. The only issue here for me is that Ai is on the mac side of my computer and I was trying to find a way to do this without having to switch OS back and forth.

Permalink Reply by Armin Seltz on October 26, 2017 at 11:32am

Understandable of course! Illustrator is identical on Win and Mac though!? Or do you only have a license for Mac?

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