Bridging Drop Outs

[SignTorch]

bridging is connecting a shape inside of a shape

 

[SignTorch]

typically you'd offset the shape to be bridged to the outside to create a gap around the shape

 

[SignTorch]

then you can nest as two closed shapes - an annular shape outline

or nest 3 shapes - a shape with a dropout

 

[SignTorch]

create shapes to bridge the gap - all must be closed shapes

 

[SignTorch]

bridging is a boolean operation

where you either add or subtract the bridges

add may be called weld or join

subtract may be called trim or clip

typically any two or more nested shapes being bridged must be joined to form a single compound shape with at least one hole

and there will be one dropout for every odd number of nested shapes when joined

 

[SignTorch]

to bridge an even number of joined nested shapes you subtract the bridges

you do not add bridges to even numbers of nested joined shapes

 

[SignTorch]

to bridge an odd number of joined nested shapes you add the bridges


you do not subtract the bridges from an odd number of nested joined shapes

 

[SignTorch]

if all of the shapes being bridged are not closed then results are unpredictable - what happens depends on your software

if any duplicate shapes are joined or bridged then all sorts of weird things may happen - it won't work right

a lot depends on the software being used as to how boolean operations work - you may have to select objects in a certain order or it may be a multi-step process

you really need to know and understand exactly how your software defines and handles nested and joined shapes, and boolean operations

or else boolean operations can be very confusing and frustrating

and if you don't know and understand how your software defines and handles nested and joined shapes then everything will be confusing and frustrating because there is only one way to do it right and a million ways to do it all wrong