Guide

The four systems, and what comes out of each one

The generator does the same thing four different ways: it takes your stroke and builds the path the neon flex will sit in. What changes is the machine that will make it, and that is why the file you get changes too.

If you only read one thing on this page, read this: choose the machine you own first. Everything else follows from that.

How to use it, with drawings The five steps

The four systems

1st generation Solid neon flex inside a 3D printed channel. 3D printer · STL 2nd generation LED strip at the bottom, diffuser silicone on top. 3D printer · STL 2nd gen. for CNC The groove is milled into a sheet, not printed. Router · SVG Laser cutting Mark where it goes, or cut all the way through. CO2 laser · SVG

First, the screen

The generator has two halves and they never change: the settings panel on the left, the sign in 3D on the right. You work down the panel from top to bottom, and the download button is right at the end.

  1. 1Where your drawing comes from. Upload an SVG, type a word, or draw it yourself.
  2. 2Which system you are making. The four cards. This is the first thing to decide.
  3. 3The settings. Size, channel, base, print bed. They open and close in sections.
  4. 4Your sign in 3D. Rotate it, zoom in, light it up. Free and without an account.
  5. 5Download. Always at the end of the panel, and it changes with the system you picked.

The five steps, in order

This is the same in all four systems. It is worth understanding once and never thinking about again.

  1. Bring in the drawing — and make it a stroke, not a shape

    The generator needs to know where the neon flex runs, and that is a line. A filled letter tells it nothing: it says where the ink is, not where the neon goes.

    The three doors are equally good. Type text is the fastest if it is a word, because those letters already come out as a single stroke. Draw takes you to the sign workshop, where you can trace over a photo.

  2. Pick the system before anything else

    This is the decision that rules all the others, because it changes which controls appear and which file you walk away with. The short rule: pick the machine you own.

  3. Enter the measurements of YOUR material

    This is 90% of the problems that reach us. Measure the neon flex you bought with a caliper and enter those numbers, not the catalogue's. A 6 × 11 neon flex and a 6.2 × 10 one look identical in the seller's photo and do not fit the same channel.

  4. Check it in 3D, free and without an account

    Rotate the sign, zoom into the channel, light it up. All of that is free: the account is only needed to download. That is on purpose — nobody should have to pay to check whether their letter works.

    And always light it up before calling it done: switched off you are judging the part, switched on you are judging the sign, which is what your client will see.

  5. Read the material list, then download

    Before the button there is a list that tells you, by name and quantity, what you have to buy: metres of neon flex in each colour, the power supply and grams of filament. It is what you take to the shop, and also what you hand the client as a quote.

One checkbox decides more than any other: «Split closed curves in two». An O or a 0 drawn as a single piece is read by the engine as a filled surface, and comes out solid instead of channelled. That checkbox splits them into two arcs, which is what you would do by hand in CorelDRAW. If your sign comes out like a tray, this is why.
System 1

1st generation · solid silicone

The classic neon flex: a solid silicone tube that press-fits into a channel with walls. It is the simplest to assemble and the most forgiving.

  1. Channel width and depth

    The channel has to be a hair wider than the neon flex so it goes in without forcing and does not rattle. The factory values —6.2 × 10 mm— are for an ordinary 6 × 11 neon flex.

  2. Diffuser cap, yes or no?

    Without a cap you see the tube as it is. With one, the light spreads and the LED dotting disappears. There are three ways to fit it and each assembles differently:

    The internal one is flat, so it can be laser cut from acrylic instead of printed — it diffuses far better than PLA and shows no layer lines.

  3. How the ends finish

    How the channel closes where the stroke ends.

  4. Wiring, mounts and ties

    Where the cable runs from one letter to the next without showing, how it hangs on the wall, and where to put ties so the loose parts of a letter do not come away when you lift it off the bed.

  5. Does it fit your printer?

    You pick your machine from the list and it tells you whether it fits. If it does not, you drag a plane and the sign comes out split where you say, already separated in the file.

What you get

Button
Download STL, at the very bottom of the panel.
File
One .STL with every part already separated.
Opens in
Your slicer: Cura, PrusaSlicer, Bambu Studio, Orca.
Then
Slice it like any part. Press the neon flex into the channel, solder the cables and hang it. No supports: the channel is calculated to print in the air.
System 2

2nd generation · strip + separate silicone

Here it is two pieces bought separately: an S-type LED strip that lies flat at the bottom, and above it a silicone profile that acts as wall and diffuser at the same time.

  1. The channel goes wider and shallower

    And that is not a whim: the wall only has to grip the foot of the silicone, not wrap a whole tube. Factory values, 8 × 6.5 mm.

  2. Turn on the retaining lip

    It is a small step inside the wall that locks the silicone in so it does not pop out. Without it the silicone lifts over time, especially on curves.

  3. Check the fit in the warning

    The generator tells you how far the silicone goes into the channel and how much sticks out. If it says it sits sunken, the wall is blocking its light and the sign will look dead from the side: reduce the channel depth.

  4. The rest is the same as 1st gen

    End finishes, wiring, mounts, ties and bed splitting all work the same.

What you get

Button
Download STL.
File
One .STL, same as 1st generation.
Then
Stick the LED strip to the bottom of the channel, press the silicone in on top and the lip holds it. The material list tells you how many metres of each thing to buy and where to cut them.
System 3

2nd generation for CNC · milled groove

The same second-generation silicone, but the groove is not printed: it is milled into a sheet. The machine changes, the material changes, and so does the file that comes out.

You do not need to own the router. The generator produces the file; any shop with a CNC router does the cutting. If a client asks how it is cut, the answer is: «you take it to a shop with a CNC, it is an SVG in millimetres».

  1. Sheet material and thickness

    Opal acrylic, clear acrylic, foamed PVC or MDF. If you are unsure, opal acrylic: it works by day and by night and hides the milling.

  2. The cutter sets the measurements

    The neon flex cutter is 6 mm in diameter and goes down 4,2 mm. In a 6 mm sheet that leaves 1.8 mm of material under the groove, and that millimetre and a bit is what does the trick: light passes through it and the stroke reads as lit from the front.

  3. Cutting the outline

    The CNC also cuts the panel out following the shape of the text. The outer and inner margins are separate on purpose: on an O, the outer one fattens the sign and the inner one decides how much material is left in the eye before it opens up.

What you get

Button
Download SVG for CNC, with the other download buttons.
File
One .SVG in real millimetres, with two colours inside.
Black
Sheet outline. Cut through.
Red
The groove path. 6 mm cutter, 4.2 mm deep.
Opens in
A CAM program: VCarve, Aspire, Fusion, RDWorks.
Tell the machinist this, without fail: the red line is the CENTRELINE of the groove, not its edge. The cutter runs centred on it —in CAM it is called «on the line» or «no compensation»—. If they read it as the edge, the groove comes out 12 mm wide and the neon flex rattles inside. It is written inside the file itself, but say it out loud as well.
And the order matters: red first, with the sheet still whole and clamped. If the outline is cut first, the piece moves while the groove is being made.
System 4

Laser cutting · mark or cut through

A laser goes through. There is no channel with a floor like the CNC: either you cut an opening from side to side, or you cut nothing and simply mark where it goes.

Acrylic needs a CO2 laser. A diode laser will not cut it: clear acrylic lets blue light straight through without absorbing it, so the beam passes and does nothing. A diode does cut MDF, plywood and dark acrylic.

  1. Decide how the neon flex will sit

    Mark — the sheet stays whole. The laser drops its power and cuts only the protective paper, the width of the neon flex. You peel that strip of paper off and stick the neon flex on top. It is the fastest way and does not weaken the panel.

    Cut through — the opening goes all the way and the neon flex press-fits into it, sitting flush inside the acrylic. It looks better and lasts longer, but it needs a thick sheet.

    You can see the difference in the 3D view: with mark the neon flex rests on top; with cut through it sits inside.

  2. If you cut through, set the grip

    The opening has to come out slightly narrower than the neon flex so it holds. Between 0.2 and 0.4 mm it grips without having to force it. With no grip it falls out on its own; with more than 1 mm you have to push it in hard and the acrylic can crack at the edge.

    The generator also subtracts what the laser itself burns away, which would otherwise eat the whole grip you asked for.

  3. The tabs, if you cut through

    If the groove goes all the way through, any closed stroke drops its island: the O loses its centre and it falls onto the table halfway through the cut. That is why small uncut pieces are left every so many millimetres, and snapped off by hand at the end.

What you get

Button
Download SVG for laser.
Black
Panel outline. Cut through.
Red
The neon flex opening, with tabs. Cut through.
Blue
The width of the neon flex. Mark only, at low power.
Green
The centreline of the stroke, as a guide. Mark only.
Anything that is only marked runs at very low power: just enough to cut the protective paper without biting into the acrylic. It is worth testing on an offcut before committing the good sheet.

So which one do I pick?

  1. I have a 3D printer

    1st or 2nd generation, depending on the neon flex you buy. If your neon flex is a solid tube, first. If it is two pieces —strip and silicone apart—, second.

  2. I have a CNC router

    2nd generation for CNC. Sheet, milled groove and cut-out outline.

  3. I have a CO2 laser

    Laser cutting. Mark if you want to go fast and stick it on top; cut through if you want the neon flex flush inside the acrylic.

  4. I have no machine at all

    Design it anyway and take the file to a shop. Any 3D printing service prints an STL; any shop with a CNC or a laser cuts an SVG. The 3D view is free, so you can show the client the result before spending anything.

Open the generator Watch the videos