Lately I have been creating a ton of small shapes that are monograms from acrylic to cut with my laser. I like doing the designs in AI but I do my final cuts from Corel Draw. It would work with AI but I am set in my ways. Here is what I do.
1. Create the type, 2. after selecting,Ctrl+Shift+o converts to outlines, 3.Pathfinder make 1 path, 4. Object,Path,Offset Path x whatever I need for the piece. I delete the original and use the thickened, heavier piece.(helps keep them from breaking) 5. I add eyelets for findings etc using the pathfinder tool with 1/8" ellipses with a 1/16" hole for the finding to go through. Sometimes I will have 50 different monograms in several different colors and 3 sizes. I put the lot of them on an artboard the size of my laser table with color fills. I export the file as a PDF into Corel. There, I make sure my lines are all "hairline" weight and separate into layers by color. Then we cut them a color at a time.
The AI tools make this a fairly quick process, faster and easier than Corel, as I now have done it in both programs. Corel, though, is better at handling the cutting process imho.