Hi davelarson,
In the example above I have letter by letter under the Fracture Object. If you follow my instructions, the Explode and Connect option wouldn’t be needed.
If you use “Explode and Connect” the content under an Fracture Object, the Information for the Phong tag is changed, as the Fracture Object create a complete new geometry. In that way, the geometry is taken as one object and not as a combination out of many. In that way everything becomes smooth.
AS you do all of that only for the Net Rendering, as you mentioned above, you have to create your Letter Objects as you need them. You might suggest to MAXON, that they integrate an option to have a Phong Break where objects where not connected before. Something like that. For the time being with out that, single letters as shown above… or install the font on each render machine, but so far I know, that shouldn’t be needed anymore since quite a while. If you encounter problems with that, please contact the MAXON support.
All the best
Sassi