Hi. I have created a typeface that has been pretty well-received, and I would now like to create more weights of the typeface, as their seems to be a lot of interest in the new weights. However, I can't figure out a good strategy for moving forward.

The process that I followed for the original weight was not very economical and I'm sure it was not the best approach. I designed the typeface in Illustrator, and used the relatively cheap typeface software TypeTool to create the actual typeface. The face is meant to look a little quirky, but I took a pretty geometrical approach to building it -- I know the exact rounding of each corner, and width of each character and line (with exceptions made for aesthetics, of course).

However, even after following this process, i tried importing the characters into Typetool and the typeface was destroyed. So i had to go in and set up a grid, and then check every single vector point for every character, snapping them to the grid as outlined in this article:
http://www.fontlab.com/contact-and-support/product-faqs/faq-fontlab-type...

I can't imagine doing this for every character that i create from now on. I'm hoping someone can shed a little light on what is the best approach for creating new weights, and how other typography software handles this. For example, do other (perhaps more advanced or high quality) softwares require this type of grid setup for the characters to be imported without distortion?

Is it best to create the other weights in illustrator (which I'm very comfortable with) or do other typeface softwares provide a better method for doing this?

I know this is a very subjective or vague question. I'm just hoping that others who may have faced similar issues can share what they have learned about creating typefaces.

Thanks in advance for any advice you all can give. And by the way, here's the typeface I've been referring to, which is free to download and use: http://derekweathersbee.com/franchise/