Charlie..
It did not work the way you suggested. However I set it up with canvas Z-fill to 0. Then I set each text layer with Z fill to top in this case .75 , inverted was checked and I used blend mode set to Difference. That let all layers be visible at the same time. I was able to set the cut on one operation. This was an add-on font, it looks like some fonts want a different setup, I used 2 different fonts one I had to invert and Z-fill differently to get it to work. I keep forgetting about the blend mode, I'm not 100% sure on its effects I'll have to work on that . You got me pointed in the right direction.
Thanks Joe...