5 axis engraving

[ADVAERO]

So i have been using the existing method of creating a 5 axis engraving feature ,by creating curve on a plane (text),

then projecting the text onto the surface ,then using wall surfece milling to follow the curve with an engraving ballnose cutter....

however i think this method of 5 axis engraving is severly limited and needs development.

for example if i want to engrave text around a cylinder it will not wrap the text right around the cylinder ,and if the text/curve is long enough so that it would go completely around a cylinder (multiple times) so i would need to set an angle to create helical engraving path around the cylinder then i cant use the 5 axis method and have to set a guide curve.
However that also has a major flaw in that when doing text it does not actually curve the individual letters to the guide curve ...it only projects each letter flat and tangent to the curve.And when the cylinder/surface curve is small

the letters cut deeper in the centre of each letter and shallower (or not at all) at the edges of each letter.

Currently the simplest and fastest method to create text (3 axis)is via the create cureve/text function and using slot fuction to mill it,but for 5 axis engraving its vastly more time consuming to do.
I think there needs to be a simple WRAP text/curve option that wraps text slot around a surface creating a 5 axis slot esentially.or some other method that works directly from the create text window that would also have an option to wrap text to surface which when ticked allows picking surface/s to wrap text to.
This to me would be a huge improvement and significantly faster method than creating text ,then projecting the text then offsetting the surface milling to get the depth etc etc.

Engraving part numbers etc onto parts doesnt actually take very long ...it currently takes longer to program 5 axis text than actually machining it so this is something that clearly has a lot of room for improvement.

[bhorstTGM48]

https://manufacturing.autodesk.com/forums/forum.featurecam.com/viewtopic3484.html?f=7&t=1142

This might be useful to you. I was given this method several years ago. 

[bhorstTGM48]

If you are interested I down loaded the web-page that includes the missing images?

[ADVAERO]

That link is to a post back in 2010...which doesn't work because grooving no longer has any option to WRAP around z axis ...I just tested it and following that old instructions there is no option to tick that says wrap around z axis...
And aside from the point that that method is still not 5 axis engraving (its only 4 axis milling or 3 axis turn/mill)
The text curve window does have an option to select a curve and the text follows the curve which can be around z axis etc or any curve.
BUT as I said in my earlier post this doesn't actually wrap the text ,I each letter is NOT wrapped around the curve and is only flat and perpendicular to the curve.
AS YOU CAN SEE IN THE ATTACHED IMAGES!

[ADVAERO]

Atachments didnt go thru on previous post ,heres the screen shots.

[ADVAERO]

That link is to an old DELCAM post,aside from no longer working: featurecam is 8 years older and now an AUTODESK product with 8 years of development since then.

Under Delcam the software was buggy and seldom updated, now however the software is an excelent package,

BUT still has room for more tweaking to make programming faster.

multi axis engraving is one area that still could do with some work.

currently using a guide curve (from the text curve window) does not curve the individual letters to the curve ...only the whole word leaving each letter tangent to the curve.

And using 5 axis option to project the text curve to a surface is long winded and time consuming .
to my mind WRAPPING text curve to a suface should be added to the text curve window (next to the linear/circular/curve options) that way you create text then tick the wrap option and that brings up the surface picker to pick surfaces to wrap the text curve to.This would be a far simpler and faster programming method to wrap engraving to a surface than the current methods.

[abhishek.juvekar]

Hi @ADVAERO,

Thanks for your contribution to Autodesk Forum.

Yes, there is a feature request for ability to wrap in a 5-axis document. Currently it is limited up to 4-axis or Turn/Mill document. I have added your comments from this forum thread in the same feature request to update the development about it.

Thank You.