Can I do stick font engraving in FUSION?

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to machine along a single line path in fusion360?

I am used to doing stick font engraving, where I only draw the centre line of the tool path. Not by rendering the full 3D V shaped channel of the finished piece of work.

[LibertyMachine]

First off, welcome to the forums!

To answer your question, yes and no. No, Fusion doesn't have any single stroke fonts. However, the fonts are pulled from your fonts directory, so if you can find an actual single stroke font, you can install it and you might be able to use it. I know MasterCam came with a really nice single stroke. Wish I had made a copy of the font to bring over (if that was even possible)

However, using a regular font such as Times New Roman, you can play with the depth of the cut and it will end up making a single stroke, although it will be in a V-Carving fasion (variable Z depth) Check out this screencast I made a while back:

[Anonymous]

How about if I import a DXF of some text generated by another program like NCPlot StickFont 

So are you saying that the CAM can understand that a single line can represent a channel, where the tool follows the line in a single cut with no offset?

[LibertyMachine]

Inputting a dxf from NCPlot StickFont should work just fine. Mind you, I've not done it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work, as long as it's actually importing dxf lines that are A) connected to each other, and B) not spline segments. Those can be rather annoying to deal with.

To answer your second question: My example that I gave in my screencast was showcasing how Fusion will detect the width of "text", I say text, but basically what we are looking at are 2 offset contour lines/arc. The same principle would apply to filigree work, scrolls, crosshatching etc (the other day was a gentleman doing a QR Code). In the case of my example, the Times New Roman font is a double line font. If the tool goes deep enough, it will hold to the centerline and make a single stroke of it, however, it will be at varying z depths.

If you are bringing in a true single line font as a .dxf, I would want to use the Trace function. Selecting the entities may be a bit of a chore, as it's not something that I believe will be automated. Hopefully it's not the Gettysburg Address...

[LibertyMachine]

Ok, so I just tried NCPlot. It works, but it's not the best, imo. The fonts are saved out as straight lines, no arcs. So, a 0 is basically 8-10 straight line moves. Close, but may not be what you are looking for. Furthermore, it was a tedious process selecting the chains for Trace. The ones that are open ended, I had to select. Click again. Select more entities to add to it. Select Accept Current Contour. Repeat. For each letter.

@al.whatmough and Fusion team, we need a true single stroke font that we can use for quick part identification, not pretty v-carving 🙂

[matthew.nichols]

Here is a link to a thread that has a true type font that I have used for HSMWorks
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/machining-discussions/engraving-help/m-p/6093571

[LibertyMachine]

@matthew.nichols That is nice to see that HSM has the ability. However, using that font in Fusion results in text that barely shows up on screen and no entities to select for engraving. Moreover, you can't select it to "Explode Text". So, perhaps it needs to be asked that Fusion adds support for this font?

[Anonymous]

Pretty V-carving is not pretty if you are after a classic raw engineered look. Here is a link to the product that I am making. 

[LibertyMachine]

Oh! Well, will the text always be the same, or will it go through many different changes? You really could do what you want with an .svg import, I think:

[Anonymous]

Would it be difficult to make my own true type stick font from scratch, and make part of the FUSION library? Sorry I am new to CAM, I need to do some more reading before I can fully understand your answers. You are very helpful and I am throwing ideas about without full knowledge of this process.

[supernetdude]

Did you ever figure out how to do the text in Fusion? I saw your post and your chaos engine and that is exactly what I'm trying to do. I tried using cambam font that I found that is single line, but fusion doesn't recognize all the lines. If I type "TEST FONT" it ends up as "T ST  O T". Just curious if you purchased a font package to accomplish this. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Yes I did. I used used Stick Font By NCPlot. I imported the DXF of the text. I then redrew the text by tracing over using the each letter to make the lines smooth using the spline tool. I did this part in Rhino a long time ago, but in sure it can be done in fusion. I then exported that DXF to Fusion.

I used the Trace tool in the CAM setup, not the engrave tool. It is the axial offset that determines the depth of cut. The engrave tool is used for sophisticated v-carve engraving, it is not good for doing stick fonts.

It was HughesTooling who showed me how to use trace to do engraving. You can see his screen cast in this link

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/computer-aided-machining-cam/engrave-missing-some-curves/td-p/6904094...

Btw crazylegsnick is my old account that I could not remember.

[Lonnie.Cady]

Are there any plans to come up with a "real" solution to this that does not involve importing geometry?

[fdboswell]

Any update on this issue?

[LibertyMachine]

Stick Fonts will likely be coming soon(ish). There should be an updated roadmap coming out this month that may have more info. 

[randyT9V9C]

Like @LibertyMachine mentioned stick fonts have FINALLY been accepted to be included in a future release. To be clear, engrave is what I'd call v-carve. For stick fonts you would use trace. Importing a DXF/SVG of your text is the best option at present. 

They recently have combined all the stick font requests over the past couple years into a single thread and marked it as Accepted. Yeah!

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation-request-a/engrave-single-line-fonts/idc-p/7741...

I spent some time trying to find a way for my post processor to handle single line fonts but in the end threw together a simple web based generator that my students use to engrave single line text. It supports multi line, left justified, if you seperate lines using a forward slash. Your welcome to give it a try. Of course it's written for the Fanuc at the school so YMMV. 😉

http://home.lewiscounty.com/~forhire/text2gcode.php

[dheco]

How can I get that to work in Fusion360?

[Anonymous]

@dheco

@randyT9V9C

@fdboswell

@Lonnie.Cady

@supernetdude

@Anonymous

http://www.e-engraving.com/fonts/One_Line_Fonts.htm

I've been using this font for the past few weeks and it's been working just fine for me. I haven't had any issues with it yet.

Just make sure you explode the text before selecting the geometry in CAM.

Sorry for the massive amounts of @ but I thought I'd let you know my work around. No importing documents or anything like that. Just install this font to your computer and restart fusion.

[supernetdude]

Thanks. These show as a demo font. Do you have to purchase the fonts?

[Anonymous]

It's called a demo font because it is meant to be used in engraving demos for various CNC machines. So no you don't have to purchase it at any point.