Engraving 3d surfaces

[Anonymous]

Do the engraving routines *REALLY* only work on 2D surfaces? I'm making a torx driver stand and when I try to use the engraving un an angled surface, it just outputs toolpaths on a horizontal plane. Suggestions for how to make this work? looked around the forums and found nada.

Thanks,

Josh

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

Short answer is yes.

it's a 2D Operation.

Long Answer is we could do this before there even was a 2D Engrave.

I made a video on the possibilities: https://youtu.be/ZAcD-ghi9OA

Find your best shot is the 3D Pencil. You'll find the result around 2:50. So here: https://youtu.be/ZAcD-ghi9OA?t=2m50s

[Anonymous]

Hi Laurens,

I appreciate the idea, however the surface isn't flat to the Z axis, so none of those seem to work with a chamfer mill. I kind of gave up and used a 1/32" ball mill and the 3D pencil path as I knew it would work-ish, but got predictably crappy results because the corners aren't sharp like I needed. Hoping someone has a way to make this work with a chamfer mill.

Chalk another one up to Autodesk failing to improve/incorporate basic items that have been requested for years #SMDH

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

@Anonymous

Actually, haven't heard anyone complain that the engrave only works 2D.

So not too sure if that this is a basic item that has been requested for years.

But if you can share the model I can see if I can help program it.(Even if it's just for reference for a next project.)

[ArjanDijk]

@Anonymous, have not heard the request before from any of my customers. You must keep in mind that HSM is CNC milling for machineparts and includes some engraving possibility's, just as Type 3/ArtCAM  is CNC software for engraving and included some machining strategies.

I tried something in your example and Pencil does not really help out. If you have a multiaxis machine you can try BETA mode where Engraving is enabled for 4 axis. Thats the closest you can get I think.

I'm afraid that your request is not one that many customers share, but you can support me by voting on this idea which will add to the focus on engraving or start your own idea and see how many users face the same issues.

[ArjanDijk]

Have your tried tapered endmill? The results seem ok.

[Anonymous]

look at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJjKEMaUsxI