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Engraving text

Engraving text

It would be great if there were a CAM option in 2D tracing or 2D engraving whereby the tool could follow the center of the font, rather than running around its perimeter. The result would be akin to stick fonts. This option is available in SolidCam for SolidWorks.

18 Comments
daniel_lyall
Mentor

It is meant to cut down the center of the text are you selecting the faces of the text or the text.

 

If you have extruded the text you need to select the bottom faces of the extrude.

 

If the letters are there you just pick them.

 

if you pick the edge of the extruded text or the faces all the text is on it will cut around the outside of the text. 

fuso152
Participant

None of that (I think), the text is not extruded, it is on a surface and needs to be engraved.

 

Here's what I want to do...

 

Image 3-14-17 at 4.15 PM.jpg

 

... and here's what F360 does...

 

Image 3-14-17 at 4.45 PM.jpg

 

Here's what I did using SolidCam in the past using a regular font and the option to track down the center of the font...

 

IMG_3948.jpgIMG_3945.jpg

 

Here's a ling to the video of the engraving...

 

Engraving the fuel caps

 

 

daniel_lyall
Mentor

@fuso152 Are you able to post the file I will have a look at it, If it's private my email is in my bio.or just add @hotmail.com to my handle

 

I have asked for this post to be moved to the cam forum as it should work how you wont it to work, If it's a not know how to do it on your end we should be able to fix you up unless it's a bug then we can send it up the chain.

fuso152
Participant

 Hey Dan, thanks for the help. 

 
 

I sent you a private email with the file.

 

You’ll see two sketches, one is an SVG of the text I am trying to use, the other is my way of adding text following a curve, one letter at a time, since that is not yet possible on F360 (I added that request to the idea station).

 
In CAM you’ll see a few ways I tried to engrave each sketch using the 2D Engrave and 2D Trace. I was able to get it to make a single line only by reducing the "depth of cut” to 0.005” (I think) for illustration purposes, but I definitely need it much deeper than that, say in the order of 10 to 20 thousands.
kb9ydn
Advisor

Fusion really needs to support stick fonts, but for now it seems to not.

 

 

C|

daniel_lyall
Mentor

@kb9ydn there is a way to BS it to do a engrave op not a V carve op like what you would get if you just selected the letters and hit ok.

kb9ydn
Advisor

@daniel_lyall  There may be.  I haven't messed with engraving much in Fusion and really don't do that much engraving at all to be honest.  Last time I had to do it I used Solidworks/HSXpress which supports stick fonts.  With that you just use 2D trace and select the sketch or text contours, and it just works.  But without stick fonts it's much harder.  Even Solidworks didn't support stick fonts until the last few years (2014 I think), which seems ridiculous.

 

C|

daniel_lyall
Mentor

you can use traces on stick fonts if they are converted to sketches, That's the only gotcha with stick fonts. the OP had it correct in one of his attempts you just have to turn the sketch off and set the view to wireframe to see it in sim. 

 

I am not sure why this post is still here it should be in cam.

daniel_lyall
Mentor

Now what I showed the OP was Not what he needed at all, He needs depth control of the toolpath so it becomes a engrave type toolpath not a Vcarve, what is how it works now with a work around for the depth control.

fuso152
Participant

Hey Dan, I appreciate you trying to help. Perhaps the Fusion team will give us this feature one day (hopefully soon).

kb9ydn
Advisor

@daniel_lyall

I'm not completely following what you mean.  You can control the depth of trace paths in the heights tab and even do multiple Z depths.  I'm guessing it's something else?

 

Anyway I have stick fonts on my PC that I use in Solidworks.  I tried using them in Fusion (insert sketch text) and they look fine in the sketch, but the trace tool path doesn't see them correctly.  The tool paths produced are jibberish.  I couldn't seem to project the text to another sketch either.

 

I haven't tried inserting SVGs but it sounds like that might work once converted to sketch.

 

 

C|

daniel_lyall
Mentor

With the engrave in fusion by default it's a Vcarve that's if you pick the text and hit ok.

 

You can control the depth to a point by moving the bottom height up, this depends on the tool used and it's angle.

for instances if you do a 3o mm text high and use a 3 mm 75 engrave bit you can only limit to 4mm depth, if you use a 1/8 90 engrave bit you can limit it to 2 mm.

if you go up to a 1/4 60 you can only limit it to 4 mm and 90 is between 3 and 4 mm depth.

 

So you have to play with it for sometime to find what tool to use to get the depth you wont.

 

With traces if it is a stick font if there is one line it will just do that, traces to the depth you set.

 

You can do the same thing with engrave on a stick font or a sketch. I use engrave on sketches if I wont the engrave look what is realy a Vcarve/engrave toolpath.

 

And yes it's very confusing they have named it engrave, what gets people all worked up they argue and can't see the forest for the trees.

 

If the renamed it Vcarve/engrave it would help a lot.

 

What the OP wanted was a engrave toolpath with a set depth what was above what you can do with letters (sketches are a different story) with the tool he wanted to use.

 

I was able to show how you get the toolpath down the middle of the text what was the request above, It was not working as he was taking the bottom height above the fail point, he was confused by the name of the toolpath.

 

So the real requirement is for the engrave toolpath to be renamed Vcarve/engrave with a settable depth.

 

If this is done the V carve will be one type of toolpath, then if they had a depth control tick box you would tick that then you would have a engrave toolpath.

Another program I have it's set like this and it's not confusing at All.

 

I need to spend more time with Artcam free to see if that has it, then it's a companion to fusion.

 

I Do quet a lot of Vcarve so I can just work it out in my head, I am use to doing it you might say.

 

The sim of the engrave toolpath in fusion is another story altogether, you have to set the view style to wireframe and if it looks sort of ok it will be, if it looks wrong it may be fine as well.

The sim in fusion is weak, I view it in fusion then I run it through another backplotter and it looks go as gold if it looked ok in fusion sim.

 

You cant rely on what you see in fusion sim it's close to what the toolpath will realy be (this is engrave not the other toolpaths they seem to be fine).

antmob
Contributor
Yes please, this has been brought up a few times in the past but I haven't heard if they are working on it. Hope they do soon.
daniel_lyall
Mentor

@antmob what part do you wont

antmob
Contributor
Hello Daniel,
I would like to see a few features added to the engraving department such
as.... control the direction and order of the tool when engraving, ability
to engrave/ lay text around a given radius, and allow for simple stick text
engraving.
Thank you for you concern,

Best regards,
Anthony Ramirez
promm
Alumni
Status changed to: Future Consideration

@fuso152,

 

Thank you for your idea, this is getting changed to future.  The team has put single line fonts in our backlog and is our solution to this problem.

 

Regards,

 

Mike Prom

fuso152
Participant
Thanks Mike, much appreciated.


Sent from my iPhone
CBB1962
Contributor

Fusion is greatly lacking in handling text and engraving it:

  • Text wrap 
    • Define a text box and allow text to fill the box.
  • Align multiple lines of text to a line (horizontal alignment)
  • The ability to distribute lines between two points (Verticle Distribution)
  • Select multiple lines and change attributes for the selection
    • need to be able to change font, size, and alignment for a set of lines.
  • Align text along a curved path.
  • Easily emboss text
  • Give a warning that not all sections of some letters did not engrave.
    • if you choose a bit with too large a tip it may not engrave the cross-bar of an "A" or the top and bottom of an "O"  - It would be nice to know.
    • give a warning when the interior is not completely cleared.Add the ability to treat the interior of a letter as a pocket and clear the un-machined portions.
  • Engraving tool paths SUCK!!
    • I repeat Engraving tool paths SUCK !!!
    • If you have multiple lines of engraving Fusion will first engrave the O's and 0's then it will jump all around. It is incredibly inefficient. 
      • The path of a drunken pig makes more sense.
      • The developer of Engraving must have said: "Oh well, at least it works..."

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