Emboss text into sphere

[niels_wittje]

Hey all,

I am in front of a problem for which I have the feeling that I am missing some crucial Inventor understanding. I am trying to create a compass card where the compass direction numbers are edged into the surface of a partial sphere, and should go around. Of course, the emboss wrap-to-face fails, but I also tried a 3d sketch projecting the text (no success, as its not a path), converting the text to geometry (no success as I only get single splines which I cant offset), and in general, I am also unclear how to get a workpoint + axis into the sphere to have an exact tangency point for my work surface (some older post in this direction mentioned this as crucial knowledge, which I understand, but the linked ressources are no longer online).

So in effect, I need to wrap the text onto a cone tangent to the sphere at the small circle where it's supposed to wrap around, project it, and emboss. Anybody any explanation how to do this in the linked file?

(I found already this https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/embossing-text-on-a-sphere/m-p/5549594 - but it is not clear to me how this is done, also, I need to have my text not around a great circle of the sphere, but tangent along a small circle...)

Thanks, Niels

[JDMather]

I noticed that your Sketch1 is not fully defined.

Would you be willing to start over from scratch?

Can you Attach image of real world component?

Your Sketch1 should look like this...

[niels_wittje]

Hey,

thanks for thinking about the problem! Yeah, not properly defining sketches is a carlessness I do to often...

Starting again is no problem.

What I aim for is something similar to this picture:

You cannot see it very well, but the actual indication scale inside the compass is actually curved / part of a sphere. There are also devices where it's just part of a cone, but I also dont have an idea how to project this / wrap some text all around it. My current approach would be to do for every number (so every 30°) a sketch surface, and project it somehow. Do you have any different ideas?

[JDMather]

Once you Attach the new file here - I can proceed to the next step.

[niels_wittje]

I recreated it properly constrained (I hope). Furthermore I managed to create tangent workplanes now with a helper sketch. But how do I now get those numbers & markings embossed? (and why can't I select an origin point in sketch 3 to properly constrain the sketch?)

[niels_wittje]

Any more ideas with the constrained design?

[JDMather]

OK, I've got you started.

Be sure to Attach the finished part here so that I can add it to my collection...

[niels_wittje · Accepted solution]

Thank you very much for your help. Attached is my final file (changed the design once more to also do the whole workflow again).

To summarize the process for other readers:

-created a spherical surface

-created a "stop"-surface for the ebossed features by offsetting the outer surface face of the sphere into it by some (in my case) .2mm

-extended that stop-surface via surface extend -> lower edge by 2mm to be able to properly grab it in the extrude/emboss

-created sketch surfaces on the shell by a helper work plane, an axis from the center to my desired latitude and then a work plane via tanget to surface via point

-sketched on this plane, and then cut into it via extrude -> cut until surface

Cheers, Niels