Hi Chad,
I am engraving around the perimeter of a 3.5" disc and want the text all to read from the same side. The text is a company name and the phone number is at 180 degrees directly opposite to the text and I want both to be read from the same side of the disk. I can place the text and mumbers but the phone number automaticallly is oriented to read from the other side of the part? How can I orient the phone number so it reads from the same side? Is there a setting for the engraving so I can get the text/numbers to read from the same direction? If I cannot get it to all read from the same direction I will probably leave it alone, but I would prefer to have it all read from the same side. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Create the phone number as a seperate entity and have it place counter clockwise on the arc.

Here is a sample dwg file.

Hi Wes,

What software are you using to generate the text?


ErnieD

Wes.
select the company name to go outside the 3-1/2" circle
then select the tel no to go inside a circle 3-1/2" plus the hight of the text.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stevenson.engineers/lsteve/files/dolphintxt.jpg

You may have to play with the start point to get it to be equal but it does work.

John S.

Thanks for all the replies to my question. I could not figure out how to do this as DJPLAST had described in the Partmaster CAD, but it would probably have been easier to just draw it in Autocad and import it. Thanks for posting the drawing and the help. I am trying to learn the Partmaster CAD as much as possible for the drawings.
ErnieD I am using the Partmaster CAD engraving with Simple fonts and the Courier selected for this project as I wanted a single line font. I have reworked a double line font to a single line for a previous project but the simple font should be fine for my first sample on this project.
Thanks for the instructions and picture JohnS and I will try it right away. It looks exactly the way I wanted it to be.

To follow up on my earlier question about engraving text around a perimeter so it all reads from the same side, I was trying to do it within the Partmaster CAD engrave text option which I could not find a way to control the orientation of the text. In order to use the suggestions from others I had to use the text option and then it worked much the way JohnS had said. Here is a pic of the first effort:


http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/8689/techmfgne5.jpg

What was the cylce time? Did you use Partmaster for the cut? Was the estimate time pretty accurate? Just curious.

Hi Rodney,
Sorry, I didn't pay attention to the cycle time. Yes I did the drawing and program with Partmaster, but the star shape was done with a different tool which creates a very clean flat bottom engraving. The text and phone number was done with a pointed dual cutting edge 90 degree carbide engraving tool. So I had a tool change and Z heighth adjustment in between also. I think the Partmaster estimated times have been within ballpark so far. I just finished an engraving that is approx. 3.25" x 7.375" 2 passes to .010 deep and the run time was about 43 minutes. I do not remember the estimated time for this part, but I will post a picture....it still needs to be cleaned up and finishing touches done but the engraving is done:

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/9176/sunmoonstar2uu7.jpg

Hi Wes, earlier pic dissapeared for some reason.

Don't know why the picture link got broken, but I reposted it to that message today. The SunMoonStar engraving was taken from a bottom of a Wizard file I got from the CNCZone. I cropped the bottom end of the original file and spent considearble time re-tracing all the elements of the engraving in Autocad as it was made up of too many small segments that caused the CAM program to hang when loading. It is better this way as the toolpaths are not so short and the finished engraving has much less start and end points visable. Might want to investigate software alternatives that will do the work, but I guess there will still be some editing needed even with the programs that are available.

Wes I use Dolphin a lot and think highly of the CAM package, I'm not so impressed on the CAD side but I do have many years on another application that is so much faster to use.

Although Dolphin can do engraving it isn't a primary engraving program and I feel that VCarve from http://vectric/com is a far better program for that application.

It's just horses for courses and with Dolphin and VCarve I find I can get all my work done in the fastest possible manner.

John S.

Hi John,
Thanks for the recommendation on software and the link. I will definitely keep it in mind when I can afford to add software to the stable. I know in the meantime I will be doing it the hard way and I have been reading an article here on the Zone about a tutorial for 3D CNC toolpaths via the use of low cost or free software . I believe the members name is Yohudi, and he has a website dedicated to this end:
http://cnc4free.org/