Need Help!- Engraving Text on solid

[lynn mynatt]

Hello again, I need some help engraving some text.

The problem I'm having is engraving the text that is already part of the solidworks drawing. If I use my own text, I do just fine with the bobcad "AFNT04" font...because it actually a single line. When I try doing anything with ANY text that has double lines I get a dual path around the outside of each letter. I'm trying to engrave text into mold faces, so I just need one sweep of the tool along a single line.

Any help?

[BurrMan]

Have you tired to "create a contour" out of your geometry?

[lynn mynatt]

nope...not sure how to do that...but I'll be looking

[Allen123]

So what you are asking is how to create center line text from a double line font?

[lynn mynatt]

exactly, yes.... and I have to do this with..or... from a solid model

[BurrMan]

Originally Posted by lynn mynatt exactly, yes.... and I have to do this with..or... from a solid model

Oooops. Never mind about the contour thing then!

[Allen123]

There is no easy way to do this. What I would do is redraw the text in BobCAD. This would be done with wire frame. You can extract the wire frame from the solid.


Offset the shape to the center half the distance of the width of the letter. You may need to create more that one set of geometry to get what you want. Just like the letter t being made of 2 lines.

If you are cutting on a surface after you create the center line you'll need to project onto the surface that you are cutting.

But wait the letter are cut out of the surface what can i do.

Use the un trim surface feature in BobCAD to get the original surface before the letters were cut out.

Again the hard part is getting the center line for the text.

[lynn mynatt]

thanks for the help. I'll probably just start using the bobcad font and make my own text. That works out pretty good and I've found that I probably have more options with bobcad than we have with solidworks (ouch).

It does make me feel better though that I wasn't "really" goin crazy!

Thanks again!