Engraving Dolphin Full Text

[ImanCarrot]

Hi all,

Any ideas how to get Dolphin to engrave text and remove the material inside the text?

What I mean is, when I engrave it mills around the outside of the whole letter and doesn't remove the material in the middle of the letter. So if I was engraving an "O", it would go round the outer circle and then go round the inner one but not remove the material between the outer and inner circle. Hope that makes sense!

Or, alternatively, is there a way to leave raised text please?

Many thanks in advance.

[metalworkz]

Hello,
Would a single line font be better for this? I sometimes redraw the font to the center line to eliminate the double line which most of the time only causes more burr when the toolpaths are close or the size is small. Then with the single line font you can use a deeper cut or more angle to create a wider engraving if needed.
I did see an engraving program noted in the Product Announcements that claims to mill out inside the text, not sure if it is CNCWrite, check the Announcments page. I would like to have an option for this too or at least more single line fonts available without having to draw it up for the occassion, but don't know if Dolphin includes an option like this.
Regards,

[ImanCarrot]

Thanks for the reply, but the stick fonts are too clunky. I've tried everything. Importing from Autocad, from PSP, from DXF, and changing BMP from DXF files. I tried searching this site and the whole net for anything about this too-I'm tearing my (now grey) hair out.

So I decided in tru engineer style (I can hear the "Uh Oh's" already) to re- install Dolphin and now I am totally Fu***d Up Beyond All Repair.

[Edit]Gonna go for another re-install, trouble is I got 8 different CD versions of Dolphin and 2 different security disk... sigh is nothing ever easy You'll probably see a new thread here shouting HELP! in about an hour lol

[metalworkz]

I just use the font I like for the particular job and after I draw it in Partmaster export it as .dxf to Autocad and go in and redraw the letters and numbers as a single line font on the center of each character. This is time consuming and probably not feasible for a rush job but it does turn out pretty good as the font will basically look the same except it is a single line instead of 2 lines so close they break into each other and cause excessive burring in some areas. If I don't need the engraving real small a lot of times I just use the double line fonts for the time savings. Now if a person would find the font they prefer and go ahead and redraw it as single line on center I wonder if it is possible to save it as a font to use thereafter?
Regards

[andre-dolphin]

If you have Level 3 PartMaster, you can mill the inside of text characters using Vs9 or later. In the Engrave dialogue check the box "Area clear each character". You will need to use a small diameter tool of course.

You could also machine the text as "Islands" - see the download movies page of the website for an example.

Vs10 contains new "stroke" fonts that use bezier curves, this produces smoother characters especially on larger point sizes.

Contact your dealer for upgrade information if required.

Best Regards
Andre

[ImanCarrot]

Many thanks, I'm running version 7 so I'll need to upgrade I guess.

Got a quote from the Scotland office and it seems quite reasonable. They certainly know what they're doing up there- they had copies of our custom Post Processors and Macros from years ago!

We're in the middle of upgrading all PC's in the factory- re-installing everything and stuff so I'll wait 'till all the bugs this end are ironed out then get the latest version when the bean counters are in a better mood (I've been spending a lot over the past month hehe).