Raised Text

[roland88]

Hi Guys, I have been trying for a while to find a quick and simple solution to milling a small project which will give raised text like my example shown here.

I can get as far as the design, but everything I try gives me a cutting path which produces the opposite - engraved text.

I have sheetcam, cambam and lazycam (yes, I have no budget). I would appreciate any comments with no/low cost solutions.

My DXF is included for expert perusal

Thanks

[ger21]

You can create the raised text with Elefont, but not the border or background.
http://www.armanisoft.ch/webdesign/elefont/Elefont.html

Then, if you can convert the .dxf to an .stl, you can mill it with freemill.
www.cncportal.com

Accutrans should be able to convert it, it's $20. 30 day free demo.
http://www.micromouse.ca/

There's a lot of free 3D software floating around, although the learning curve might be steep. You might want to look at Moi. http://moi3d.com/

[John S.]

This is how V Carve handles the job.


John S.

[ger21]

I didn't think of doing pocketing. Can't the same thing be done with SheetCAM?

[10bulls]

Hello Roland,

Here it is done in CamBam...

CamBam does not handle 3D dxf surfaces very well I apologise, so it looks pretty yuk when you open it up, but I deleted the unwanted objects which left the letters and outline as good old 2D splines.

I then converted the splines to polylines and joined them.
There are some instructions in this thread on how to do island pockets like this using regions and a pocket.
http://www.forum.cambam.org/index.php/topic,39.0.html

The latest version of CamBam does a much more efficient toolpath now I have added some optimisations.

I've attached my final CamBam file and initial one (after tidying) for you to look at.

Good Luck!

[yohudi]

Originally Posted by 10bulls Hello Roland, Here it is done in CamBam... CamBam does not handle 3D dxf surfaces very well I apologise......

Hi there,

I would think you could generate this as a height-map in CamBam using a bitmap.... as well as by use of the DXF file you created..

hope this helps

Danny (aka Yohudi)

[WayneHill]

Use an image carve program and invert the grayscale so the cutter is high on the text area.

[High Seas]

No expert help here - converting dxf to stl. then STLWORK2 (also a free 30 day demo) got the letters not the Oval/ellipse. Heres the output in NC plot (free), and the stlwork2.
http://www.stlwork.com/
If you could save as stl files cuts out one bit of software and step. Took more time to find my software than to do the convert!
Jim

[roland88]

Thanks Guys - what a dizzying array of solutions - and some really good suggestions for me to follow up. It's interesting to see something so simple become complicated. Then again, if it were so simple we would all get bored

It's great seeing my name all over the place too!

[roland88]

Originally Posted by 10bulls Hello Roland, Here it is done in CamBam... CamBam does not handle 3D dxf surfaces very well I apologise, so it looks pretty yuk when you open it up, but I deleted the unwanted objects which left the letters and outline as good old 2D splines. I then converted the splines to polylines and joined them. There are some instructions in this thread on how to do island pockets like this using regions and a pocket. http://www.forum.cambam.org/index.php/topic,39.0.html The latest version of CamBam does a much more efficient toolpath now I have added some optimisations. I've attached my final CamBam file and initial one (after tidying) for you to look at. Good Luck!

I downloaded the latest update to CamBam and tried to follow the guide from the forum. I cannot seem to get the "R" and the "n" to be be added to the region. It looks like they get selected, but when I select the inner oval, then the R and N get deselected.

[10bulls]

Originally Posted by roland88 I downloaded the latest update to CamBam and tried to follow the guide from the forum. I cannot seem to get the "R" and the "n" to be be added to the region. It looks like they get selected, but when I select the inner oval, then the R and N get deselected.

I looks like the message window down the bottom is reporting "can only create regions from polylines". Can you confirm the R and n are polylines?
Can try these shortcuts...
CTRL+A (select all the objects)
CTRL+P (convert all selected objects to polylines)
CTRL+J (try and join all selected polylines...I used join tolerance 0.01)
Then try make the region again.

I hope this helps. If you want to upload the file, I can take a look.