Debossed text on curved surface

henrik_viklund

Hello!

I need help creating a debossed text on a curved surface. Since it is not cylindrical, I cannot use the function wrapped and I can’t find any projection tool. Anyone with an idea?

glen_dewsbury

Hear us a sample based on earlier comments from 'improvement's to Onshape Jan 12'.
Hope it helps.
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/369daf3ed32938c733916414/w/cf291417ed98c5293637724f/e/bcb0b19d264de5fd6a86fb98

henrik_viklund

Thanks, but I can’t use wrap on a non-cylindric surface. I guess I’ll just have to stick to shaper3d.

martin_kopplow

You could use a two-step process: First create a cylinder face close to your surface, then wrap text onto that and finally project wrapped text onto your target face.

henrik_viklund

Thanks! How do I project the wrapped text?

S1mon

https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/projectedcurve.htm#StepsCurveD

romeograham

You can use the Surface Text custom FeatureScript to help you (here's the original from @dave_cowden : https://cad.onshape.com/documents/cfec40e2b66bb4ddb2f3414b/v/3f1bcca2812d650a51c9960d/e/c8e6602fb08acac97a10a38e)

This document shows a couple of examples on two different types of faces: revolved and swept along a spline or curve.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/27f4601a50273be5657f20dc/w/8286d17625c8520baa5c6496/e/bc6e90d84fbd19b4971b44f1?renderMode=0&uiState=65b6cf675542ce5ff7165782

Stay with Onshape!

Glenn_Babecki

@romeograham,

I am working on a project where I want to deboss or engrave the text on a flat circular surface.  I can create raised text but I can't create debossed or engraved text.  I can't see any obvious error in my configuration of the Surface Text command.

I loaded Dave Cowden's Surface Text FeatureScript from the link provided in several forum discussions on the topic.  The version I pulled is shown below shows up as a beta version.

I copied your test curve text example and noticed two versions in your example document.

What are the two versions "Surface Text (NG)" and "Surface Text" and I assume it's the "Surface Text" is the one used in your example.  When I go to the respective linked documents for your version of the FS I see you created a "thin wrapper" around Dave's original script.  However, a cursory examination of the at the top of both FS instances in you example document appear to be the same version.

I'm wondering if you did something to fix a bug in Dave's original script.  I'm going to replace Dave's FS with yours to see if it fixes my problem and get back with my findings, but I would like to understand more about what you did.

Thanks,

Glenn 

S1mon

You may want to try this newer Featurescript, "Text Path".

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/23648/new-feature-text-path

Glenn_Babecki

@S1mon,

Thanks for the pointer to this other script.  I was away for a week plus and recently got back to this issue.  I quickly tried it and I'm not sure if it's going to work.  First of all the lack of kerning makes the letter spacing a little weird visually.  I followed the suggested steps to first create the text layout then perform a Boolean to subtract the characters from the surface.  However, it is hard to tell if the characters actually appear engraved as illustrated in the examples in the link provided.  I have to think about this a bit more.

jnewth_onshape

@S1mon
Another vote for kerning, I see.

@Glenn_Babecki
Can you share a document with us? Your use case is exactly what Text path is for, so Im wondering why you aren't getting the result you want. Apart from the kerning (not yet implemented) you should be able to do either of these workflows:
1. create sketches with Text path, then do your usual extrude-remove operation to cut that text in to the subtrate or
2. create solids (make sure they extrude in the correct direction, in to the part) then do a boolean subtraction to remove them from the substrate.

S1mon

@jnewth_onshape

Again, there might be less need for a kerning option if the fonts had better hinting or control over letter-to-letter spacing. The only need I've had for kerning was to fix what looked like egregious mistakes, not to do something special or unusual. If I'm really dialing in kerning to create a logo or something like that, I would do it in Illustrator. 

jnewth_onshape

@S1mon yeah i see your point. Ideally kerning would take care of itself, but given how Text path creates distinct sketches per letter grouping, I need to be able to tweak spacing manually.

Glenn_Babecki

@jnewth_onshapes

I got around playing with this some more.

I tried a "different version" of the Surface Text Featurescript (V9 vs. Beta 2.1.7) for what it was worth, but it didn't seem to make a difference.  I don't know why it wasn't working for me because I've made copies of related test documents with both versions and "engraving" or cut out appears to work in those examples.  Perhaps I should try importing my Parts Studio object into one of those documents and see if it behaves appropriately.

I noticed that the Text Path Featurescript had a new version so I did an update.  I'm not sure that that really did anything because I turned on Translucent Shading and zoomed in to get a better look at the text features, and I think it was really "engraving" all along; it's just not that obvious when you look at the part, I think because of the graphics surrounding the letters.  The kerning is still problematic for me so not clear if I have the resources to fix that with Text Path.

Here is a shared link to the working test bed document which includes both a Text Path and Surface Text options. If you try to select the Cut Out option for the Surface Text version you will encounter a "did not regenerate properly" error.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/1bd63e45e51b55dadc2e87f8/w/90747362e8fb0189c055af35/e/2d78958e544561285ff46b85

Please let me know if you find something that I'm doing incorrectly.

Thanks,

Glenn

jnewth_onshape

Hi @Glenn_Babecki
It can be difficult when creating solids, because they are created "beneath" the surface of the substrate part. One visual check I rely on is to look at the part list before and after. Text path typically creates quite a few parts:



I'll add some kerning-like control in as the next feature enhancement.