New Feature: Text path

jnewth_onshape

Here is my latest custom feature: Text path.

The purpose of this custom feature is to lay out characters, words, or number sequences following a geometric arrangement (clock faces, wheels, dials) or alignment.

You can watch a demo video here: https://www.loom.com/share/19705d168c314cedab26787a13961b64?sid=2e4d09f9-bae3-4f08-857d-38b7ea599fa2

You can get the feature here: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/4e187c2b2f7f4974f4e2b612/v/04e7ad76e7b3e4008b7632cc/e/8639f00c4f54af50704861a9

Some common examples (arranging numbers for a clock):

Or arranging numbers along a slider track:


But it can work on most surfaces, even irregular ones:

Let me know what you think!

S1mon

Nice!

I could have used this a while ago:

S1mon

As a side note, if you need to tweak kerning, you might still want to use the Surface Text custom feature. It doesn't do the sequences of numbers or handle some of the cool options of Text Path, but it will lay out text on a curve.

Maybe Text Path could add kerning too?

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/cfec40e2b66bb4ddb2f3414b/v/3f1bcca2812d650a51c9960d/e/c8e6602fb08acac97a10a38e

GWS50

Thank you this will come in very handy. Just did a job laying out text which I hd to do manually....as you can imagine it tool a while!

jnewth_onshape

@S1mon Is kerning useful for this type of tool? I assumed if users needed that level of text control, they would be better suited to a purpose-built application like Illustrator, which can generate assets to then be imported. If this is a poor assumption please help me to understand what level of text control is required. I mostly wrote this to meet my needs (similar to the mold inserts you shared above - a great use case) but would be happy to expand the featureset as needed.

@GWS50 Yes, Onshape's text tools are good enough for laying out one or two strings or characters, but for number sequences or geometric arrangement of different text elements, I think this is a better tool. Or at least that was the hope

MichaelPascoe

Dope! Thanks for sharing!
Nice icon too

S1mon

@jnewth_onshape

With kerning:

without:

One could argue that this is a font problem, not a need for kerning. The gap between the 'A' and the 'D' looks like a mistake without adjusting the kerning.

jnewth_onshape

@MichaelPascoe "Good artists borrow, great artists steal" -- me, i just made this up now. 

klaus_krämer

Great work! Hope it'll come soon as a tool.

I have worked with surface text, with which I have some problems. I'd like to "carve" the letters 0.4 mm deep into a surface and then extrude these new surfaces again for 0.4 mm to be level with the surface again - but as seperate parts. It's for text on the first layer and non protruding text.

With Surface Text I haven't found a way to do this yet. Text will always stand out from the surface.

Is Textpath capable of "engraving" text as seperate paths? Something like that:


The Text has first been removed / carved into the body surfeace and the next step is filling the removed letters with extrusion mode "New", to get all letters as seperate parts. Thus I can use different tools in my printer (Prusa XL) to print text in different colors - smooth an not protruding.

jnewth_onshape

Hi @klaus_krämer

Because text is (in my experience) sort of weird to work with, I didn't make a lot assumptions about how designers will use the text. In fact, the default Text path behavior is to not produce parts at all - just sketches:

 If the user wants to create parts, they select the "Create solids" option:

From there, you can do a boolean subtraction to subtract the text from the base part, but select "Keep tools" to leave your text bodies:

And then you get what you want:



Alternatively, you could just create the Text path sketches, then re-use the sketches, once for engraving, once for extruding.

klaus_krämer

Thanks, @jnewth_onshape ! I appreciate your help.

While you were typing I texperimented a little more and found the sketches. From there all has been easy ...  :



I know, I'll love that feature!!! 

klaus_krämer

I wasted lots of time to find out how these paths can be created:

1. Created a new plane
2. Created a sketch on that plane with a simple line
3. Extruded a surface from that line into the cylinder
4. Created the path by creating an 'intersection curve' of the cylinder surface and the newly created surface (from point 3)

Whether that's the most elegant way - I doubt it, but eventually it has worked out after some desperation ...

eric_pesty

klaus_krämer said:

I wasted lots of time to find out how these paths can be created:

1. Created a new plane
2. Created a sketch on that plane with a simple line
3. Extruded a surface from that line into the cylinder
4. Created the path by creating an 'intersection curve' of the cylinder surface and the newly created surface (from point 3)

Whether that's the most elegant way - I doubt it, but eventually it has worked out after some desperation ...

You can use "projected curve" to skip the extrude... Or you might get better results using the "wrap" tool

jnewth

Hey @""klaus_krämer"
As @eric_pesty intuited: I used a projected curve to transfer a line on to the surface:


if you open the doc containing the featurescript, go to the "examples" folder and you can see how I created all the CAD used in the photos and video. 

jnewth_onshape

I am pleased to announce "Release 3". Same document but make sure to get "Release 3": https://cad.onshape.com/documents/4e187c2b2f7f4974f4e2b612/v/a94c2b1949ec131c8d9eb61f/e/bbfe4eb9f6b097e2ab503d67

Note: Updating existing "Text path" features will likely change them geometrically so verify the results after updating existing features.

1. The feature now has kerning-like position controls:

2. The feature has a new set of orientation controls and a new angle orientation manipulator:

3. "Text path" has been renamed to "Text" for brevity and features now auto-rename based on input.

4. Solids can be created as individual parts or a single closed composite solid.

5. UI has been simplified to group related elements.

6. Text can now place a single instance (that is, you can use this custom feature as a replacement for sketch-based text). The text will be located at the line's centerpoint by default or at a user-specified point.

Please let me know if you see any bugs or have any feature requests. The kerning control in particular was a challenge and I would welcome your feedback there. Thanks to @S1mon and @GregBrown and the rest of the FS dev community for their insight and feedback.

The reason I developed this tool was largely to meet my own design needs. I make a Magic: The Gathering Commander Counter and needed to position text elements back to detented dial positions and sliders. This feature made it easy to iterate on the design and adjust the dial text orientation while figuring out how to pack everything in to a space the size of a Magic card. If you've done mechanical text layout before, you know what a bear this can be:

Hope you enjoy Release 3!