More engraving issues

[Swede]

Sorry for the slew of questions, but I've got some engraving work to do, and it's been a while.

Engraving software is ridiculously overpriced, IMO, for what it does. I refuse to pay $250 for software that I'll use once a year. So for simple jobs, I've been using a freeware program called "DeskEngrave."

http://www.deskam.com/download.html

You select a font, some parameters, type a line of text, and it outputs G-code which does the job. But the issue - windows fonts. If you want to use a fancy font, Deskengrave will allow it, but keep in mind, the fonts are not stick fonts, they are enclosed shapes. In other words, an "O" is going to have an outer oval, and an inner oval, sometimes spaced by some tiny amount, like less than 0.001". This actually works OK, but what happens is, the letters tend to be a bit thick, and a line of text ends up being much longer than it should.

I found a guy who created some stick fonts for windows. Stick fonts means the letter "l" for example, is one G-code line, one straight cut, regardless of size. All other letters are similar. They cut just like you'd write with a pencil. But frustratingly, they are still way too long dimensionally. For example, the text

"Westlake, TX, USA"

in letters only 1/8" tall, stretches a full 1.6" in length, when it should be engravable in a 1" piece of real estate. More compact is what I need.

For those of you who CNC engrave - what do you like to use? How do you do it? DXF files? Special software?

 

[stevehuckss396]

For those of you who CNC engrave - what do you like to use? How do you do it? DXF files? Special software?

I use DeskEngrave to create my text and save it in DXF format.

My cad program wont open the DXF so I use alibre to import and export the DXF. Alibre can read the DeskEngrave format and rewrite in a format that Cad can read.

Now I draw the surface of what i'm engraving in cad and put the text (and pixs) on the surface the way i want them.

Then I use CamBam to create the Gcode.

The extra step of importing and exporting sux but DeskEngrave is a free program so i'm good with it.

DeskEngrave and CamBam were used for both the valve covers and air cleaner.

 

[George_Race]

I do a lot of engraving in both aluminum and plastic. You can see examples on my web page: www.mrrace.com/Products/
I work in CamBam to setup and create the gcode for engraving, and have created a group of single line .ttf type of fonts that you can install in windows.

Here is the address of the CamBam forum where they were posted and discussed.

http://www.cambam.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1557.0

There are 9 stick fonts in the set plus I added a new set a week or so ago. It is on page 4 of the forum addressed above.

You can find examples on my web page of the first 9 fonts.

http://www.mrrace.com/CamBam_Fonts/

I have used these fonts to cut letters down to a height of .1" and they look great.

Hope this helps,
George

 

[stevehuckss396]

But frustratingly, they are still way too long dimensionally. For example, the text

"Westlake, TX, USA"

in letters only 1/8" tall, stretches a full 1.6" in length, when it should be engravable in a 1" piece of real estate. More compact is what I need.

Take a look at this and see if it will help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerning

 

[Swede]

Hi George, I found your stick fonts on another forum. They are great! Glad to talk to you in person. The installed perfectly, and while they look funny when used on the computer - like, the closed letters are filled in - they work perfectly. Deskengrave --> G code --> Run. The only issue I have, and this has nothing to with your fonts, but with computers in general, is that the letters seem to space more than they need. But I truly appreciate them. Is there any way to make their spacing a bit tighter? I know nothing about windows fonts.

I found two other Windows TT stick fonts if anybody wants them.

Steve, I KNOW I see a deHavilland crankcase casting in one of those pictures! Did you finish it? Nice engraving, I like the simplicity of Deskengrave. It is possible to execute more than one line at a time by splicing deskengrave NC files together, and hand-writing a bit of X and Y repositioning between the files, so as to drop down as needed. I do need to explore the use of DXF files more for text engraving. I use Flashcut, and it has a pretty powerful DXF --> G-code function built right in. I use Rhino3d and VisualMill for more complex tasks. Rhino can display text and it can be processed to g-code, but it has the standard issues with Windows fonts, namely, the use of closed polylines for even the simplest letters.

Thanks for all the replies. If anyone else does CNC engraving, I'd love to hear how they do it. And those cutters I linked, again, they are a real bargain and work so much better than pyramid bits so long as you can get the RPM's up.

 

[Tin Falcon]

mach 3 has a simple engraving utility built in it allows for font sizing and has a dozen or so fonts to choose from have played wit it a little bit
tin

 

[stevehuckss396]

It is possible to execute more than one line at a time by splicing deskengrave NC files together, and hand-writing a bit of X and Y repositioning between the files, so as to drop down as needed. I do need to explore the use of DXF files more for text engraving.

Thats why I go to cad with the DXF files. Again I also like to draw to scale the surface that i'm engraving. This way I can see what i'm going to get. I can add multi lines and pictures. I can make things bigger and smaller and set the origin (X0,Y0) for setup. It has worked well for me so I just do it this way every time now.

You could also select all the letters and scrunch them together like you want.

 

[George_Race]

Swede, in answer to your question about character spacing.

I use CamBam for all my engraving setups.
First I select a font, then a starting size.
I then "plant" it on the grid. Once there CamBam gives you several options for the entered text.
One's of interest to you would be:
Character Spacing
Line Spacing
Character Height

Those are all variables and just using the Character Spacing you can really fine tune how much width a line of text takes up.

If you don't have CamBam, you can download a full working copy. Even after the trial period expires you can still generate at least 500 lines of GCode. That would be way more than you would ever need for some simple one line engraving.

Hope this helps,
George

 

[shred]

I've used the Mach 3 utility and it works pretty well, though John S had a little writeup on how to use it properly that's well worth reading.

I also have some stick fonts I got with DeskCNC way back when. I don't use the program much, but the fonts are portable. These days I'm running them through BobCAD.

 

[Swede]

Thanks, guys, I will dig into the DXF aspects a bit to see if I can't find what I need. I suspect my answer will lie there, because I'm not quite ready to swap out CNC controllers just yet.

 

[SmoggyTurnip]

George - I have also used your stick fonts. They are great. Thanks for giving them to the world.

 

[Tin Falcon]

though John S had a little writeup on how to use it properly that's well worth reading.

And where does one find this fine piece of literature?? inquiring minds want to know!!
Tin

 

[shred]

And where does one find this fine piece of literature?? inquiring minds want to know!!
Tin

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/write.pdf

amazingly enough (I was sure I'd have to dig for it), the first Google hit for 'stevenson mach writer wizard' got it.

 

[Tin Falcon]

thanks
Tin

 

[Swede]

As a follow up, the stick fonts work great, and importantly, everything is very easy to do going from DXF --> g code in terms of spacing. For example, I was able to take a line of text that would have been 4" and easily compress it into 2.5", and still have it look good.

As usual, great stuff guys. Good resources.

 

[Simon0362]

Swede,
I back up everything the others have said about CamBam and George's stick fonts which are brilliant.

You referred to a link for cutters but I cannot find it in any of the posts - am I just being dim or has it been deleted?

Simon

 

[Swede]

Hi Simon

The guiy on eBay I've bought from is named supermario-au and sells a large variety of carbide cutters that are shipped from China. The shipping is remarkably fast, 7 to 10 days max, and the price is very right.

Here is a current link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130601866508#ht_3176wt_905

Item 130601866508

These are beautifully ground and cut much better than the "pyramid" style cutters.

 

[Simon0362]

Thanks Swede, I will try them when I next need some cutters - which is usually about half way into a project!
Simon