Letters

[EMike]

I need to machine letters on top of our part.Is there any good books on that sublect? I have Mastercam Mill step by step(book) but does not really show how to do this.I need TIMKEN to be centered as such TIM+KEN (0,0)and it has to be dead-center of the letters.Please help! EMike

[DavidB]

Create.next menu letters.Place where you want them to be.You can create a boundry box around the LETTERS or create a centre point then use this centre point to move geom to your Origin,so as the Letters are dead centre. Contour toolpath cutter comp OFF no Lead in or out.

 

HTH

[Guest]

If you are using MCX you go to Create menu, Letters and fill in the appropriate info (height and what not). The place the letters where ever. The Xform drag, select all the letters, and select move on the ribbon bar. It will ask from where do you want to drag, select the center of the text and then click on the origin (or hit space and type 0,0).

 

As said above, contour the toolpath, set tool, depth all that, comp off and no lead in/out.

[Guest]

Oh BTW, Welcome to the Forum!!!

[HevyMetl]

Welcome to the forum. If you do as stated above, but select drafting fonts, you can go into the drafting options and actually pick the position you want the letters driven from. Type your text, select a drafting font (Drafting (current)Font), under parameters select drafting options, int he parameters box that comes up go to the alignment section and select center and half to drive from the dead center of your text. When it prompts you for a starting location type in your xyz locations in the status bar windows. HTH

[Guest]

That works swell, Hevy. Never fiddled with the drafting options before.

 

Silly me!

[HevyMetl]

I just found it the other day. I just found the lead in lead out helix height the other day. But I found out later that it has been there since atleast version 9. I think I find new stuff all the time only, to find that I just wasn't looking. Now when I see a box, I open it up to see what play pretties it has for me.

[Müřlıń®]

What I do is box the text in with lines.

 

Then draw a diagonal using 2 corners of the rectangle you just created.

 

The midpoint on the diagonal is the center of the text.

[HevyMetl]

I used to do that, but you don't have to anymore with the drafting fonts.

[Müřlıń®]

Most of the time I am engraving text with ball cutters and not 30degree D cutters because I am projecting onto 3-d surfaces.

 

The spacing is NEVER right on the text, even if you are cutting on a flat plane. So I always have to run a contour on them and backplot using the verify feature/cutter. Then you have a visual of what you are doing.

 

Sometimes you might have to scale x,y z in order to keep the text from stretching out as the surface ramping angle increases.

 

Where is a 5-axis mill when you need one

 

Murlin teh 3-Axis blues....

[htm01]

i always create leters on a 1000" rad then the letters are centered

[Gary]

I like to use bounding box on my letters with a dif color have it create the center point. That way all I have to do is window my text move to where needed and delete all color. (whatever your bounding box color is)