Tutorial: Text Engraving
This tutorial describes inserting text into CamBam and genertating an engraving operation from it.
Inserting Text
To insert text into a drawing, use the Insert->Text menu option, then change the text properties in the object browser.
Multiple lines of text can be entered by clicking the elipses [...] button to the right of the Text property.
The text properties are:
| Location (P1) | This is the first and at the moment, only alignment point. The TextAlignmentH and TextAlignmentV options are all relative to this point. |
| Location2 (P2) | This point is not currently used. The intention is to use it to define alignment options that evenly spread the text between two points, or perhaps as an alernative to the Rotate option. |
| CharSpace | This option scales the width used for each character. The default is 1. A setting of 2 would double the space used for each character (but not the character itself). |
| LineSpace | This scales the distance between each text line. The default is 1. |
| Font | This is the font name to use for the text. For a bit of fun, try clicking on this option, select a font, then use the up and down arrow to try different options. |
| Height | This is the text height in drawing units. |
| Text | The text to enter. To enter multi line text, click the [...] button after this property. |
| TextAlignmentH | Left, Center or Right (relative to Location). |
| TextAlignmentV | Top, Center or Bottom (relative to Location).
NOTE: Bottom is actually the baseline of the text. As per DXF I may add other options to differentiate absolute bottom and baseline. |
| Bold | Bold Font Style. |
| Italic | Italic Font Style. |
| Regular | Regular Font Style. |
| StrikeOut | StrikeOut Font Style. Not currently supported. |
| Underline | Underline Font Style. Not currently supported. |
Creating Engraving GCode
To create some engraving gcode, select the text then select the Machining->Engrave menu option.
For shallow engraving (0.3mm), try these properties:
ClearanceZ=1.5, TargetDepth=-0.3
Sample Engraving...
Not exactly high art, but the letters are quite small (3-6mm) and plywood isn't the best precision engraving material.
To create thin engraving, ideally a 'stick' font should be used, that is a font with no thickness. One that I am aware of is Camworks.ttf;
this looks nice on screen, but the resulting toolpaths are pretty messy.
NOTE: I tend to use Metric and CamBam was designed with Metric in mind, but it does support imperial units.
For information on changing the drawing units, see the getting started section.