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Engraving Autocad Annotation Text
Posted: Fri May 24, 2019 1:47 pm
by tim
Hello, I'm new laser cutting so please excuse if this is a basic/obvious question. Can anyone recommend a good way (lasercut settings?) to engrave the text that is generated by Autocad for annotations e.g. angles, dimensions etc? When I try to 'kiss-cut' it with various settings, the MDF isn't marked. When you import the Autocad dxf file to Lasercut, it seems like it generates lots of tiny lines to make up each letter. Perhaps I need to convert it somehow so I can use the engrave setting instead? Thanks.
Machine: 6840
Material: 3mm MDF
Cut settings for polylines: Speed 15 / Power 40 (good results)
Kisscut settings for polylines: Speed 50 / Power 15 (good results)
Kisscut settings for text: Speed 5 / Power 15 (doesn't show up)
Re: Engraving Autocad Annotation Text
Posted: Fri May 24, 2019 2:53 pm
by HPC
Try a speed other than 5.
If the tiny lines are considered separate, individual lines - i.e. each has there own start point - try using Tools -> Unite lines to merge them into one path.
I would normally do text as an engraving, rather than a kiss cut, but it might depend on the font. A single-line font, for instance, would need to be a kiss cut.
Re: Engraving Autocad Annotation Text
Posted: Fri May 24, 2019 5:02 pm
by Daven
The text in AutoCad is 'Hatched' - Using AutoCad you could 'explode' the text then try 'txtexp' in the command line area which should just leave the outline of the text.
Cheers
Dave
Re: Engraving Autocad Annotation Text
Posted: Fri May 24, 2019 5:53 pm
by tim
Hi, thanks for your replies. Here are my findings in case anyone else has the same issue.
I am working on a Mac and it seems that you can't easily convert text to Polylines on the Mac version of Autocad. You can get the 'Express Tools' plugin but it's different from PC and doesn't include the 'Explode Text' function. If you are working on a PC you should be ok.
Solution for Mac users:
- To get the text as Polylines, you can open the dxf file in Adobe Illustrator (choose artwork scale - original size)
- You'll get a warning message 'missing font has been substituted'
- Choose any font you like
- Delete all components except for the text to reduce processing time, then Export to DXF (make sure 'create outlines' box is checked). Name it something different from the original
- Open the new DXF in Autocad and copy-paste the text.
Cheers, Tim.