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Author Topic: "Text" drawn in Autocad is messed up in LC. Please help  (Read 10777 times)

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"Text" drawn in Autocad is messed up in LC. Please help
« on: September 13, 2011, 09:29:55 PM »
Hello all. Im new to Lazy cam and just learning my way around it. Hopefully in the very soon future i'm looking to purchase a small cnc engraver/router. My goal is to do some small engraving work on sheet metal. So i went to autocad R14 and drew up a simple box with some words within it. I then saved and exported the file .dxf and opened up my Lazy Cam. When i opened the file, the box seems to be the correct size but the words are smaller and seem way off center. I tried re-exporting the file to R14,R13 and R12 .dxf with the same results. Anyone sure on what i did wrong?

Offline RICH

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Re: "Text" drawn in Autocad is messed up in LC. Please help
« Reply #1 on: September 14, 2011, 06:28:32 AM »
Post the dxf file. There is info in the manual on text.

Just did a quick check and did the same here. Select all the text, then using the Move Chain command on the left side of the graphics screen, click on "mouse move" and drag the text into position. Now do a clean, go to layer
tab and apply tooling and cutting and all should be fine. Don't know why LC does what it does ( may want to try a different text justification in CAD ad see if it has any affect on export).
RICH
« Last Edit: September 14, 2011, 06:45:54 AM by RICH »
Re: "Text" drawn in Autocad is messed up in LC. Please help
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2011, 03:29:02 PM »
Thanks for the help rich. I did step by step what you said and was able to center the text again but it still seems that the scale of the text is way off. I attached the .dxf for you.

Offline budman68

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Re: "Text" drawn in Autocad is messed up in LC. Please help
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2011, 04:01:51 PM »
Hi Mike,

Just saw this, and while I don't use Lcam anymore, I thought I'd try to help.

I took the dxf and tried to load it into LCam and just got the outer rectangle with no text at all. I then opened it with VCarve Pro and it showed all the text completely. I then exported it out of VCarve Pro and saved it as a dxf and then loaded that file back into LCam, and it worked just fine. Very strange indeed that LCam does not like your dxf type saved.

I'm including the dxf I made and the LCam project for you to play with so at least you'll have the files.
Sorry I couldn't give more of explanation as to why, but maybe Rich will be able to.
Dave
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Re: "Text" drawn in Autocad is messed up in LC. Please help
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2011, 04:45:26 PM »
Thanks Dave, your file seems to work with my LC. Hopefully Rich can pull through and figure out why my saved file is not working. Both you guys keep up the great work, keeping my headaches away :)

Offline budman68

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Re: "Text" drawn in Autocad is messed up in LC. Please help
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2011, 04:55:29 PM »
Glad to be of at least a "little" help  :)

Dave
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Offline RICH

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Re: "Text" drawn in Autocad is messed up in LC. Please help
« Reply #6 on: September 14, 2011, 06:11:34 PM »
I just don't think that LC has the importer capability for manny text types. You would need to actualy draw the text outline in Cad.
The attached shows what CamBam did with the drawing, not much better and it also shifted the text. There may some dxf settings in CAD that can help.

You may want to try generating the text with a program that actualy generates the Gcode like the text wizard in Mach or
DeskEngrave ( i think it's free ). There are programs that are written for text and usualy are in the higher end programs.

Machining of text has always been a PITA for me, but then don't do it much so don't care.
RICH

Re: "Text" drawn in Autocad is messed up in LC. Please help
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2011, 10:32:53 PM »
Rich mentioned DeskEngrave - DeskEngrave www.DesKAM.com   -  it is a free program and I use it a lot.  It has a lot of selectable fonts and  you can add true text fonts if you need more.  It doesn't have single line fonts.  The only engraving programs I have found that do have single line fonts are high-end and pricey.   The only draw back to DeskEngrave is it will only put text on one-line at a time.  

A program that works really well with DeskEngrave is Cadx11 -www.graytechsoftware.com - is free also unless you need really large files - even then it is really inexpensive $20.00 for full program with lifetime support.   Compose your text in DeskEngrave, safe it as a DXF and import into Cadx11 if you need multiple lines or other graphics.

I have produced some interesting pieces using the two programs.  Attached is a DXF created using the two programs.  I then used a 4th axis cnc to engrave a ring.  

Disclaimer - not associated with either GrayTech or DesKAM

Bob

Offline RICH

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Re: "Text" drawn in Autocad is messed up in LC. Please help
« Reply #8 on: September 15, 2011, 05:36:35 AM »
Quote
Machining of text has always been a PITA for me, but then don't do it much so don't care

One of the problems with most of the free programs are that they provide Gcode with all the curves of the letters broken into
small lines and thus there is no arc coding. The difference in the number of code lines is great and on small lettering the end result
is not as good as if there was arc coding. Another problem is relief cut text. The outline of the text is not done to address the type  or size of cutter. ie; the cutter may be to large to machine between the letters. That leads to adjusting the spacing and color of the lettering. There is more to lettering then just typing something in  and the artistic end comes into play to have things look right when done. Another example is when alll the letters are exactly the same height and then you get a pregnant look to manny of them  and same goes for spacing. Guess it depends on how picky you are about the job.

For a few projects, I did complete drawn sets of letters and numbers. The customer wanted a unique script.

FWIW,
RICH
Re: "Text" drawn in Autocad is messed up in LC. Please help
« Reply #9 on: September 19, 2011, 05:30:49 PM »
Thanks ill have to give those programs a try also. Since im on the topic of engraving and looking to purchase a machine, whats good for my money out there? Im shooting for a price range of around $1500. I really don't want to go higher than that and i also don't want to basically buy a mini mill and cnc it myself. I want a ready to run model. Ive searched the internet and stumbled across this engraver. Anyone think its worth its value? http://www.carving-cnc.com/6040series/6040z-d.html