Guidance Needed

[medevac121]

OK, I am going to reach out to everyone for some help. First I would let everyone know I am just starting to learn this thing called CNC on a Shapeoko 2 that I just recently put together (been in closet for over a year).

Anyway, I have this project that I have designed (in my head) and could use some guidance, help, mentoring or what ever. I have broken this project down into 4 phases, which hopefully will make it easier for me and everyone else and I'm open to discussion on my workflow. The overall project is to make a plaque of the unit I was with in Vietnam with all of the names of those that lost their lives engraved around the outer rim of the shield

I have attached my first file, which is a .png file and needs to be vectorized. I plan on purchasing Vcarve Desktop and vectorizing this file using it or should I use something else such as Adobe Illustrator (I have Illustrator). The second file is an image of what I what to route out as a plaque using a light colored wood.

Pat

[Mike-S]

I plan on purchasing Vcarve Desktop and vectorizing this file

A nice project. You should have no problems with Vcarve.

[medevac121]

I wanted to engrave the names on the inside of the outside border even if I need to widen the outside border.

Pat

[medevac121]

Having problems, can't upload a file and can't post to the forum, will try later.

Pat

[FixitMike]

I wanted to engrave the names on the inside of the outside border even if I need to widen the outside border.

Pat

Use the Offset Selected Vectors tool to make the outside border wider. I've found the minimum practical height for letters in hardwood to be about 3/16", using a 45° V bit. 1/4" is better.

[Mike-S]

Like Mike said,

Use the Offset Selected Vectors tool to make the outside border wider.

[martin54]

What program have you designed this project in ? If you used illustrator then the file will already be vector artwork & could be exported as an EPS which would then be imported into Vcarve, no need to vectorise.
How many names do you have to place round the outside of the plaque? The size of the border will more than likely be dictated by the size of the names. If there are a lot of names then the actual size of the text will be quite small requiring a smallish border, if there are only a few names then the text may be much larger requiring a larger border

[medevac121]

There are 29 names and I would like to use the format of: first initial, period, space, last name, space then some type of bullet or something to sperate each.

Pat

[Mike-S]

How big will your plaque be?
Getting 29 names around it and keeping them legible may be a challenge. This plaque is 10 x 14 and the letters came out to 1/6" and these are short names.
If you could find a font with an appropriate "bullet" it would make the setup easier. Otherwise you'd need to manually inset 29 bullets.

DXF Vectors attached.

[MarkJohnston]

Wow Mike that's mighty kind of you to do the work you've done and even included the files.

This should get him going and with a lot of direction.

What a great forum we have.

Mark

[zeeway]

First Air Cav? Some of my good friends over there flew medevac choppers and wore that patch. A good project.

Angie

[mtylerfl]

If your font includes Special Characters within it, the Key combination for a bullet mark is Alt+0149. That's how I create bullet marks that appear in the Project of the Month instructions.

You must use the Numeric keypad to enter special character numbers (not the numbers in the row above the letters)

[medevac121]

Thanks everyone, I am working on this part of the project this week. I will be back for some more guidance and thanks again, good forum. Here is a picture of my ultimate goal. Just discovered I can't attach a .png file, this a .jpg

Pat

[adze_cnc]

If you used illustrator then the file will already be vector artwork & could be exported as an EPS which would then be imported into Vcarve, no need to vectorise.

Illustrator native files (.AI) import into VCarve just fine. No need to introduce a conversion to a second file type to complicate things.