Whilst embossing text onto a curved surface such as a cylinder is straight forward, can anyone please explain how one can emboss or engrave text onto a sphere i.e. a surface curved in 2 dimensions and not just one?

Thanks.

Thank you but the solution only seems to be a compromise and I am concerned that when I come to write the tool-paths for engraving/milling, I will run into inconsistent depth problems. I have found some software called Zsurf which has enabled me to create an igs file of my text, is there anyway I can wrap the igs surface onto my sphere?

As an alternative I have used text geometry to create a 2D sketch of my text and tried to project it to my sphere surface using the 3D Sketch command  'Project to Surface.' However when I try to select my 2D text geometry using the 'Curves' option it does not allow me to select my 2D geometry.

Although I thought this option should enable one to project geometry to a curved surface?

I am most grateful for your help

Edited by cjjatpuresilica - 31.Jul.2012 at 16:04

Thank you, for having struggled with this for over a day I re-attempted the procedure as per JD Mather's kind but previously mis-understood advice and succeeded. In the end it was so simple I am astonished that it is not a standard Inventor feature with a distance setting for the inner offset surface that is required to extrude-cut to.

For those that might struggle ahead of me, I created a surface offset inwards of 0.5mm of my sphere, i.e. the depth of my required cut. I then made my solid sphere invisible and used extrude-cut to the surface, selecting my 2D text sketch as the profile. When I revealed my solid sphere again the text had been arrayed around and cut into the surface of my sphere the required depth and perpendicular to the surface.

Anyone who does not understand the latter explanation may willing contact me as per my profile email address, on this subject.


Edited by cjjatpuresilica - 01.Aug.2012 at 17:45

I thought I had resolved it but sadly only in part.

If I try a simple rectangular sketch profile of greater length than my desired text, it has no problem wrapping around my sphere and cutting to my inner offset surface. However if I try a Text sketch, albeit shorter I repeatedly receive the following warning:

"The attempted operation did not find any intersection between the Toolbody and the selected 'To' termination face/plane. Change the termination definition or the feature (profile) position."

If I delete say half of the text, it has no problem. I have even tried sneeking up on it by modifying the sketch after it has successfully extrude-cut. But sadly it still fails. It is as if Inventor cannot cope with the complexity of the text.

I have even tried extruding the text in 2 bites but once again, I receive the same error warning when I try to extrude-cut the second half.

Does anyone have a possible solution please?

Thank you.



Edited by cjjatpuresilica - 01.Aug.2012 at 20:08

Please see my final solution at:

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?71510-Text-wrap-around-sphere-in-Inventor-2013