CAD Forum

So, we've been trying to let go of our dependancy on old softwares and are trying to do everything with SolidWorks right now, that includes creating stickers and other things that would most likely be better adressed by a design department with PhotoShop/Illustrator at hand. From my understanding, one of the issues we're unable to solve is that our supplier cannot use what we send him as the text comes out choppy. Our suppliers answers that they need non vectorized text or else the quality is choppy. This is what we send him, we've sent it as a DXF, as a PDF, as a .AI, none of them worked.
This is the image he gave us to try and display the issue:

What is your image quality in the part?



Regarding the PDF. Have you adjusted the export settings?

SPerman wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 2:36 pm What is your image quality in the part?


image.pngimage.png



Regarding the PDF. Have you adjusted the export settings?

image.png

Maxed out and those settings are on, we've been trying everything we can come up with

You try to laser cut/mark it? Silk screen?
The letters are extrude cut? In SolidWorks?
Can you share the file?

Frederick_Law wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 3:05 pm You try to laser cut/mark it? Silk screen?
The letters are extrude cut? In SolidWorks?
Can you share the file?

In terms of methods of creating the text, we've tried extruded cuts, surfaces, text inside a sketch with the sketch being shown.

In terms of exporting, we've tried exporting as .DXF, .DWG, .AI, .PDF.

We've tried exporting from a drawing and from the part.

Awaiting response for sharing.

Could be the font.
Some font use spline which CAD will estimate with segment because there many spline types and CAD only use a few.

Here's the .SLDPRT, in this case it's only sketch.


2023 SP4.

My setting SW2022: Damn, can't attach DXF file.

I pushed the image quality on both the part and the drawing up to the red line. I set the scale in the drawing at 30:1 and generated a PDF.
The DXF also looks pretty good. (I can't attach the DXF file.)

SPerman wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 4:19 pm I pushed the image quality on both the part and the drawing up to the red line. I set the scale in the drawing at 30:1 and generated a PDF.

image.png

The DXF also looks pretty good. (I can't attach the DXF file.)

image.png

It looked pretty good on our end too but it didn't work on the supplier's end because of the formatting. If I am understand things correctly, the text needs to remain as text and not become simply lines/splines.

When they try to do whatever manipulation it is they need to do, the center of letters like O or the hole in p or q will fill up, as if there was either an open border or they were doing a filter selection by colors to fill and then are stuck there with imprinting going wrong. Sounds to me like they don't know how to use their programs, but then again I don't know what program they use.. AND, it's the third company that gives us basically the same answer about vector issues

Engraver are not that expensive:
https://www.amazon.ca/Furvveerr-Engrave ... tdGY&psc=1

I use Lightburn with my laser:
https://lightburnsoftware.com/

What are you doing? Engrave the letters? Cut them out?

You can let them pick their font, type it out and do whatever they want.

I remember a similar problem exporting DXF's from NX 10+ years ago. Things looked fine on our end, but the manufacturer saw something similar to what you are dealing with when they imported it. There was some setting in the DXF export that solved it. (I think there was a setting for the spline export that limited it's length, or it's angle change.)

At the end of the day, it is extremely difficult to troubleshoot a problem that you can't replicate. I'm pretty sure the real problem lies with their software. It is not like eDrawings is doing some sort of magic to take a bad DXF and make it look good.

You've flipped every switch possible in SW. They've either got to fix their software, you your company needs to invest in Illustrator, or similar.

SPerman wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 4:47 pm I remember a similar problem exporting DXF's from NX 10+ years ago. Things looked fine on our end, but the manufacturer saw something similar to what you are dealing with when they imported it. There was some setting in the DXF export that solved it. (I think there was a setting for the spline export that limited it's length, or it's angle change.)

At the end of the day, it is extremely difficult to troubleshoot a problem that you can't replicate. I'm pretty sure the real problem lies with their software. It sounds like you've flipped every switch possible in SW. They've either got to fix their software, you your company needs to invest in Illustrator, or similar.

I've been very subtly pointing in that direction for a while

Frederick_Law wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 4:42 pm What are you doing? Engrave the letters? Cut them out?

You can let them pick their font, type it out and do whatever they want.

It was engraved at first, then it was as a label to stick it on a plate to make the plate lighter, then it was changed as sorta mixed metal/plastic plate that has prints on it.

As far as I'm aware, we want it engraved in a stainless steel plate. I've been hinting at getting an engraver also but I need to justify it. I think all the trouble we're going through every time is enough justification but I guess to others it isn't.

They're thinking a 2 mil Trumpf fiber laser cut.
Not a $3000 diode/co2 laser engraver.

BTW I can engrave stainless at home, how many do you need?
LOL

I'd create all that text in Inkscape, not in Solidworks. It'd be easier and the text would stay as text.

Dwight

Dwight wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 12:04 pm I'd create all that text in Inkscape, not in Solidworks. It'd be easier and the text would stay as text.

Dwight

My boss said we'll just continue doing it on AutoCAD 2000 and when our Windows XP sessions die we'll buy a dedicated license of either ACad or DraftSight for these purposes. We were seeing if we could do without. We can achieve what we desire, we were just trying to get the results from SolidWorks rather then from an alternate program. It'll be more useful in the end for the company then a PhotoShop/Illustrator license.

IMO, that is like plowing a field with your Honda, because you already own it and a tractor is too expensive.

I know you aren't making these decisions, but sometimes management can't see the forest for the trees.

SPerman wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 1:11 pm IMO, that is like plowing a field with your Honda, because you already own it and a tractor is too expensive.

I know you aren't making these decisions, but sometimes management can't see the forest for the trees.

In this case, I can understand the preference to remain with a dedicated licence to another CAD Software rather then a dedicated licence to a graphic editor. It sort of keeps these things in the hand of the engineering department rather then assigning it to someone who might need to be nurtured in order to accomplish the desired task.

The CAD Software also allows us to access our archive files and also continue certain tasks which have remained on AutoCAD. Being a rather small company, the engineering department is sort of the heart of the company so these decisions are somewhat important in the sense that the engineering department continues to help the company prosper by developping those inside the company who aspire to.

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 12:45 pm . . . than a PhotoShop/Illustrator license.

Inkscape is open source, so no expense even for commercial work. Not exactly like Illustrator, but close enough to pick it up quickly.

Dwight wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 3:53 pm Inkscape is open source, so no expense even for commercial work. Not exactly like Illustrator, but close enough to pick it up quickly.

I use Gimp every now and then when I need to do some little image editing here and there. I'll give a look at Inkscape, see if it's closer to Photoshop. I used to be pretty good in my StarCraft days at doing banners and signatures with PhotoShop.

Inkscape is not like Photoshop; it's like Illustrator. It's primarily a vector program and is suited for the creation of graphic art. The vector shapes can be enlarged infinitely and still be crisp. Gimp, like Photoshop, is primarily a raster program, with pixels, which look like legos when enlarged.

I expect you do know all this, but I didn't get the feeling I'd connected. And maybe I missed something.

Dwight

Dwight wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2025 8:35 am Inkscape is not like Photoshop; it's like Illustrator. It's primarily a vector program and is suited for the creation of graphic art. The vector shapes can be enlarged infinitely and still be crisp. Gimp, like Photoshop, is primarily a raster program, with pixels, which look like legos when enlarged.

I expect you do know all this, but I didn't get the feeling I'd connected. And maybe I missed something.

Dwight

Honestly I won't pretend I know what I'm talking about, I've messed around with such programs but have never gone beyond that, so while I understand what you are saying I do not really know the major distinctions besides the one you spoke of. When I used PhotoShop, it came with Illustrator, and Illustrator was sort of the "GIF Maker" back then as far as I could understand. But hey, that's like twenty years ago or so

Late to this but know your pain.

Run the student shop at ASU for Mechanical Capstone, our students need to 3D print, laser cut and engrave and also CNC engrave into parts.

We have 8000 seats of SW edu and they design in it. When time come to laser we take a dxf\dwg into Corel Draw V5 or into Lightburn that CAM with the new laser. The issue is you have to fill all the areas for engraving like you would have when just typing text, having vectors doesn't hurt cause you can still print the graphics, just more work back and fourth.

As a couple of others said start with the graphic software for the text then export a dxf to SW and then do CAD stuff there or visa versa draw the part and export to your favorite artsy fartsy pain in the butt basesackwards program.

Inkscape free
Lightburn $120
Illustrator cloud\$$$$
Corel Draw local\$$$

seat time is key, at least graphics to vector to graphics to CAD to CAM is still less time than Scanned STL to CAD and less money in software\time

lenny

Can you change your font?
Don't use curve font. Use more straight line font.
Or sketch them out in CAD. Line and arc only.

This is a CNC toolpath problem. The segments are smaller then the tool diameter.
So don't offset the tool outside or inside the path. Run tool center on the path.
Laser has diameter. All default to offset for accurate part dimension.
It doesn't matter on marking.

Frederick_Law wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2025 10:08 am Can you change your font?
Don't use curve font. Use more straight line font.
Or sketch them out in CAD. Line and arc only.

This is a CNC toolpath problem. The segments are smaller then the tool diameter.
So don't offset the tool outside or inside the path. Run tool center on the path.
Laser has diameter. All default to offset for accurate part dimension.
It doesn't matter on marking.

The font has no incidence if it comes from SolidWorks.

We can do it on AutoCAD, which is what we will continue doing. I was just hoping I could find a way to do it in SolidWorks. We could most likely do it by making the text directly in the drawing, but that's not a route we're willing to go.

Do you PRINT your drawing as a PDF using the PDF printer or SAVE AS your drawing as a PDF?

These are very different things.

Save as uses vector fonts I believe.

This is my settings:

DanPihlaja wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2025 12:27 pm Do you PRINT your drawing as a PDF using the PDF printer or SAVE AS your drawing as a PDF?

These are very different things.

Save as uses vector fonts I believe.

This is my settings:
image.png

We've used Save as PDF and it didn't change anything for them. The issue is the text isn't actual text, it's "sketch text". If it were in the drawing, then it would most likely export as a vector, but that defeats the purpose if we were to have to do it from the drawing.

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2025 12:38 pm We've used Save as PDF and it didn't change anything for them. The issue is the text isn't actual text, it's "sketch text". If it were in the drawing, then it would most likely export as a vector, but that defeats the purpose if we were to have to do it from the drawing.

Have you tried exploding the text and then extruding/cutting it? So that it comes through as actual geometry instead of sketch text? Of course, it isn't smooth arcs at that point, it is either straight lines or splines. Which may make the issue worse.

DanPihlaja wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2025 12:45 pm Have you tried exploding the text and then extruding/cutting it? So that it comes through as actual geometry instead of sketch text? Of course, it isn't smooth arcs at that point, it is either straight lines or splines. Which may make the issue worse.

We did extrude and cuts without exploding so I doubt it would change something, even if it did, it would defeat the purpose sorta. The way I see it, the text needs to be "selectable" after being printed, so that it can be vectorized. To be selectable, it has to be created in the drawing as far as I can tell.

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2025 12:38 pm The issue is the text isn't actual text, it's "sketch text".

I missed that earlier. There seems to be a hard coded tesselation for sketch text. I tried wide swings in scaling, and a few different fonts, but the results were the same.

Frederick_Law wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2025 10:08 am Can you change your font?
Don't use curve font. Use more straight line font.
Or sketch them out in CAD. Line and arc only.

This is a CNC toolpath problem. The segments are smaller then the tool diameter.
So don't offset the tool outside or inside the path. Run tool center on the path.
Laser has diameter. All default to offset for accurate part dimension.
It doesn't matter on marking.

Not so Frederick, been doing all sorts of engraving via CNC since 92 using surfcam from dxf drawing file from Industrial Designers and Artsy customers, and I moonlight making custom parts for bike builders.... HARLEY not pedal, cutting designs into derby and points covers.

If SW can use the geometry to cut or extrude CAM can cut it. SW just stalls when it has a shitload of sketch geom.

working on some custom tank badges right now, had to scan the tank to get the shape fist now designing the badge.

leny

A little late to the party, but I would agree with your assesment that the text would have to be created in the drawing in order to export as text. Once you "bury" it in a sketch or worse in a cut/boss feature, it's just geometry with lines/arcs/splines as far as PDFing is concerned.

Is there some reason you're not wanting to add the text in the drawing? It would seem to me that's just as good as adding it in AutoCAD or something.

josh wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 11:43 am A little late to the party, but I would agree with your assesment that the text would have to be created in the drawing in order to export as text. Once you "bury" it in a sketch or worse in a cut/boss feature, it's just geometry with lines/arcs/splines as far as PDFing is concerned.

Is there some reason you're not wanting to add the text in the drawing? It would seem to me that's just as good as adding it in AutoCAD or something.

I feel if the text were to be in a drawing it would most likely be harder to position, we will give it a go at recreating it and try to position it using the existing sketches in the part. My boss wasn't really eager to go that way for no particular reason so we'll just give it a go without telling him, see if it works and if it does, we'll see how 'intuitive' it is to work that way and if it's workable, we'll present it to the boss as an alternative to paying fees for VMWare and other softwares.

So if you create a note, you can position it by snapping any of these 9 little dots to entities on a drawing view. Unfortunately, I've not found a way to make them actually constrained to those entities so that they move automatically if the geometry changes. You can, however, click the "Anchor" button and they'll be locked in position relative to the drawing view if the view moves, and can't be accidentally relocated.
You may be SOL for the text on an arc though. I don't know of a way to make a note do that.

The only way I can think of to put text on a curve in a drawing would be a painstaking process… Letter by letter. Each letter of the text would have to be a separate note, rotated to the specific angle needed. The angle and spacing along the arc would also not be equal due to different width characters.

If I had to do it, I would probably create the text on the curve in a sketch, then draw construction lines on that sketch that hit the center of each letter. Then I could measure the angle of each construction line to know how much to rotate each letter by, and I’d have an intersection point to snap each note to. I wouldn’t want to do more than one or two…

josh wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 2:58 pm The only way I can think of to put text on a curve in a drawing would be a painstaking process… Letter by letter. Each letter of the text would have to be a separate note, rotated to the specific angle needed. The angle and spacing along the arc would also not be equal due to different width characters.

If I had to do it, I would probably create the text on the curve in a sketch, then draw construction lines on that sketch that hit the center of each letter. Then I could measure the angle of each construction line to know how much to rotate each letter by, and I’d have an intersection point to snap each note to. I wouldn’t want to do more than one or two…

And while your are doing that I'm going to...

josh wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 2:58 pm The only way I can think of to put text on a curve in a drawing would be a painstaking process… Letter by letter. Each letter of the text would have to be a separate note, rotated to the specific angle needed. The angle and spacing along the arc would also not be equal due to different width characters.

If I had to do it, I would probably create the text on the curve in a sketch, then draw construction lines on that sketch that hit the center of each letter. Then I could measure the angle of each construction line to know how much to rotate each letter by, and I’d have an intersection point to snap each note to. I wouldn’t want to do more than one or two…

Great minds think alike, this is sort of how we work-around the model limits in order to do circular patterns.