FreeCAD: Easy Parametric Text around a circle or ring using a shapestring

[@dickmorris6310]

Thank you. Another tool to add to my mental tool box. I think it's something I'll be able to use.

[@Francois_L_7933]

Thank god that was "easy". I can't imagine what "hard" would have been like!

[@russellw5447]

As usual a great tutorial, I've been doing an Inkscape Tut via Logos by Nick (recommended) and this Tutorial almost crosses over into Desk Top publishing Territory. Many of the Concepts around object manipulation and Boolean operations are very similar.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Thanks for the comment, I need to update my inkscape skills so I will be having a look at that channel 👍👍👍👍

[@Ebbrush3]

i checked the add-on manager .....we need a good TEXT workbench.......

[@franktietjen6261]

You need to take more time to teach how to use drafts. I had to stop the video and figure out how to get the draft grid parallel to my plane. When I finished the video, my text was facing the wrong direction. I cannot figure out how to flip the text to the opposite side of the draft grid.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

You are right, the working plane is the key to getting the draft tools to work and I forget how important that is and often take it for granted. Thank you for that. I need to focus more on explaining how to use and set that.

[@brucewilliams6292]

Brilliant! Thank you for all the great videos.

[@Bajran_]

Awesome job mate. You helped me a lot :) I hope it will be more easy in the future versions of FreeCAD.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Great to hear 👍👍👍👍

[@wgmg7746]

Wow, best way I've seen.

[@FPV777]

always the best tutorials, thanks!

[@kissingfrogs]

Great video. I am struggling to agree however, that it was 'easy'

[@jwatkins672012]

Hopefully next version changes shapestring font issue of having to go select a file, because if you don't have permissions to get into the font folder you can't select one. Never understood why it's not a pulldown menu.

[@bradbroerman]

So, what if I want the text going around the top of the arc, with the top of the text pointing outward, not inward? Can't seem to figure that out.

[@carlslater7492]

Does the surface you are mapping to need to be a "revolved" surface? Could you use two sine waves of different amplitude to generate a wavy surface and then map to it? Does the swept surface need to be of consistent thickness?

[@StylishcpStylishcp]

Thank you for another wonderful video. I have been trying to do what you explain, but I find a little issue, is that the text I need should be turned upside down. I mean, the text should be legible but in the upper side of the circle. I would appreciate any help.

[@Bluetarp17]

Love your tutorials! Pretty much everything I know about FreeCad I've learned from you! On this topic of text I'm wondering if (hoping) there has been any simplification of the process over the two years since this tutorial was made. A macro perhaps? Or ideally a separate workbench? Or is the process you describe here still the only way? Thanks!

[@nirovadia5200]

Is there a way to this is and have the sketch a part of the original body?

[@darryllcrook376]

When you create the shallow arc between the inner and outer rings so it gives a surface for the curves WB to operate upon, is there any limit to how shallow it can be? If you put a radius constraint of 1000 metres on it, does anything break? Second, when you query the geometry to find the perimeter of the outer circle and then transfer that number to the length of the line, is there a way to do this more elegantly with expressions? Is the circumference of the circle accessible to the expressions editor? Thanks.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

So there are no limits to the radius. As long as its an arc you can make it as flat as you want. And regards to the expression. Yes if you reference the edge in the formula with .Length. I do this in I believe my leg brace video. I should of added that to this tutorial, sorry.

[@thespacecowboy420]

why does the sketch end up at a weird angle to the part workbench???

[@sk1pp3r65]

took a bunch of effort to finally get any text, but in the end, the text just writes over itself as it wraps around the surface. it doesnt make the text fit in the length. i thik iwill need to draft a bunch of individual characters. even the macro option has shown to be a disaster. after doing this video example I converted to what i need to do and that is text on a surface between a 54mm and 50mm ring. any thoughts would be helpful

[@MangoJellySolutions]

In my lattice workbench tutorials you should find a video which was quite recent where you can make text follow a path

[@mikej9062]

The use of an arc to make a Revolve threw me -- I used a line to make the Revolve, but then the mapping did not perform a circular mapping but a planar one instead. When I changed the line to a shallow arc as shown, I got the desired result. The projection mapping seems to check for a flat surface in order to determine whether a planar mapping is appropriate. This doesn't seem correct because an annular surface is planar but motivates a circular mapping. Ah well, it's Free software once again.

[@brucewilliams6292]

I have been trying this method on a part I made in the part design workbench and I can get the text onto the surface and looking good. As soon as I try to add thickness to the text I get ": BRepCheck_Analyzer::Init() - NULL shape" . I updated FreeCAD to the latest to no avail. Any suggestions? Thank you so much for the videos! Follow up: I figured this out. I needed to use the shape binder to bring it into the body. Then I padded the text in part design but had to use Face Normal and Symmetric to plane options to get it to work properly.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Great to hear you found out the issue and added to the comments for everyone else to see. Thank you for that as it really helps with helping others.

[@fooballers7883]

Goes without saying.. nice work. I was trying to work out how can I position the text with precision . Txs

[@BleysAlbion]

Hi. This is a bit late so I hope you are able to see it. I've got up to the stage in the video where you delete the construction geometry and then drag a rectangle over the text at about 10:30 in the video. Like one of the previous people here my machine locks up and stops functioning. I went away and came back more than 20 minutes later so I believe it's just locked up at that point and died. My original attempt was with Arial Bold, but then I changed out to dejavu Bold to emulate your tutorial. Still same result, crashes or locks and you have to kill the program and return. I also tried version 0.19 and the current weekly alpha to see if anything had changed. All failed in the same way. I was really wanting this circular text so I'm bummed it won't work for me, and I can't see why it locks up there in any case. Could I achieve the result any other way using another technique, or does it really need that construction geometry to move on? Sorry but I just picked up FreeCAD a couple of days ago (which means I know nothing about it ... yet) as a viable alternative to all the unreasonably priced options out there, and got really excited because it seemed ideal for my 3D printing needs. Thanks in advance. Any response which helps me move forward is appreciated.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Yep seems like a number of people are having the same problem. Looks like lattice 2 maybe the answer to this. If you look at my lattice 2 playlist you will find a video in there regarding circular text. This is a much faster way. Let me know how you get on.

[@BleysAlbion]

​@@MangoJellySolutions Thanks for the response. I've just really started, I come from programs like Lightwave, Maya, Blender and so on, so the mindset's a little different, But thanks for the videos, you and a couple of others are the reason I am trying to learn and use FreeCAD, you've made a very steep hill a little easier to climb. However, I still strike times where I make a shape/disk/circle and try to plonk something on it which in my brain seems entirely logical and feasible, FreeCAD slaps me on the forehead and tells me I'm doing it wrong, which is a bit frustrating at times. I will be giving your Lattice2 videos a good blast, I tried the first couple, had a lot of success, then crash ... "You're doing it wrong stupid!" I have a ways to go but I like the program, I'm getting accustomed to how it works, I like how I can quickly knock out fairly conventional geometry and have it in the 3D printer in a couple of minutes.

[@BleysAlbion]

Well I succeeded in making the cog from your first lattice2 tutorial again, and also managed to stick a line of text on it and extrude, amazingly enough I also managed to successfully export it to an STL file, loaded it into my 3D slicer and voila, it actually worked! Several headbutts with FreeCAD and something finally clicked. I wasn't aware you had to convert that 'CUT' cog to a solid first in the 'Part workbench' to make it acceptable to the font string in the 'Draft workbench'. It's a bit of headspin to know exactly which workbench has the correct tool to use.

[@ff-mu6cc]

Nice!

[@Lulzigi]

I'm getting errors when trying to add thickness to my Sketch_On_Surface. It's saying stuff like "No gometry" and "8:Invalid final face"

[@Lulzigi]

Also, my initial revolve command throws up a "PartDesign feature wrap" pop-up when I try to use it. The surface comes out blue instead of gray.

[@ianparsons4519]

Thanks for a great video. I finally got the text following a curve albeit I don't think I fully understand it. After celebrating I learnt there was a macro FCCircularText available for doing this? Have you had any experience of this, would be keen to find out your thoughts on it.

[@davidbooth4089]

I can get this to work for circles, but I could not get it to work for an eliptical ring. How would I go about this?

[@MangoJellySolutions]

So you need a workbench that will help you there called the lattice2 workbench. You will be able to create a path which will just be your sketch and use the placement of array. I'm sure I have a video in my lattice 2 playlist. If not I can make one. I think I did it with a chain link. I think it may be worth me doing a video anyway as I have been using the lattice 2 for text lately and it's not obvious in my collection of where to look.

[@davidbooth4089]

@@MangoJellySolutions Thanks for the help. I can get the lattice 2 workbench to work, up to a point. The text does follow the eliptical path, but the characters are in the wrong order. I've uploaded a video to demonstrate what happens. It appears that the path array doesn't place elements in a consecutive sequence. See my short video kzbin.info/www/bejne/aH7KepSolLuSbMk Is there a way that the sequence can be reordered without having to type the text in the order dictated by the path array.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

That's bizarre! Sorry only just saw your comment as youtube held it for review as there was a link in the comment (it does this to stop advertising links from other channels and unwanted adult content spammers). I had a search and it looks like your not the only one that has experienced this problems forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?style=10&p=497773 I am going to did deeper but I haven't got a solution yet i'm afraid.

[@channelcadfree]

👍👏

[@pipertime1]

Again that was great and fun! One thing - when I export it as a stl file and open it in my slicer it's not right. Do I need to do something else before exporting?

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Did you export both the text and the surface it was on if they were both separate from each other i.e. not a fusion but individual items,

[@pipertime1]

@@MangoJellySolutions I'm now getting it to export, but in my Cura slicer it keeps saying “your model is not manifold” and the text is in two places. One place is right on the circle and the other is off to the side in a straight line, like in your tutorial. Thanks

[@pipertime1]

I got it to 3d print and looks nice. The fix: I had to make the ShapeString construction geometry. I first tried hiding it, but didn't work. I don't know why this worked, except that it took the text out of the final .stl file? I wish I could find more information on what you should do to your FreeCad project to get it to print. Thanks.

[@robindoull1748]

@@pipertime1 How did you manage to make the ShapeString into Construction Geometry? been trying this for about 3 hours now to no avail.. please help.

[@annamittica4760]

Italian it's possible?

[@l.rod2827]

It's apparent you have been doing this for a long time. I'm brand new as I'm trying to design different items for my 3D printer. I've subscribed to your channel because you have a wealth of information. However do you have any recommendations for individuals like me who are complete novices of Freecad?

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Hi and welcome, yes you could start with the understanding freecad series. Also if give me an idea what type of things that you'd looking at designing I could point you towards the correct video or make one around the subject. Just a heads up if you post a link to a image your post may dissappear as it will get auto held for my review. I had to turn this on because of spam posts but I am keeping an eye on the review folder.

[@l.rod2827]

@@MangoJellySolutions I'm looking to design a wall bracket for my ceiling fan remote.

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

This channel is awesome and I think you do a great job. Would you like to be a guest speaker on my channel or do some other collaboration?

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Hello!!! It would be a honoured to be a guest speaker. The interviews you do I feel are such an interesting idea and I think so important for the community . Everyone loves an origin story and I would love to share mine with you. I need to find time to do some collaboration but at the moment I have got quite a bit of freelance freeCAD work to get through so I need to find some time to do collaborations. But can always find time for chatting about freeCAD.

[@Bart_Depestele]

Thats so complicated for just a text

[@achajusmagnus6495]

I like freecad and that it is free but man, i really hate this software too. I follow your tutorials exactly but it just will not work. How hard can it be to put a simple freakin tekst on something...

[@wgmg7746]

Without INKSCAPE !

[@wantafastz28]

At 10:435, that decided to make my computer busy for about 5 minutes...ugh

[@wantafastz28]

Also, @mangojelly Solutions fill faces for some reason doesn't fill them. Are you using .2 or .19?

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Sorry for the delay in getting back. I'm using 0.19. There has been a curved wb update so may be worth updating. Also certain fonts can make the fill face fail

[@wantafastz28]

@@MangoJellySolutions good to know and thanks for the reply, I tried Ariel bold.