I like to extrude the text through the surface, trim it back, offset it the engraving depth, and finally subtract it from the solid. So far I have found it to be a robust technique.
Kudos to cowski, that is a good way for a contoured surface. For plastic parts we even add draft to the extruded text before uniting or subtracting. Adding the draft before is usually a good idea as trying to add it afterward can fail due to other geometry issues.
I should mention that the selection intent rules are what really makes this technique robust. The "feature curves" rule was used for the extrude; this means that if/when the note text is changed, the extrude feature will pick up the new curves (new letters) automatically - no need to edit the feature and add the new curves. Similarly, the trim feature uses the "feature bodies" rule to automatically pick up on any changes to the text. You might be thinking that you can use the "to next" option in the extrude feature to eliminate the trim feature; you'd be correct - but, you'd miss out on the next convenience. The offset feature uses the "feature face" rule to automatically collect the text faces (the new faces created by the trim command). Had you used the "to next" option in the extrude feature, you would have to pick the text faces individually - and every time the text changes, you'll have to edit the feature and pick the new faces.
