Please help - Helical text needed!!!!! 1

[Sirius]

Sirius (Visitor) Jan 15, 2002

Is there anything in existance that can wrap text up/around a tube face in a helix of say 30 deg?? for engraving purposes. To make things worse, it has to be in 'arial black'font 6mm high and the letters which make up the words need to read horizontal all the time like the diagonal words in a crossword puzzle!!.
I can draw the helix path in MDT OK and could probably 'cut out' the text from a thin solid strip. Its just creating the text aligned in that fashion and wrapping it around in a helix so all the words are readable on the face of the tube. I may be able to access a few different apps from going to a few friends works if need be....
I really dont know how this can be achieved so any advice is very welcome and time scale is pretty tight.

Please does someone know how to achieve this?????.


Thankyou,

Sirius.

 

[DaveVikingPE]

I did it...

In PowerCAD, a powerful Macintosh CAD program, it's no sweat. In Illustrator it can be done, too. I don't think that helps, though as it's a Windoze world...

In Microstation, however, it can be done. Use the B-Spline Curves/Create Curves tool to place a helix. The helix can be left/right, whatever angle, etc. - you set it up. Then, using the Place Text tool, type whatever you want and then place it ALONG the element, i.e., the helix. In order to see the actaul "3D-ness" you will need to change your orientation in the window a bit, but it works. You can play with fonts, etc. without much problem, too. NB: You may have to change the characteristics of each letter, one-at-a-time; it's bes to fence 'em and change them all at once - seems when you place text along an element it treats each letter as a different element. If you have Microstation, play around with this.

 

[Sirius]

WOW!, thanks Dave. Ive never heard of PowerCad, are you meaning adobe Illustrator? - I may be able to get access to that but not the PowerCad or Microstation unfortunately. I didnt think anyone would be able to answer this so thankyou very much for your reply.
I'll have a scout around Illustrator and if I cant do it well enough (because of my ability) then I have decided to turn down the task than waste many, many hours problem solving because they are wanting it very cheap anyway!!!.

Thanks again,

Sirius.

 

[DaveVikingPE]

Yep, Adobe Illustrator is the one. Power CAD is a great CAd package for the Mac (and less than $1000). Microstation, of course, is huge, expensive and troublesome unless you have an IM staff readily at-hand.

What I don't trust about Illustrator, besides my limited experience with it - though friends of mine swear by it, is that it's a "drawing" program and you may not get the right scale that you need - and you may have to fudge a bit on the helix, though I'm pretty sure Illustrator does Bezier curves. But if you have access to people who are whizzes on it, they should be able to perform the task at-hand.

 

[3DDon]

Not that it matters too much now but...

I think SolidWorks 2001+ can now do that. Text can be placed along a spline or other path, but I'm not sure if the path can change in the Z-axis. I'll have to check.
Don Shoebridge
Sr. Product Developement Engineer

http://www.geocities.com/donshoebridge

 

[Buhrmann]

Here is an easy way of doing it:

Find a package that can wrap a bitmap image around a cylinder, most of them can do this at least. Then make your own bitmap image (which is square) but with the text written diagonally across it.

If you wrap this around the cylinder it will be helical. The helix angle will be exactly the angle that you used in the bitmap image.

Regards,
Teo