Etching

[28ten]

Anybody interested in producing artwork should read these guides http://www.hollywoodfoundry.com/HowToPapers.shtm as they explain the process and most of the basics.

 

[Rob Pulham]

A question for all you CAD Guru's.

I have created some wagon plates and I am struggling to get the background of the text to hatch (colour for anyone not as familiar with the terms) within the plate in order to create a half etched background with raised text. I am using layers for the half etched hatch and for the plates themselves I created a rectangle with a 1mm pen for the plate edge then added the text within it. Due to font size changes I had to create two or three separate sections of text within each plate which I have then grouped together.

I have had no problem with the tab's and getting indented text to colour on the border for identity/size etc.

Anyone got any ideas where I have gone wrong (if anywhere) or what I am missing to make it work?

 

[28ten]

the red fill is probably an issue with the package you are using,one for the turbocad experts? but the lettering also needs to be white otherwise it will be etched straight through

 

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Cynric,
I was planning to send it to PPD and they seem to use white as the etch right through colour as opposed to the black that others use.

 

[28ten]

I have always sent them black  :scratch: as long as the layer is clearly labelled its not a problem, I just didnt want you ending up with a sheet of stencils 

 

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks that's worth knowing.
This is hopefully going to be a proof piece before I do any more on the etches for the Gresley's that Graham and I are working on.
I will have a go in draftsight to create a plate and see if I can fill that (now I have learned a bit more ;D)

 

[phileakins]

Possibly the answer is to have a solid red hatch on the plate itself and have no background hatch on the lettering so that it is transparent?

This is off the top of my head as I haven't tried it out yet.

Phil

 

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Phil, I may have got it sorted - something to do with the way I have grouped things I think.

 

[Steph Dale]

Cynric,

Useful link to Hollywood Foundry that - I'm just getting back into this CAD/etching lark as I need replacement chassis for a couple of LBSCR tank locos...

Steph

 

[John D]

struggling to get the background of the text to hatch

  I might have got the wrong end of the stick here....but are you using the fonts from the CAD 'text' button?.......If so they won't work against a half etched background to give raised lettering. I did some name/worksplates for the 1:32 Manning and ended up having to draw each individual letter as a separate item ,place it on the 'plate' and put in  the half etch round it....if you see what I mean.A/CAD's a bit 'clunky' in this respect, perhaps (in fact there must be) a graphics programme that does it better.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks John, I think I have sorted it (although tbh I haven't touched it for a few weeks). I work in IT and mostly the last thing I want to do when get home is do IT

 

[Oz7mm]

As a new member of the forum I have only just come across this. It sounds like Rob is using Turbocad. They admit that there is an issue with a large number of complex fills on a single drawing,I quote "it is a problem with the algorithm". I have had similar problems with items like nameplates.

With regard to text, try downloading TTFtoDXF. There is a 30 day trial but mine is still working after about 2 years. This will allow you to type any true type font and then convert it to a DXF which you can import to your drawing. Be sure to use a reasonable level of resolution or the letters can look a bit square.

Regards

John

 

[jamiepage]

Guv'nor, many thanks for that link. Very useful, especially because next job on the G3 coaches will be to make up luggage racks, twiddly brackets 'n all.

 

[D1054]

Just an observation as a fledgling TurboCAD user, but I couldn't hatch text either, but it's easy to change the background colours to the text-box so just hatch around the text-box and then set the colour of the background to the text. Simples. I've done mine without problems using black (not etched) letters against red (half-etched) backgrounds, and also use this for setting the dimensions marker for PPD (who I'm very impressed with, also!).

 

[28ten]

For anybody considering this lark, Draftsite is my currently recommended free package http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/overview/ available for Mac and Linux as well, and it is more than adequate. the other advantage is that it works very much like Autocad and I find the dxf and dwg it produces are fully compatible with Autocad, whereas Turbocad sometimes throws the odd extra line in.

 

[mickoo]

For anybody considering this lark, Draftsite is my currently recommended free package http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/overview/ available for Mac and Linux as well, and it is more than adequate. the other advantage is that it works very much like Autocad and I find the dxf and dwg it produces are fully compatible with Autocad, whereas Turbocad sometimes throws the odd extra line in.

Excellent, that looks interesting,although I have autocad its a bit akward, or more correctly the instructions assume you know a lot before you begin, these look very idiot (me) proof , need to whip up some etches shortly so nows is a good a time as any to get to grips with this malarky .

Kindest

 

[mickoo]

Draftsight is not a bad little package, certainly seems more intuative than Autocad though most of the roll outs and menus look the same?. My only concern thus far are the circles, arcs and splines, they are not smooth enough and look more like short straights joined together, even when zoomed in a small amount, circles look to be about 50-60 sided polygons, if there is no setting to tune this then circles and arcs might be better drawn as 1024 sided polygons tp get them smoother for etching, not sure how the current circles look when drawn or imported into Autocad, will be interesting to see if Draftsight is employing some sort of visual reduction technique to keep CPU overheads down, much like you can in 3DSM with high poly models, ie smoothing is only applied on export or render.

Kindest

 

[28ten]

regen - will sort that. You are correct, it just needs redraw everything when you zoom in

 

[Rob Pulham]

Some of you may remember me messing about with some wagon plates earlier up the thread? Well I never did crack them but someone recomended Narrow Planet for custom etching so I gave them a go and had these done for a few of my wagon builds.

Very nice they are too.. I haven't given up on the idea of drawing up something for etching myself but these will do for now.

 

[Pugsley]

Those look really good - I'll have to get in touch with them when I need the works plates for the acid tanks.