I am trying to work out the best way to paste some text around the edge of a cylinder. I have created the text as solids and now need to wrap it evenly spaced around the edge of the cylinder like the text on the edge of a coin. Could someone please point me in the right direction?

Many thanks,

Philip

Hi Philip, there isn't currently any way to deform a straight line of text so that it hugs another surface but that is an area that I hope to add in MoI v3.

Probably currently you would want to go to the top view of the cylinder, and use the edit frame to place and rotate each letter individually so that it is at a good angle to the cylinder.

Check out some of these previous threads for some illustrations and some ideas:

http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1333.1
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2763.1
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3062.1
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2920.1
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2560.1

- Michael

Hi Philip,

MoI doesn't yet have this as a specific Tool or Feature.
Like you, I also do jewellery & it's something that I'm hoping will make it into V3.
At the moment the easiest way is to Copy & Paste your various components into Rhino4 & do it there.
The R4 command needed is "FlowAlongSurface".

If you don't have Rhino4 then it can be done in MoI, but it'll just take a lot more time.
You'll basically have to work out your text & position each one individually.
I've also used Points & Array-Circular to get even positions then use the Points to align the text to.

HTH, Colin

Colin,

Thank you, as chance would have it I am taking delivery of Rhino 4 tomorrow so I will give it a go.

Philip

Hi All,

The pieces for this should 'kinda' already be there in v2. Couldnt the user use Array.Curve to put placeholder letters, say 'X' for instance, along a curve projected onto the target surface, then got back and change the letters?

Unless you cant change Text after it's created...

Hi Philip,

If you want it done prior to that then let me know.
Just send me a PM & we can go from there.

regards Colin

For sure if you have Rhino, then this will be a tool that can do it. If you dont have Rhino, I think MoI's new "PastePart" command (which utilizes the "Orient" Command) can do this pretty quick also. Just make a file with the text in it, then copy and "PastePart" as needed along the surface or curve. Should be pretty quick to spell.

Why Carrara is such a great complimentary app to MoI.
Brian

Hi Brian,

That's interesting...
...are you then able to bring that same text from Carrera back into MoI as a NURBS object to continue working on the model?

regards Colin

Hi Colin
No.
But that is not really a problem for me as MoI is only the first point of modelling work which I subsequently take further in Carrara as .obj files.
Carrara has many features, including in poly modelling, that adds to the MoI modelling.
Brian

Brian, are you sure? I seem to remember from when I was using Carrara 5 pro (the original eovia version) that it could use Rhino 3.0 format meshes. I'm sure I remember that ... at least, I think. If you're using 5 pro- could you check? I don't think Daz 3d retained that feature though. I may reinstall it myself to check since it's bugging me that I'm not sure.

P.S. if someone's got Amapi floating around, I definitely remember Amapi could easily do that and it reads (and writes I think) Rhino 3.0 nurbs as well. I'm not sure of the first version that had that feature though, but I know 7 did. I'll see if the free version, I think 5.1, is still around, and check if it has that feature.

Dear Colin,

I now have Rhino 4 and have been playing with the FlowAlongSrf command. I created a plane in MOI and laid some solid letters on it. I then created a cylinder and pasted the items into Rhino. The command does the job and the letters wrap around the surface beautifully. Is there a way to get the letters to space out evenly around the cylinder so that there is not a gap between first and last letter? I have found a temporary workaround by bringing the cylinder with the wrapped letters back into MOI and rotating the letters individually but this is quite time consuming. Is it a case of making a plane that is the length of the circumference of the cylinder?

Many thanks,

Philip

Hi Philip, you'll probably want to control the size of the base plane and make its left and right edges come pretty close to the first and last letter to control the spacing.

Can you possibly post a 3DM model file with your text in it? That would make it a lot easier for someone to examine it and give some suggestions on how to adjust the spacing like you are asking about.

- Michael

Hi Philip,

Good to hear you've got it all basically worked out.

I typically setup all my model in MoI, this includes the text which I'll roughly space out to what's needed.
To give myself a ballpark figure I take my circle OD & multiply by 3.14 & that gives me a basic flat length to work from.
I've found that in the long run it's quicker & easier for me to position each letter of the text, that way I know it's exactly where I want it.
Quite often I find that the kerning used by some programs isn't that great for milling tool clearance so you'll end up readjusting stuff anyway.

Once I'm in Rhino4 with everything setup & have the FlowAlongSurface reference, I'll bring the reference back into MoI & use it to redo the text on.
If the text is to be a Boolean Difference into the cylinder, then I'll move the text down in Z to the depth I want it before taking it back into Rhino.
With everything now back in Rhino, that's when I'll do the final FlowAlongSurface to get my finished result.
I'll then bring the finished result back into MoI to finish off what's needed because I much prefer working with MoI's UI.

Writing this out, it does sound like I do a lot of messing about, but I've done it enough times that I'm reasonably quick at it now.
If a similar "FlowAlongSurface" was to become available in MoI V3, then I could obviously ditch Rhino for this process.

HTH, Colin

I'll cast my vote for a FlowAlongSurface type of function.

Wrapping text or outlines of images around cylinders (outside ring engraving) is where I get hung up in MoI.

Carrara can accept 3DM files (which it converts to polys automatically) but can not export 3DM files.
Unfortunatly Amapi is dead--the version 8--which would have been brilliant--was buried.
Brian

"Carrara can accept 3DM files (which it converts to polys automatically) but can not export 3DM files."


Thanks for that info Brian.
So based on that, Rhino is still really the only option for most of us to use until MoI gets some of those same Advanced Tools.
I'm happy to just wait & see what Michael has planed...everything will happen in it's own good time & more importantly it will then work correctly!
Roll on MoI V3.

regards Colin

Brian, I was only thinking of Amapi as sort of an intermediate program to perform a function that may not have been present at this time in Moi and then bring it back into Moi. Also, I was thinking of the Carrara 5 pro free version. Though I purchased Amapi 7.5 pro I remember that Amapi 5 was distributed as freeware- so my thoughts were something along the lines of using something that worked that wouldn't cost anything. I'm the kind of person that doesn't mind using discontinued software if it's working perfectly :)

Carrara 5 Pro free is about as good a genuine comprehensive 3D App as any available.
In many respects, for the average user, far more comprehensive than the basic versions of any of the big name 3D apps.
Complements MoI very well. Far, far better than Amapi 7.5--- which I have.
Brian

when Carrara Studio changed hands I went to Modo. I'm still in baby steps mode- or maybe crawling :)