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 :)