Tool · Tools tab

Letters and pictures
on any face

Emboss puts lettering, an SVG drawing or a picture (PNG, JPEG) on a face — cut in or raised, flat or wrapped round a barrel or a ball. Keep it as a part of its own to print it in a second filament.

A PNG of a dog traced into outlines and cut into the face of a pyramid — A PNG of a dog traced into outlines — the dark parts, with the threshold at 0.58 — and cut 0.8 mm into the face of a pyramid, 16 mm tall. The handles on the face move and turn it; the corner squares resize it along the surface.

How to use it§ 01

Select one object.
Click Emboss on the Tools tab, then click the face.
Type the text and pick the font — or click Drawing... to load an SVG or a picture.
Place it: the circle moves it freely, the arrows across or up only, the knob turns it in 15 degree steps (hold Alt to turn it freely), and the corner squares resize it along the surface.
Set the depth and the rest, then click Apply.

Every setting§ 02

Text

Any installed font, bold or italic. Spacing adds room after every letter; negative draws them closer.

Drawing

The filled shapes of an SVG, or the dark parts of a picture. In a picture with transparency, whatever is not transparent is stamped.

Threshold and Invert

How dark counts as ink, from 0 to 1. Invert stamps the light parts instead — for a pale logo on a dark ground.

Depth and Bevel

How deep it is cut, or how far it stands proud. Bevel slopes the walls, so raised lettering has no step to bridge and cut lettering is not a slot one line wide.

Wrap

Flat on the face, or bent round the object as a barrel or a ball.

Across, Up and Turn

Where it sits from the middle of the face, and which way it runs, in degrees.

Repeat

Copies across the face and rows up it, a distance apart. Fill the face covers it with as many as fit; wrapped round a part, the spacing adjusts so there is no seam.

Raised, or a part of its own

Raised instead of cut stands it off the face. Keep as its own part makes it a separate part on the next filament: cut, it comes back as a plug that fills the recess.

Good to know§ 03

Raised work keeps off windows and doorways already cut in the face.
Wrapped lettering with closed counters — O, B, A — can be refused on a face already cut about. It is refused, never left torn; Raised instead of cut avoids the cut altogether.
To cover a whole face with a pattern, use Texture: see 3D textures.
For lettering as an object of its own — a sign, a name tag — use Text on the Insert tab.

More tool guides: Cladding · 3D textures · Windows · Doors · Mold · Voronoi · Connectors · Align to face · Fill up · Pivot · Kit sprue · Repair and Rebuild · History and versions · Printer profile · Download 3DFastCraft, free

Letters and pictureson any face