Engrave Cad

2/6/2019 F-Engrave Manual
Contents
• Top
• Tips from Scorch
F-Engrave Manual
• Questions and
Answers
• Command Line
Options
• Keyboard Shortcuts F-Engrave Home Download Scorch Works Home
• Mouse Bindings
• Configuration File
• Main Window
Settings
• General Settings
• V-Carve Settings Tips from Scorch
• PBM Settings
This is the advice I would give to a friend that started using F-Engrave.
Open F-Engrave can open the g-code (.ngc) files that were saved by F-Engrave. If you like the
old .ngc results you had last time or just want to make small modifications open the file you saved
files and work from those settings. There is no need to start over from scratch.
The v-carve setting for "Sub-Step Length" is an important setting for v-carving. The v-
V-Carve carving algorithm performs tool location and depth calculations at a fixed interval. The
Settings: fixed interval is the "Sub-Step Length" a large substep length will increase the speed of
"Sub- the v-carve calculation but could result in a faceted looking v-carve.
Step
Length" Metric users probably should increase the default value for "Sub-Step Length" to
increase the calculation speed (A metric value of .25 mm would be reasonable)
Questions and Answers

How do I get the ttf2cxf_stream program to work?
F-Engrave launches the ttf2cxf_stream program behind the scenes. To use a true type font file (TTF) you
need to put the .ttf file you want to use in the fonts directory (or the directory pointed to in the setting
dialog). The TTF files should show up in the list of available fonts if the ttf2cxf_stream program is
operating correctly and it is located in the same folder as the f-engrave program. If the ttf2cxf_stream
program is not present or not working you should get a message in the console window stating that
ttf2cxf is not working. More setup info is here: F-Engrave Setup
Command Line Options
python f-engrave-XX.py [-g file | -f fontdir ]

Usage or
f-engrave-XX.exe [-g file | -f fontdir ]
-g
f-engrave g-code output file to read
(or --gcode_file)
-f
path to font file directory
(or --fontdir)
-h
print syntax help to console window.
(or --help)
Example
(Using python script with python f-engrave-XX.py -g my_file.ngc -f /my_font_dir/sub_dir
preinstalled python distribution)
Example
(Using precompiled f-engrave-XX.exe -g my_file.ngc -f C:/My_font_dir/sub_dir
Windows executable)
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Keyboard Shortcuts
Contents
• Top Open the Help dialog box. (There is nothing in the help except a reference back to
F1
• Tips from Scorch the web page and my e-mail address)
• Questions and
Answers F2 Opens General Settings Dialog Box
• Command Line
Options F3 Opens V-Carve Setting Dialog Box
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Mouse Bindings
• Configuration File F4 Opens PBM Setting Dialog Box
• Main Window
Settings Recalculate (This performs the same functions as the recalculate button on the
F5
• General Settings main page)
• V-Carve Settings
• PBM Settings Control-Up
Scroll Font List Box (Operating system dependant)
Arrow
Control-
Scroll Font List Box (Operating system dependant)
Down Arrow
Page Up Zoom in on the center of the display window.
Page Down Zoom out from the center of the display window.
Mouse Bindings
Left Mouse Zoom in and out. Hold the left mouse button down and move the mouse up or
Button down.
Right Mouse
Pan. Hold the right mouse button down and move the mouse.
Button
Mouse Scroll
Depending on the operating system this may scroll the font list box.
Wheel
Configuration File
When F-Engrave starts up it looks for a file named "config.ngc". If the file is found it is
read and all of the F-Engrave options are set according to the settings saved in the
config file. F-Engrave looks for the config file in the current directory and in the users
home directory (the default save directory). The config file can be named
"connfig.ngc" or ".fengraverc" if either of these are found it will be used to set the
config.ngc
default settings. Only the first config file found is read.
or
.fengraverc
To create a config file with your preferred options for startup just open F-Engrave and
change the settings to your liking and save a file called "config.ngc" in the users
home directory (the default save directory) or the directory F-Engrave is called from.
(If you are not using the precompiled windows executable you could also just edit the
settings in the .py file)
Main Window (Text Mode and Image Mode)
Contents
• Top
• Questions and
Answers
• Command Line
Options
• Mouse Bindings
• Main Window
Settings
• PBM Settings
Input Field Description
Text Height
Character height of a single line of text. This setting also controls the height image
or
files (DXF or PBM) that are imported. (F-Engrave treats the DXF file data as a
Image
character)
Height
Thickness or width of lines used when displaying text. To preview what engraved text
this should be set equal to the diameter of the cut that will be made on the CNC
Line machine.
Thickness
When the V-Carve option is selected this does not have any effect on the displayed
line thickness.
Text Width The width of characters or image (DXF or PBM) file data. When 100% is selected the
or width of the character is not scaled. Value other than 100% will result in the character
Image width scaled by the percentage specified. (i.e. Circles will become ovals)
Width
Contents The space between characters F-Engrave uses constant character spacing. The
Char space between all characters are the same. The character spacing is determined as a
• Top Spacing percentage of the maximum width of the characters in the currently selected font. 0%
• Tips from Scorch will result in the characters touching each other and can be useful in special cases.
• Questions and
Answers
• Command Line Word The space between word or the width of the space character. This is determined as a
Options Spacing percentage of the maximum width of the characters in the currently selected font.
• Mouse Bindings The vertical spacing between lines of text. This is a multiple of the text height
• Configuration File Line previously input. A vertical spacing of 1.0 could result in consecutive lines of text
• Main Window Spacing touching each other if the maximum height character is directly below a character that
Settings extends the lowest (like a "g").
• V-Carve Settings Text Angle
• PBM Settings or
Rotation of the text or image (DXF or PBM) from horizontal.
Image
Angle
Justification lines up the Left, Right or Center of multiple lines of text. This option has
Justify
no effect on a single line of text.
The origin determines the relative location of the g-code x and y zero location. The
current location of the origin is displayed in the display window as a red and green
lines. The red and green lines follow the RGB convention Red is the x-axis, Green in
the y-axis.
Origin
The default location of the origin is the zero position of the first character. When using
the text on circle options the default origin position will change to the center of the
circle which the text is being placed on.
Flip Text
Flip the text or image about a horizontal axis. (This is the same a Mirror Text except is
or
it about the horizontal axis)
Flip Image
Mirror Text
or Mirror the text or image about a vertical axis (This is the same as Flip Text except is it
Mirror about the vertical axis)
Image
Circle The circle radius is the radius of the circle that the text in the input box is placed on. If
Radius the circle radius is set to 0.0 the text is not placed on a circle.
Outside Select whether the text is placed so that is falls on the inside of the circle radius or the
Circle outside of the circle radius.
Select whether the text is placed on the top of the circle of on the bottom of the circle
Top of (concave up or concave down). If the text angle is set to something other than 0.0 the
Circle top and bottom of the circle will be rotated by the angle specified in the text angle
input box.
Feed Rate Specify the tool feed rate that is output in the g-code output file.
Z Safe This is the z location that the tool will be directed to prior to any rapid moved.
Simply the depth of the engraving cut. This setting has no effect when the v-carve
Cut Depth
option is selected.
This list box shows the file names for the font files (CXF and TTF). The current font
Font Files
directory can be changed in the settings dialog.
Show All
This option temporarily shows all of the font characters available in the currently
Font
selected font file.
Characters
Engrave/V-
Select whether the program is in "Engrave" or "V-Carve" mode this setting.
Carve
Calculate This button executes the V-Carving feature of the program. Executing this command
V-Carve can result in long calculation times.
Recalculate the display for all of the settings to preview the result. Everything is
Recalculate
recalculated by this command except the V-Carve calculation.
Input Text This is the text that will be displayed in the preview box and eventually exported to g-
code.
Contents The status bar provides various bits of information when working with F-Engrave. One
of the most useful is the bounding box size. When the recalculate button is pressed
Status Bar the overall size of the engraving or v-carving will be calculated and displayed in the
• Top status bar in terms of a bounding box size with a width and height. This is very useful
• Tips from Scorch if you have a fixed area in which to engrave.
• Questions and
Answers
• Command Line
Options
• Mouse Bindings
• Main Window General Settings
Settings
• PBM Settings
Input
Description
Field
Units Set the units used by F-Engrave to inches or mm. This option affects the displayed
(inch/mm) units and the units output in the g-code.
On the main input window the "origin" setting determines the location of the g-code x
X Offset and y zero location relative to the text or DXF design. The "X Offset" and "Y Offset"
and Y values are additional modifications to the zero location. The offsets are added to the g-
Offset code output values for x and y. That is if the text is centered around x=0,y=0 and the X
Offset=3.0 and Y Offset=4.0 the text would then be centered around x=3.0,y=4.0.
All arcs, circles and splines are reduced to individual straight line segments by F-
Engrave. The "Arc Angle" determines how many line segments are used to describe
these curved entities. If the "Arc Angle" is set to 90 degrees a circle would be
Arc Angle
represented by a square (90 deg corners). If the angle is set to 60 degrees a circle
would be represented by a hexagon. The lower the angle the more accurate the
representation (at the cost of computing time and potentially CNC performance)
The accuracy setting determines the maximum distance between two points that are
Accuracy considered coincident. This is setting can be increased to reduce unnecessary Z
(New in moves when the end point of one line and the start point of the next line are very close
version but they are not coincident. This setting also reduced the sensitivity to DXF splines
0.5) with loops at sharp corners that would cause bad v-carve paths (I will eventually add
an example of this here)
G Code The text that is entered in the G-Code header entry box is added to the beginning of
Header the g-code commands in the F-Engrave output file. The commands are interpreted by
the CNC machine as entered. The default values (G17 G90 G64 M3 S3000 M7) are
explained below:
G17
Sets XY plane
G90
Fixed cycle, simple cycle, for roughing (Z-axis emphasis)
G64 P0.003
G64 P- (motion blending tolerance set to 0.003) This is the default in the legacy
program "engrave.py"
G64
G64 without P option keeps the best speed possible, no matter how far away
from the programmed point you end up.
M3 S3000
Spindle start at 3000
M7
Turn mist coolant on (if it is available)
Contents The text that is entered in the G-Code Postscript entry box is added to the end of the
g-code commands in the F-Engrave output file. The commands are interpreted by the
• Top CNC machine as entered . The default values (M5 M9 M2) are explained below:
• Tips from Scorch M5
• Questions and G Code
Stop Spindle
Answers Postscript
M9
• Command Line Turn all coolant off
Options M2
• Keyboard Shortcuts End Program
• Mouse Bindings
• Main Window The directory which F-Engrave will search for font files (TTF and CXF) and drawing
Settings exchange files (DXF) files. The files in the searched directory that have the correct
Font
• General Settings extensions are displayed in the Font Files list box. Opening a DXF file using the
Directory
• V-Carve Settings menus will automatically change the current font directory to the directory containing
• PBM Settings the DXF file that was opened.
The height of the text can be determined one of two ways. The first is the maximum
height of the characters used in the input box. In this case the maximum height of the
Height characters in the input box is used to determine the height of the characters.
Calculation
Max The second option is "Max All" when this is selected the maximum height of all of the
Used/Max characters available in the font file is used to determine the height of the text. When
All "Max All" is used it is possible to have an output text height less than the height input
in the main window because the character with the max height may not be used in the
engraved text.
Add This option adds a box around the output text. If the text placed on a circle a bounding
Box/Circle circle is added in lieu of a bounding box.
Border The Border gap determines the size of the bounding box added by the "Add
Gap Box/Circle" option. The gap between the text and the bounding box is set in units of
(multiple of length (in or mm). This input has changed in version 0.8 but when reading old .ngc
line files F-Engrave will calculate the equivalent entry for the new format (i.e. version 0.8 is
thickness) backward compatible with .ngc files created in previous versions of F-Engrave)
V-Carve Settings
Contents
• Top
• Questions and
Answers
• Command Line
Options
• Mouse Bindings
• Main Window
Settings
• PBM Settings
Input
Description
Field
The angle of the v-cutting bit that will be used.

V-Bit Angle Apparently the actual angle on bits may not match the angle specified by the
manufacturer.
The maximum diameter of a cut that will be generated.

V-Bit
This can be set lower than the actual bit diameter to control the max width/depth of
Diameter
cut.
The v-carving algorithm steps along the font or DXF outline and performs tool location
and depth calculations at a fixed interval. The fixed interval is the "Sub-Step Length" a
large substep length will increase the speed of the v-carve calculation but could result
Sub-Step
in a more faceted looking v-carve. Reducing the "Sub-Step Length" too much can
Length
cause excessive calculation time and reduced CNC machine performance (due to
excessive short G1 commands). If in doubt start with a larger step size and reduce the
value until the results seem reasonable.
Flip F-Engrave assumes that the font or image (DXF) file creates closed paths running
Normals clockwise around the shape to be carved and defaults to carving the internal space of
(V-Carve the character. The flip normals reverses the processing of the character or DXF
Side) shape. This results in the outside of the character or DXF shape being removed.
Plot During Enable or disable plotting of the v-carve calculation progress during the v-carve
V-Carve calculation. This option will increase the speed of the calculation process without
Calculation affecting the g-code output.
Finish The Finish Pass Stock is the amount (depth) of material that will be left for the final
Pass pass of cutting. F-Engrave will always leave the Finish Pass Stock to be removed
Stock during the final pass even if your Max Depth per Pass is set to a value deeper than the
and max depth of cut for a given design.
Max Depth
per Pass If your settings are:
Finish Pass Stock =.03
Max Depth per Pass = .1
And your max depth at a location in the design is .5 the the cut depths for the passes
at that location in the design will be.
pass 1: .1
pass 2: .2
pass 3: .3
pass 4: .4
pass 5: .47
Contents pass 6: .5 (this is the finish pass. .5-.47=.03)
• Top Cleanup
• Tips from Scorch This sets the diameter of the cleanup bit. Simply set this to the diameter of the cleanup
Cut
• Questions and bit that will be used.
Diameter
Answers
• Command Line
Options Cleanup
This is the step over for the cleanup cuts. This number is entered as a percentage of
• Keyboard Shortcuts Cut Step
the cleanup bit diameter.
• Mouse Bindings Over
• Main Window Cleanup These check boxes determine what type of tool paths are used with the cleanup bit.
Settings Cut P: Cut the perimeter of the area to be cleaned up X: Cut in the X direction Y: Cut in the
• General Settings Directions Y direction
• PBM Settings This is the step over to be used when cleaning up areas that cannot be reached with
V-Bit
the cleanup bit. The cutting is to be performed using the same V-bit that was used for
Cleanup
cutting the main v-carve design. This step over is entered as the step distance in the
Step
currently selected length units.
These check boxes determine what type of tool paths are used with the V-bit.
V-Bit Cut
P: Cut the perimeter of the area to be cleaned up X: Cut in the X direction Y: Cut in the
Directions
Y direction
Calculate the area that requires cleanup. After the area is determined the cut paths for
Button: cleaning up the design are calculated based on the parameters set below. The area
Calculate calculation will only be performed one time after the v-carve calculation is completed.
Cleanup F-Engrave will remember the previous area results and use them until a new v-carve
calculation is performed.
Button:
Save
This button saves the cleanup G-Code to a file.
Cleanup
G-Code
Button:
Save
This button saves the v-bit cleanup G-Code to a file.
Cleanup
G-Code
PBM Settings
Description
Input
(These option are direct inputs to Potrace. For more information refer to the
Field
Potrace documentation)
Turn
Tells Potrace how to resolve ambiguities in path decomposition.
Policy
Turd Size Suppress speckles of up to this size
Alpha
Corner threshold parameter
Max
Long Turn on/off curve optimization. Curve optimization reduces the time required to perform
Curve the v-carve calculations.
Contents Opt
Curve optimization tolerance
Tolerance
• Top
• Questions and
Answers
• Command Line
Options
• Mouse Bindings
Known Issues
• Main Window - F-Engrave outputs a G1 command for every calculated step when performing v-carving. If the step size
Settings is set small the CNC machine will never reach the input feed rate if it cannot accelerate to the input
• General Settings speed over the step length.
• PBM Settings - Not all DXF files are supported. There are a lot of different entity types in DXF files not all of them are
supported.
- Not all TTF files are supported. Some TTF files have embedded images instead of vector graphic
representations the TTF fonts with embedded images are not supported.
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2/6/2019 F-Engrave Manual

Questions and Answers

Command Line Options

python f-engrave-XX.py [-g file | -f fontdir ]

Page Up Zoom in on the center of the display window.

Main Window (Text Mode and Image Mode)

Input Field Description

The angle of the v-cutting bit that will be used.

The maximum diameter of a cut that will be generated.

Turd Size Suppress speckles of up to this size

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