Engrave a ball?

[C10916]

Hi teams,

 

I am wanting to get some text engraved onto the curved surface of a water feature. So in vectorworks I should be able to apply text height and font types etc to show the client what it will look like in real life.

 

So, scratching head on how I actually do that in Vectorworks.

Am sure its really easy, any ideas?

 

Many thanks, C10916

Edited April 10, 2018 by C10916
adding picture.

[markdd]

This would be a good place to start. I don't see any text in your picture though. Of you want that lovely marbled effect then I would think about using a texture.

 

Edited April 10, 2018 by markdd

[C10916]

Hi Markdd,

 

Love the video! thank you for the link.

I have got so far with the video, however my text needs to be wrapped all around the sphere then I can attach it to the sphere.

 

You can see from my snapshot that the text goes way past the edges of the sphere.

I need to be able to have the text (now nurbs curves) wrapped around the sphere and going into the sphere....Im not sure how I get the text to wrap the sphere. :o(

 

Any ideas?

[Kevin McAllister]

Here's the steps of how I would do it -

 

 

And a screen shot of using the Deform Tool to bend the extruded text around the sphere -

 

 

I've also attached a file with all of the steps.

 

If your text is very tall it might be possible to bend (bow) the text vertically before bending it around the sphere so it follows the contour of the sphere's surface. (I would use Flow Along Surface in Rhino if I needed something super accurate.)

 

Kevin

 

Engraved_Text.vwx

[C10916]

46 minutes ago, Kevin McAllister said:

Here's the steps of how I would do it -

 

 

And a screen shot of using the Deform Tool to bend the extruded text around the sphere -

 

 

I've also attached a file with all of the steps.

 

If your text is very tall it might be possible to bend (bow) the text vertically before bending it around the sphere so it follows the contour of the sphere's surface. (I would use Flow Along Surface in Rhino if I needed something super accurate.)

 

Kevin

 

Engraved_Text.vwx

 

Thank Kevin for your time and advise, I will take a look at your file now, pronto!

I don't have Rhino am afraid, only VW.

 

As long as I can create something for client to see how potentially engraved text would look on a spherical water feature I'm made up. You know, if it should all be capitals, or first letter uppercase, etc....spacing or so...

 

Will keep you posted how I get along, how exciting.

 

[C10916]

I can wrap the text round but I cant make it hug the spherical surface, any extra tips?

[markdd]

OK. Heres my shot at this.

 

Use the text along path tool to create text along the curve that you need. Have the tool create extrudes.

 

Extract a 2D Nurbs curve from each one of the extruded text letters

 

Using the project tool, project the Planar Nurbs onto the surface of the sphere. You will need to do some nifty subtracting of solids to create letters like B, D, A etc (Anything with a hole in it)

 

Make the radius of the sphere a little bigger to overlap the projected text. Select all the text and make into a solid addition.

 

Extract the text from the Sphere. Then scale the ball with the etched text back to the size you need it to be.

 

The text should now Hug the sphere.

 

Phew!

 

File attached.

 

TEXT SPHERE.vwx

Edited April 16, 2018 by markdd

[Kevin McAllister]

5 hours ago, C10916 said:

I can wrap the text round but I cant make it hug the spherical surface, any extra tips?

 

Here's a slightly more developed solution where the text is bent in two directions -

 

 

The first bend is done in a side view -

 

 

The second bend is the same as in my first solution. The resulting text is bowled and wraps around the sphere. Here's a closeup -

 

 

I've attached my file again. It has both solutions on separate layers.

 

There's some good ideas in @markdd's solution above. I think I were to approach it using the Project tool I would use the project and split mode to carve up a copy of the sphere. Once you had curved versions of each letter as a surface you could easily shell them using the Shell tool and then do a Solid Subtraction to create the engraving.

 

Kevin

Engraved_Text.vwx

[Benson Shaw]

VWX needs a Conform to Surface command or tool.  A thing that would push any planar geometry onto any surface without changing the dimension - ie, conformed shape has arcs of same lengths as the earlier planar lengths.  The real world equivalent is placing a rubber or fabric stencil, or a decal on an uneven surface.  I know, these distort a little bit, but not noticeably.

 

The workarounds described above are great, but only apply well to cylinders, spheres and other regular surfaces.  If the surface is pear shaped, or undulating or otherwise complex, the exercise requires a lot more work.

 

The initial workflow I imagine is with planar geometry flowing onto a surface:

•Select the geometry and the surface.

•Run the command - The geometry (or a copy of it) transfers to the surface as a Group of NURBS.

•Shell if thickness is needed.

•Add/Subtract solids as necessary.

 

-B

Edited April 17, 2018 by Benson Shaw

[Kevin McAllister]

11 minutes ago, Benson Shaw said:

VWX needs a Conform to Surface command or tool.  A thing that would push any planar geometry onto any surface without changing the dimension - ie, conformed shape has arcs of same lengths as the earlier planar lengths.  The real world equivalent is placing a rubber or fabric stencil, or a decal on an uneven surface.  I know, these distort a little bit, but not noticeably.

 

The workarounds described above are great, but only apply well to cylinders, spheres and other regular surfaces.  If the surface is pear shaped, or undulating or otherwise complex, the exercise requires a lot more work.

 

The initial workflow I imagine is with planar geometry flowing onto a surface:

•Select the geometry and the surface.

•Run the command - The geometry (or a copy of it) transfers to the surface as a Group of NURBS.

•Shell if thickness is needed.

•Add/Subtract solids as necessary.

 

-B

 

^Yup. In Rhino the commands are "Flow along Curve" or "Flow along Surface". You have control over whether objects you are flowing maintain their scale or stretch.

 

Kevin