Image Around a Cylinder. No Rotary Tool. No Galvo

I have a cylinder about 32mm Dia. with a logo. I want to cut out EVA foam to to fit around the raised logo.


I knew a straight line of the logo or text would not conform properly to the curvature of my cylinder so I started making adjustments to the individual letters to make them fit. This is obviously not the most efficient or effective process.

I have watched videos about bending text and images but I’m not sure these address my situation. I am asking advice as to which technique I should use. The videos explaining how to curve a logo onto a tumbler use either a rotary tool or Galvo. But, I am not etching/cutting onto a tumbler. My cutout will be lying flat. I started to try and put the logo on the blue ellipse but I don’t see how since it is not text.

What process would you use for this situation?

Hi.

Geometrywise it doesn’t matter whether a thin surface to be marked/etched/cut/etc. is a flat or a cylindrical surface.
As long as the cylindrical surface is uniform in the direction of the rotation that is.
If the surface is cut and has depth, things get rather complex, rather fast.
And cutting such a shape will require a complex multi-axis laser head.

If the shape of the surface is conical or a more complex shape, then the appropriate corrections have to be made.

In mathematical terminology the corrective methods are called descriptive geometry:

any modern 3D designing software should be able to handle that.
I’m pretty much 100% 2D person, so I won’t be able to recommend any specific software that would be easy to use, and in the same time be able to output a file type that’s compatible with LB.
I’m sure someone here knows such a software :slight_smile: .

Regards,
Sam

:finland:

You could try to use the taper warp tool (laser tools) to calculate the distortion of the text.

I did try the Taper Warp. While I didn’t try to cut any of the result it didn’t look like the results were correct. For one thing my model is bigger on the bottom. The template is for a smaller bottom and though I tried to reverse the measurement it didn’t look at all like what I need.
Thanks. If you have any other ideas I’m listening.

Ya it is tricky. I’ve been thorough a lot trying to get the logo on the cylinder. I think a slight curve of the logo will do pretty good but to be perfect it would need some rotations too.

I have seen videos where they suggest programs to do this and perhaps that is the way I need to go.

WOW! ( I Think).
I downloaded Inkscape because it bends stuff. I started messing with it but in the back of my mind I kept thinking Taper Warp. But, the way it was warping looked opposite of what I have been doing to get it to fit.
But, I kept thinking I could be wrong and why didn’t I just try to cut one?
So I did. As it was cutting I could see that it was actually cutting about the same way that I was moving the logo to fit. It looked different than was was displayed on the monitor.
1st try and it fits very good. I am going to make some setting changes but, daggggg! It looks good on the first cut.

Thanks for being that voice in the back of my head.

Opps. I may have spoken too soon.
I had more than one file on the card. I think that is my work that got cut. haaa

I was changing settings and they weren’t changing in the gcode. so I deleted the other files and the results are much different. Going to try more setting now but I had to uncheck Solution.

So I wound up just moving the characters around and sizing them this way and that. It’s kind of strange the way they have to be to fit properly. It helps that it isn’t a puzzle and the foam is forgiving so it doesn’t have to be 100%.
As ugly as it looks this is what fits.

Once I raise the Logo 0.5mm or so it should look cleaner.

My first experience with the Lightburn Forum has been satisfying.

Thank you guys very much for your time and advice.

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