Add raised or engraved text to a 3D print
A lid that says what is in the box, a tag with a name, a bracket with its part number, the screw size next to the hole it takes: text is the last touch on a lot of printed parts. In SpeakCAD it is a tool in the rail. You type the words on the face where they go, and choose whether they stand up from it or sink into it.Raised or engraved?
Both are one choice on the card. Which one prints better depends on the face:
| Face | Raised | Engraved |
|---|---|---|
| Top face, facing up | Prints crisply, the letters are the last layers. A filament change at the layer where the letters start makes a two-colour label with one nozzle | Prints cleanly; the floors of the letters are small top surfaces |
| Side wall | Prints well at 0.6 to 1 mm; the underside of each horizontal stroke is a tiny overhang | Prints well; the top of each letter is a short bridge |
| Bottom face, on the bed | Needs supports under every letter: avoid | Works: the letters are gaps in the first layers, and read the right way round from below |
Sizes that print
- Letter height. 5 mm or more reads cleanly with a 0.4 mm nozzle, because the strokes of the bold font are then two or three lines wide. 3 to 4 mm works on a top face with fine layers; below that the letters blur together, and a 0.2 mm nozzle is the way down.
- Depth. 0.6 to 1 mm is enough to read and to feel, three to five layers at 0.2 mm. Engraved text on a thin wall should stay under half the wall's thickness.
- Length. Each capital is a little under the Letter height wide: "SPEAKCAD" at 6 mm is about 46 mm long. If the card says it reaches past an edge, shorten the text, lower the Letter height, or turn it with the Angle along the longer side.
Placing it, and changing it
The text stays a feature: tap it and its card shows the Letter height, the Depth and the Angle, ready to retype, with Move, Duplicate and Remove. To change the words themselves, Remove it and write the new ones. The Position rows measure to the centre of the text, like the centre of a hole: Centre on the face puts a label in the middle of a lid in one tap. Two lines are two Text edits, one placed above the other with its Position rows. To put the same mark in several places, Duplicate it in a line, a grid or a circle; copies are the same text. A screw size next to its hole ("M3") is a small Text placed a few millimetres from the hole's centre.
On your own STL
Text works on a flat face of a file you downloaded: open it with no change typed (the Upload an STL or 3MF card in a new model's empty editor, or the Edit an STL box with the change left empty), tap Text, then the face. A part shaped only by hand, your file included, downloads free with a free account.
What it does not do
- One font. The letters are a bold sans (Liberation Sans Bold): no font choice, no italics, no fonts of your own.
- One line of up to 40 characters, Latin letters with their accents, digits and the common signs; other alphabets, emoji and quotation marks are not available by hand.
- Flat faces only. Text that wraps around a cylinder or follows a curve is an AI request (2 credits): say the words, the face and the size.
What it costs
Shaping a part by hand (a hole and its screw head, a cut, an added tab, raised or engraved text, an extruded face, rounded corners, and copies in a row, a grid or a circle) and downloading what you shaped are free. Each AI request spends 2 credits, a download of AI work 4 credits, and G-code 5 more. Writing, changing and moving text are hand edits: free.
- 1Tap Text, then a flat faceTap Text in the rail (T on a computer), then the flat face the letters go on: the top of a lid, the front of a box, a tag. The card opens with a field for the text.
- 2Type the textUp to 40 characters on one line: letters, accented ones included, digits, spaces and the signs . , : ; ! ? - + / ( ) # & @ ° and the apostrophe. Quotation marks are not accepted.
- 3Raised or Engraved, Letter height and DepthRaised stands the letters up from the face; Engraved sinks them into it. Letter height is about the height of a capital, Depth how far the letters stand up or sink in. 6 mm tall and 0.6 mm deep is where they start.
- 4Angle and PositionAt an Angle of 0 the text reads left to right as you face that face; tap a quick angle or type one to turn it. The Position rows put the centre of the text a typed distance from the face's edges, or tap Centre on the face.
- 5Apply textPress Apply text. The part rebuilds in your browser with the letters, and the text stays a feature: tap it to change its size, depth or angle, Move it or Duplicate it.