HOW TO DEAL WITH SILKSCREEN

I started working with Solidworks about a year ago. My company
fabricates electrical panels that have a lot of silkscreen text on
them.
Our silkscreen dept needs a dxf file in order to import it into
Coreldraw and the text needs to be font text, not lines and points.
We thought we could go straight from Soliworks avoiding "dxf" and
"Coreldraw" steps but the text needs to be BOLD in order to burn the
screen; and forget about trying to do bold text with Solidworks!!...
I am having serious problems dealing with this because I have to work
twice creating the text in Solidworks so it is shown at the production
drawings and then creating it AGAIN with AutoCad for the silkscreen
Dept. This increased substancially my work load and the possibility of
error.

Besides I find that the text tool does not have to much flexibility
compared to other CAD programs.

PLEASE DOES ANYBODY HAVE A SOLUTION FOR THIS... IT IS DRIVING ME
CRAZY!!

Thanks.

Txedes

 

So all you need is DXF outline of some text

This is what I would do:

Extrude big square about size of your silk screen

Start sketch on top face of extrusion and use sketch text from sketch entities

Pick proper size and type of font for your text

Extrude or cut this

Create drawing of this model showing top view , set scale 1:1 and save this as DXF

This work great for all 2D machines like laser cutters

 

Txedes,

There is a solution to your issue that we've resolved in our latest
2008 release. I don't know what version you're on currently, but if
you want much smooth workflow between you and your art department,
SolidWork2008 is a must have.

In 2008, we've built in the capability to copy sketch geometry to the
windows clip board and then, if you have Adobe Illustrator on your
system, you can paste it into Illustrator directly using the Windows
Clipboard command. Our outlined text comes into Illustrator as vector
artwork but is filled. From there, you can do pretty much anything you
want to get it to silkscreen artwork.

This would entail that you have SW2008 but also a copy of Adobe
Illustrator on your's or the one in your art department receiving your
work.

Illustrator and PhotoShop are practically the industry standard when
it comes to artwork and I would be surprised if your art department
doesn't have it. If you don't, it would surely be worth it to you to
purchase a license or network license of it from Adobe.

Hope this helps

Mark

 

Hi Mark
What's wrong with Coreldraw?
It's industry standard for graphics also.
That's what I use for silkscreen artworks.

Hi Txedes
As for creating silkscreen artworks in Solidworks.
Forget it. Best to import the panel into coreldraw (or Adobe) and go
from there. There is a way though but very clunky. (as you know)

The way I do it is to create a line drawing outline (wireframe) in a
SLDDRW, create a dxf from it then import into Corel. Edit/add the
text/graphics/logos etc. for the silkscreen then block out (in corel)
the panel outline.

I know this doesn't solve the redundancy, I also wish there was a way.
but.....oh well
Cheers
Frank

 

First of all, thank you all for your input!

Mr T.
Your solution is good if I was dealing just with a little amount of
text but with a lot of text takes forever to create a boss and the end
result on the drawing is not a bold text it is just a contour.
I know that I could hatch it, but I have to go LETTER BY
LETTER!!!...too much!!!..


Mark,
We currently work with SW 2007. We are actually waiting since January
to get installed 2008 but I don't know why it is taking so long to get
it installed.
It seems that our SW providers are hesitating....
In any case as soon as we get it installed I would like to try what
you suggested, but our silkscreen dept. uses just Coreldraw.

Frank,
We somehow follow the same steps you do. But, wouldn't it be nice to
be able to go straight from SW?
My concern is duplicate or even triplicate documentation... this yield
into errors. I know that you will agree.
I feel your pain!!

I hope SW will come out with some better text tool in sketches in
following versions!

 

PDFs and illustrator would be my second choice

If your budget is limited lookup ACD System products

First of all, thank you all for your input!

Mr T.
Your solution is good if I was dealing just with a little amount of
text but with a lot of text takes forever to create a boss and the end
result on the drawing is not a bold text it is just a contour.
I know that I could hatch it, but I have to go LETTER BY
LETTER!!!...too much!!!..


Mark,
We currently work with SW 2007. We are actually waiting since January
to get installed 2008 but I don't know why it is taking so long to get
it installed.
It seems that our SW providers are hesitating....
In any case as soon as we get it installed I would like to try what
you suggested, but our silkscreen dept. uses just Coreldraw.

Frank,
We somehow follow the same steps you do. But, wouldn't it be nice to
be able to go straight from SW?
My concern is duplicate or even triplicate documentation... this yield
into errors. I know that you will agree.
I feel your pain!!

I hope SW will come out with some better text tool in sketches in
following versions!

 

One more thing...



This may actually work



If you need text outline with hatch why not extrude text and then make section thru it and DXF it

First of all, thank you all for your input!

Mr T.
Your solution is good if I was dealing just with a little amount of
text but with a lot of text takes forever to create a boss and the end
result on the drawing is not a bold text it is just a contour.
I know that I could hatch it, but I have to go LETTER BY
LETTER!!!...too much!!!..


Mark,
We currently work with SW 2007. We are actually waiting since January
to get installed 2008 but I don't know why it is taking so long to get
it installed.
It seems that our SW providers are hesitating....
In any case as soon as we get it installed I would like to try what
you suggested, but our silkscreen dept. uses just Coreldraw.

Frank,
We somehow follow the same steps you do. But, wouldn't it be nice to
be able to go straight from SW?
My concern is duplicate or even triplicate documentation... this yield
into errors. I know that you will agree.
I feel your pain!!

I hope SW will come out with some better text tool in sketches in
following versions!

 

Hello Mr. T

This is what I've tried:
I extruded the text and then on the drawing I used the "Broken-out
Section" feature. The result is that the whole text gets hatch which
is a step further for me!..
Now I just need to test with the Sillkscreen dept.

The only thing is that the text takes a little bit too long to get
extruded and also when I try to open the files it takes about 2
minutes to open.
Is that normal?

Thanks!

 

Yes a lot of text will take while but it is your PC working not you (that is what I prefer)

You may want to experiment with different fonts less curves faster it will update

Also make sure you work in 1:1 scale and find right hatch type / scale

And I would use section not broken-out ( I just trust some features more than others longer it is in a software more
stable it is )



Happy silk-screening



Let us know how it worked out

Hello Mr. T

This is what I've tried:
I extruded the text and then on the drawing I used the "Broken-out
Section" feature. The result is that the whole text gets hatch which
is a step further for me!..
Now I just need to test with the Sillkscreen dept.

The only thing is that the text takes a little bit too long to get
extruded and also when I try to open the files it takes about 2
minutes to open.
Is that normal?

Thanks!

 

first do not expect your CAD program to do everything that you need
done, although it would be nice. you can force it to do the job and
kind of make it work but you will spend more time doing this and it
will cause you nothing but problems. if you need to provide something
to support a manufacturing process then give them exactally what they
want, do it in their program. if the item needs to be in coreldraw do
the item in coreldraw. you can then make a rough representation in
your CAD program and do the real item in Coreldraw. yes this will
create a file management item that you will need to support but the
end result is that you are in control of the design, and in this case
it is the screenprinted artwork. this way you will know what you will
be recieving because you are driving the result.

Doing engineering work does not mean you do everything in your CAD
program. Doing engineering work means that you are in control of the
design, use the right software to insure the output is to your design
intent. Use the right tool for the job. iQ