QuickPanel Wiki Engraving

Engraving your own graphics and logo

Engrave a logo, a symbol or lettering in your own font from a DXF vector file. The app works out the tool paths itself – no more drawing inner contours by hand as in the old program.

1. Prepare the file

  • Draw or export the artwork as DXF in millimetres (CorelDraw, Inkscape, Illustrator, AutoCAD…).
  • Convert texts to curves. Graphics are read from lines, arcs, circles, polylines and splines only.
  • Explode blocks (symbols) – block contents are not read.
  • For an area to be milled, draw it as closed outlines. An outline inside another (e.g. the inside of the letter O) stays unmilled.
  • Put helper items (frame, dimensions) on a separate layer, which you then leave out when importing.

2. Import into the app

  1. Choose Features ▸ Engraved Graphics and pick the .dxf file.
  2. Tick the layers to engrave (the app remembers them for the next import).
  3. Set the scale, the engraving tool and the Contour only option (see below).
  4. Click Import and place the graphics with a click on the panel. Position, scale and tool can be changed later in the feature's properties.

3. Contour or area

  • Contour only (default) – the tool traces every line of the graphics, giving an outline drawing as wide as the chosen tool.
  • Area (option off) – closed outlines are milled out completely; the app picks the tools for that. Open lines are still engraved as lines with the chosen tool.

Details thinner than the smallest tool (0.2 mm) are not cut – enlarge tiny parts of a logo a little.

A whole panel from DXF

When you import a whole panel drawing with File ▸ Import, layers whose name contains engraving, text or label come in directly as engraving – texts as engraved text, everything else as engraved graphics.