Waterjet + Laser Cutting for Metal + Plastic

Let's take a look at four different engraving effects you can create in the Big Blue Saw Designer.

The part we create will be a small plaque with the words "The Best Laser Cutting." We can use the text tool to enter the text, and the rectangle tool to draw the outline of the plaque. By changing the properties of the text object using the Positive/Negative Space, Engrave, and Filled toggle buttons on the toolbar, we can achieve different engraving effects.

We will start by telling the Designer that the lettering should be engraved. We select the text object with the mouse, then click on the engraving toggle button on the toolbar. The appearance of the lettering will change as shown below.

In this state, we have told the Designer that we want to engrave just the outline of the letters. Here is a photo of the resulting part created with red engravable acrylic with a white background.

Next, suppose we want the letters filled instead of just outlined. We will need to select the text object and make sure that both the Engraved and Filled buttons on the toolbar are selected.

The result will be the part shown here.

Suppose that we wanted the letters to be red instead of white. We will first need to create an engraved background on which the letters will appear. We do this by making a rectangle and setting it to be engraved using the toolbar . Next, we will enter our text and center it within the engraved rectangle. It, too, must be set to be an engraved item using the toolbar . But now turn the text into negative space by using the "Toggle Subtractive" button on the toolbar in order to make sure that the letters appear in the material's "cap" color.

On the finished part, the outline of the letters will now appear in red, on a white background.

Finally, to display the letters as solid red on a white background, toggle the text object to be "Filled".

Here is the finished part.