Clock face and lettering

[Robojeeper (RG2)]

Wanting to make some clocks faces with lettering/words inside of numbers. How can the names/words I create layout in a circle without doing each letter then rotating individually? I only use carbide create pro and carbide create. Thanks for any input.

[Liferj (John lifer)]

There are a number of cheap or free programs that can way more easily do this sort of thing. I use CorelDRAW for my laser designs and will most probably use it for the cnc designs. Export as dxf and import into CC to set Toolpaths. Inkscape (I’m not real fan, but it works and is free to use) is one, student or educational version of CorelDRAW might work for you

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

I documented making a compass rose here:

How to draw a compass rose

This came up on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2644525455580585&set=gm.641838326224130&type=3&theater&ifg=1 [69753716_2644525458913918_1833389034626351104_n] Since it’s symmetrical, it’s pretty straight-forward to draw — start by placing the image on the background

which is much the same.

You’ll have to set each number individually, then rotate it into place, but each is just 30 degrees more than the previous one. Unfortunately, Carbide Create lacks the Lens functionality which Macromedia Freehand had which one could use to create a template for this sort of thing.

c.f., How to draw a star --- Carbide Create

Probably the best commercial program to consider would be Serif’s Affinity Designer.

[luc.onthego (Luc)]

Here is a free online program to create a clock face. https://clocktickgenerator.makertoolmaker.com/ Someone posted it here some time ago, here is the thread. I hope it helps.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Folks should also check out: Shapeoko CNC Router, Rigid, Accurate, Reliable, and Affordable

The software was posted by @campeterson who wrote it:

Build a clock in Carbide Create

Hey all, I’ve been building clocks for a year now on my Shapeoko XL. After getting tired of manually creating the clock ticks, I built a web-based tool for generating them. The clock tick generator is available here: https://clocktickgenerator.makertoolmaker.com Here is a video demonstration: Hopefully it can be of use to someone.

(both of those are listed at: https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/CAD#Clocks )

[luc.onthego (Luc)]

I guess that I did not post the link properly in my reply, thanks Will.

[campeterson]

Hi @Robojeeper. Clock Tick Generator creator here… I originally built it to take the pain out of laying out the clock ticks. Then I realized that number alignment was my next problem. I added the HOUR CHARACTER ALIGNMENT GUIDES to help with number placement. I had a version that had numbers (and even Roman numerals), but I found there was such a variety of fonts that I couldn’t support them all. So at this point, the number exercise is left to the user

[Robojeeper (RG2)]

Thanks to everyone for info. I will checkout all the ideas. Thanks again.