Chris' name plaque had a lot less steps compared to some of the others. It was to be a simple domed oval with border and slightly raised textured center. I tweaked the font I chose as the 's' was higher than the other letters. O made the 'c' and the 'r' the same height. This balanced the extender of the 'h' and the dot of the 'i' nicely. An outline around the lettering completed the vectors. If I am using textures for the background (which I almost always do) I like to put a border around the lettering as it makes the words much more readable in my view.
To start I selected the outer oval, entered a value for the base of 0.4" and an angle of 14 degrees. This means the plaque will be 0.4" thick on the edge and the dome will start at 14 degrees as it rounds over. I knew from experience that for this size plaque and 1.5" thick Precision Board this would fit nicely.
Then I selected the oval relief once more as well as the lettering border. I would modify the relief once more to raise this area 0.2" - just above the frantic star texture.
The last step was to create the prismatic lettering. I selected the oval relief and the letters. I would use the prismatic tool which I would use to modify the relief. I entered a value of 0.15 for the base (vertical portion of the letters and set the angle of the tops at 21degrees slope.
Just like that Chris' name plaque was ready to tool path and send off to the MultiCam.
Stay tuned for more soon...
-dan
