Draft ShapeString tutorial

Introduction
In this tutorial we will discuss how to > insert a text with the Draft Shapestring tool > extrude it to be a solid > position it in 3D space using placement and Draft Move on sketches > doing an engraving by applying a boolean cut

It is recommended to have completed the sketcher tutorial first.

Creating the basic shape

 * insert cube
 * change width to 50 mm
 * apply chamfer of 5 mm
 * toogle invisible

Inserting text with the Draft ShapeString tool

 * switch to Draft workbench
 * toggle working plane to XY
 * insert text "FreeCAD"

Create 3D text

 * switch to part workbench
 * make sure the Draft Shapestring object in the tree view is selected
 * use extude Z=1 mm, make sure to tick "create solid"

Insert sketch for positioning

 * switch to sketcher workbench
 * choose sloped face created by chamfer operation
 * click on to insert new sketch
 * draw horizontal or vertical line
 * constrain one of the endpoints to be 2,5 mm vertical distance and 2 mm horizontal distance away from the origin
 * close sketch

Positioning 3D text in 3D space

 * apply incremental placement Z=90°
 * apply incremental placement Y=45°
 * switch to draft workbench
 * switch to wireframe mode
 * make sure, only "snap to endpoint" is activated
 * select "extrude"-object
 * click on move
 * in 3D view click on the most upper left corner point and then click on the constrained point in the sketch

Creating engraved text

 * switch to part workbench
 * select the 3D text ("extrude") and then the base object ("chamfer")
 * apply a boolean cut by clicking on ...
 * you are done

Demonstration of workflows
Since a picture is better for explaining than text here are small screencasts showing

the workflow for the different chapters.

The films were recorded using FreeCAD 0.16.6704 on Windows 7 64-bit.

FreeCAD was set to "english" language.

The screencasts were recorded using screentogif.