Spiral 3d Text in Fusion

Adding 3d text to a flat surface is easy in Autodesk Fusion. It's even easy to add text to a curved surface. But until recently, it was tricky to wrap text around a curved surface, and almost impossible to spiral text around a cylinder or sphere.

And then, Autodesk introduced the "EMBOSS" command. That changed everything. And when they added the ability to emboss on multi-curved surface like spheres, things became really entertaining.

In this tutorial, we're going to concentrate on creating spiraling text around a cylinder. We will use the "Emboss" command exclusively. Don't get nervous, but PI and its relation to a circle will be used in a formula. 

This technique is good for creating:

Ancient relic with alien runes

Bracelet with spiraling love poem

Ring with engraved cryptic warning

Column with name of heroes or supporter

Lampshade with inspirational quotes

Candle holder that projects text onto table or wall

Rollers for paint or impressions

Engaging graphics for advertisements or announcements

You will need the Autodesk FUSION software. A free version is available for download.

We will use "PARAMETERS" to create a system that allows you to change the look of the text with a few simple clicks. A familiarity with parameters will be helpful.

When the "Emboss" command was first introduced, I noticed that the embossed features could not overlap. If the embossed feature touched or overlapped even a little, the Emboss command would fail.

However, the Emboss command will allow intertwined features, like when you intertwine your fingers. Once I realized this, I had to see if I could make a spiral that wrapped all the way around a cylinder again and again. It worked, but guessing at the correct angle to slant the spiral was frustrating. 

Eventually, I resorted to math. With some basic geometry and a simple formula, I could make reusable "parameters." Once I got the parameters working, I could just plug in some numbers and the formulas in the parameters would calculate the slant-angle for me. I could then try multiple variations with a few clicks. Then it started getting fun.

From there, adding a few tweaks so that the parameters worked with text was simple. It's easy to spiral text around a cylinder if you use large angles but spacing the lines of text very close together was a matter of trial and error. However, if I used the formula, I could pack the text very tightly together without fear of overlapping. So, I thought it was worth sharing.

Try the Simple Way First

You don't actually need to create any parameters or formulas to get spiral text on a cylinder.

Just create a cylinder, maybe 50mm in diameter and 100m high.

Add some text to a sketch that's perpendicular the cylinder. The sketch can be in front of, behind, or in the middle of the cylinder.

Use the "Emboss" command with a large "Rotation Angle".

You'll probably get spiraling text on the first try.

In fact, I suggest you create a few spirals like this to understand how they work.

Why Use Parameters and Formulas at All

The benefits of using parameters and formulas quickly becomes apparent when you try to refine the Emboss, try to get the lines of spiraling text really close together, or just like to try different sizes and looks. Being able to make most of your changes in a single dialog box makes creating rapid iterations a much simpler process. And it's not that hard.

All you need are one component, two sketches, and few parameters. Then, with two simple commands, you will get text that spirals around a cylinder, and it can all be changed by just entering a few values in a single dialog box.

Start by creating a new component. Name it something like "SpiralText" 

If this is the only thing in the file, it might seem silly to create a component. But it is always best practice to create a new component. And if you do create additional geometry, you will already have the cylinder body, the sketches and text all neatly packaged in a separate container.

Parameters

I needed to draw the sketches first and figure things out before I could create the parameters. But it will be simpler for you to create the parameters first.

Note that I have my own naming system and use metric measurements. But you can use any names or measurement system you want. Using the name "Tube" instead of "Cylinder" would be easier to type. You can abbreviate "Diameter" to "Dia" or even just "D" without changing the function of the parameters. I just used long names for clarity in the tutorial.

Create the following parameters:

CylinderDiameter to 50 and "mm"

CylinderCircumference to the formula "PI*CylinderDiameter: and "mm" (Gasp, math and it didn't hurt)

CylinderHeight to 100 and unit "mm"

TextHeight to 5 and unit "mm"

TextGap to 1 and unit "mm" (This could also be implemented as a multiplier of the TextHeight parameter so that the gap automatically changed when the size of the text changed. It might even be a better way, but I wanted to have direct control of the spacing.)

TextDepth to 2 and unit "mm"

Slant to 1 and unit "deg" (We will replace the numerical value later with a reference to the ID of a sketch dimension)

Create a new sketch and name it "Cylinder" 

Draw a vertical construction line from the origin (0,0 point).

Draw a circle. Set the circle's diameter dimension to the parameter "Cylinder Diameter.".

Add a "Coincident" constraint between the center-point of the circle and the vertical construction line.

Add a dimension between the center-point of the circle and the origin. Set the dimension to be half of the "CylinderDiameter" parameter. (CylinderDiameter/2)

Draw a right triangle below the circle. You could also put the triangle in a separate sketch. I put the circle and triangle together in the same sketch so that I could easily see how the triangle changes when I change the diameter of the circle. 

Dimension one side so that it equals the sum of the "TextHeight" and "TextGap" parameters. (TextHeight + TextGap). Note how we put the formula directly into the dimension. You could also create a formula in a new parameter and set the dimension to the value of the parameter.

Set the other side to be equal to the "CylinderCircumference" parameter. We could also have put the "PI*CylinderDiameter" formula directly into the dimension. Both methods work identically, so where to put the formula is really a matter of your working style.

Dimension the angle opposite the side that's the sum of TextHeight and TextGap. Make a note of the dimension's ID. Open the parameters dialog and replace the numerical value with the dimension ID. This is the angle you will use to make sure the spiral text doesn't collide with itself as it wraps around the cylinder. We could have created a formula to calculate the degrees, but that requires knowledge of the tan() function and converting radians to degrees etc. But we have the value automatically calculated for us, so why not just reference the free resource.  

Finish the sketch.

Extrude the circle sketch symmetrically using the "CylinderHeight" parameter. Once you get a better idea of how big your text will be in relation to the cylinder, you can adjust the height. And remember that you can adjust the placement of the text by using the Horizontal and Vertical fields in the dialog box

Create the second sketch on a plane perpendicular to the plane of the first sketch

Draw a vertical construction line from the origin.

Draw a short horizontal line starting from the vertical construction line.

Use the "TextHeight" parameter to dimension the line's distance away from the origin.

Start the "Text" command and use "Text on Path" option. Select the horizontal line. A text box with an insertion point at the intersection of the vertical construction line and the short horizontal line should appear. 

Type a word or short phrase into the field. Set the height of the text to the "TextHeight" parameter.

Dimension the text box horizontally. Use something fairly large in relation to your anticipated text size. You are trying to make sure that all your text will be on a single line instead of wrapping into multiple lines. You could also create a parameter and formula to set the length of the text box if you choose.

Finish the Sketch

Open the "EMBOSS" command. 

Select the sketch text as the "Profile" and the curved face of the cylinder as the Faces.

In the dialog box, set the depth field of the emboss to the "TextDepth" parameter. 

Set the "Rotation Angle" field to the "TextSlant" parameter. 

Finish the command. 

Your text should now be spiraling around the cylinder.

If it worked, open the sketch that contains the text, select the text and type a longer phrase, long enough to wrap around the cylinder several times. 

Open the Parameters dialog and play. Change the value of CylinderDiameter, or TextHeight or TextGap. You will probably need to change the gap whenever you change the height of the text. NOTE: Turn off the "Automatic Compute" option in the parameter dialog to speed up regeneration if you want to make multiple changes at once. 

Notice how the angle of the text changes when you change sizes of spacing. Does the angle increase or decrease? How many times it wraps all the way around the cylinder?

Change the TextDepth parameter and notice how it changes the appearance. Does the text start to distort and become difficult to read when the depth value is very large?

Remember, you can always manually set the slant angle to a value higher than the value calculated by the parameters. The calculated slant is the minimum needed to avoid touching and overlaps, so larger values should also work.

You could add a multiplier to the formula for the "TextSlant" parameter. Something like "TextSlant*1.5" to get wider spacing. That way, you can avoid overlaps using the TextSlant value as a minimum, but easily increase the slant by changing the value of the multiplier.

You can use a negative TextSlant angle and cause the spiral to slant in the opposite direction. Combine with the "mirror" options in the sketch's text dialog box to get the effect you desire.

Don't forget, you can also "deboss" and cut the text into the cylinder.

If you use a stencil-font and make a thin-walled cylinder, you could completely perforate the cylinder with the text.

You can add a second, slightly bigger cylinder with a different color or appearance to increase visual contrast. How about brass letters on a wood column, or glowing translucent letters on a mirrored column? Maybe add some fluting on the column behind some deep text; or cut the flutes directly into the text instead. 

You could re-extrude the same circle using "Cut" to remove the original cylinder and turn the text into a free-floating spiral of Indvidual letters. Then, you could spiral an embossed ribbon to join the letters back together. 

Or you could use the "Coil" command to create a spring shape that matches the text's spiral.

Or use the mirroring options in the sketch-text dialog to make the text read correctly from the inside of the spiral.

With some fonts, but not all, you could use a thinner of thicker version on the font and emboss to a different height to create a layered effect. Or overlay different, contrasting fonts of different depth. (Be sure to emboss onto a new cylinder each time, then use "Combine/Join" to meld all the layers together.

Using a block or reversed (negative space) font can create very interesting results.

Using Outline fonts can also create interesting effects. Some font families have the regular fonts as well as the outline version of the same font shapes. This makes it very easy to create multi0level effects.

Use dingbats to create decorative texture rollers, or a vertical font to create text that reads in a row. With a little more work, you could create two sets of text and create a candy-cane striped pole with holiday greetings.

The possibilities are limited mostly by your imagination.

Use simple fonts if possible.

Avoid fonts with long ascenders/descenders to avoid accidental overlaps.

With some fonts, using all caps avoids the ascender/descender issue.

Don't use grunge or distressed fonts unless you want to wait for the model to regenerate.

For big chunks of text, use a short phrase just to get the look you want, then add the entire text. 

Not all fonts work with Fusion. Some fonts won't even load. And some of the fonts that do load, don't extrude or emboss correctly. It's a good idea to test every font with a simple extrude first.

Deep embossing may distort the outer face of some fonts in the direction of the cylinder's curvature. This can be a pleasant effect, but it can also make the font difficult to read.

Deep debosses can sometimes fail because the geometry changes too radically. The opening in the letter P can come to a point, then mathematically cross over and diverge. Fusion doesn't always handle this well. It is similar to how the "Shell" command can sometimes fail.

Conclusion

There are probably better ways to do this. I made this work reliably for my needs, but I'm no expert. For the first week using Emboss, I would rotate the text in the sketch instead of in the dialog box. So, I may be doing things in a very inefficient way. Don't think this is the only way or the best way to make text spiral around a cylinder.

Experiment, have fun and develop your own, vastly superior technique.

Find more of my projects on my Blog and on my YouTube channel.