2D Design: Creating Text

Carveco Tutorial: Creating and Editing Text

The text tool in Carveco allows you to add and customize text directly in your design. You can adjust fonts, size, alignment, spacing, constraints, and even shape text along curves.

🔹 Step 1: Open the Text Tool

• Click the large T icon from the vector creation tools on the left.
• This opens the Create Vector Text panel on the right-hand side.
• Click anywhere on your model (2D or 3D view) to place the text cursor.

🔹 Step 2: Enter and Size Your Text

• Type your text (e.g., Carveco Maker).
• If your text doesn't appear correctly, press Space to refresh or click with the middle mouse button to regain cursor focus.
• Highlight all or part of the text to edit the size, font, or alignment.
• Use the Size field to input a text height (e.g., 0.75 in). Use F9 to center the text on your model.

🔹 Step 3: Choose a Font

• Click Font to open the font list (includes all installed system fonts).
• Use the arrow keys to quickly scroll and preview different fonts.
• Tip: Use outline fonts where possible—avoid heavily filled or stylized fonts that may complicate machining.

🔹 Step 4: Modify Text Properties

• Transform: Change text width, height, or rotate text.
• Spacing: Adjust the spacing between characters.
• Line Spacing: Adjust vertical spacing for multi-line text.

🔹 Step 5: Use Constraints (Optional)

• Enable Limit by Box to keep text inside a defined width and height (e.g., 3x3 in).
• Text will automatically wrap to fit within this bounding box.

🔹 Step 6: Manually Adjust Letter Spacing

• Place your text cursor between letters.
• Hold Ctrl and drag with the mouse to manually move individual characters.
• This is useful for precise spacing adjustments.

🔹 Step 7: Finalizing and Editing Later

• Click Create to place the text onto your model.
• To edit the text later, right-click it and choose Edit Text Block.
• Important: If you ungroup the text, it becomes regular vectors (lines/shapes) and can no longer be edited as text.

Text in Carveco is powerful and customizable—ideal for signage, plaques, and engraving. In the next tutorial, we’ll show how to place text along a curve!