Area Engraving for Filled Lettering
Area engraving clears the inside of a closed shape rather than tracing its outline. On text this produces solid letters instead of fine outlines, which is what you want for larger lettering and for anything that will be paint filled.
Outline or filled
The two engraving operations do different jobs.
Contour engraving, the fourth icon, follows the letterform with a single line. Fine, fast, and the standard for nameplates and small text.
Area engraving, the fifth icon, removes the material inside each shape. Slower, and the only option when the lettering has to read solid or hold paint.
Choosing wrongly changes the entire appearance of a job, so it is worth being deliberate about which one you pick.
Closed objects only
Area engraving needs closed drawing objects. An open curve has no defined inside and cannot be cleared.
Objects can be single or combined. Combining is how islands are created.
Creating the operation
Select your objects in CorelDRAW, then click the fifth icon in the row of six in the Toolpaths section of the CamDRAW docker. The area engraving window opens with a preview on the page.
The dialog
Name and Tool as in every operation. The icon beside the tool dropdown opens the tool library.
Contour adjustment offers Show tool diameter, which draws the path at real tool width, and climb or conventional milling. There is no inside or outside choice, because clearing happens inside by definition.
Allowance leaves an offset from the contour for a separate finishing pass.
Machining parameters are the engraving set, not the milling set. Safety height for rapid moves. Plunge height where the plunging feed rate takes over. Engraving height is the Z plane where machining happens, set negative as a preload when the machine has a depth regulator. Number of cuts is how many passes each area receives.
As with contour engraving, there is no final depth and no stepdown. The depth follows the tool riding the surface.
Curve precision sets the segment length used to approximate curves.
Islands are handled for you
This is what makes the operation usable on text.
Letters with counters, such as O, a, e and g, have an inside that must not be cleared. Area engraving recognises this and leaves those areas standing.
The same applies to combined objects generally. Combine a shape inside another shape and the inner one becomes an island: the space between them is cleared and the island is left.
Switch on Show tool diameter before machining to check the result. It shows exactly what is removed and reveals any material the tool radius cannot reach, typically in tight interior corners.
The path spacing
How far apart the clearing passes sit is stored with the tool, not in this window. Open the tool list, select the tool and go to the Cutting data tab. Path spacing is a percentage of the tool diameter and should stay at or below 50 percent, or uncut ridges are left between passes.
On engraving work with a fine graver this matters more than on milling, because a small tool at a large spacing leaves visible lines in what should be a flat cleared surface.
Choosing a tool
A conical graver clears a narrow strip, so filling a large letter with one takes many passes. For bigger lettering a small end mill is often the better choice, with a graver reserved for the fine outline work.
Store the tool shape, cylindrical or conical, on the General tab of the tool list, and the diameter and angle on the Dimensions tab.
After creating it
The operation appears in the Toolpaths list. Left-click to highlight its path in red on the page, right-click for Edit, Generate and Delete. Use Generate after editing the underlying text or shapes.