Wrap
Wrap lays a sketch round a round face of the part, the way a label goes round a can. The sketch can be any closed outline or some text. It keeps its size: it is laid round the face by its length, not stretched. It can stand out of the face (Emboss), sink into it (Deboss) or be drawn on it as lines (Scribe). It is one step in the Model tree.
When to Use It
- Put a part number, a name or a logo round a shaft, a handle or a tube
- Sink a grip pattern or a label into a round knob
- Raise lettering on the outside of a pipe or a bottle
- Mark where a cut or a weld goes round a tube, with Scribe
Step by Step
- Make or open a sketch on a plane that runs along the round face: a plane that touches the face, or a plane through the middle of the part (the Front or Right plane of a bar standing on the Top plane). The sketch plane must be square to the ends of the face. A reference plane made to touch the face works well.
- Draw the closed outlines or the text where they should go. Seen from the front of the sketch, the sketch is laid on the side of the face nearest the sketch plane, starting where the plane is closest to the face, so draw it as you want to read it from that side.
- Click Advanced on the Features tab, then Wrap. The Wrap panel opens.
- Click the round face in the view. It is lit orange. Click it again to drop it, or click another face to pick that one instead.
- Choose Emboss, Deboss or Scribe.
- For Emboss type the Height, for Deboss the Depth. It starts at 1 mm (0.04 in when you work in inches). You can type any unit, like 0.5 mm or 1/32 in.
- Click Wrap. Every closed outline in the sketch is wrapped, and the outlines are used up the way Extrude uses them. The volume of the part is shown when it is done. Undo takes the step off and gives the sketch back.
Options
- Emboss: the area inside the outlines stands out of the face by the height. The sides run straight out from the middle of the round face and the top is round, the face's radius plus the height.
- Deboss: the area inside the outlines sinks into the face by the depth, with straight sides and a round floor.
- Scribe: the outlines are drawn into the face as edges, with no depth. The face is split along them and nothing moves, so the part keeps its size. You can pick the pieces of face later, for example to color them or to measure them.
- Height (Emboss) or Depth (Deboss): how far the outlines stand out or sink in. More than 0. A deboss must be less deep than the face's radius.
- An outline inside another outline is a hole, as in Extrude: the middle of a letter O stays as it was.
Sizes and Volume
- The sketch keeps its size along the face: a sketch 20 mm wide is 20 mm round the face, at the face itself.
- Because the sides run straight out from the middle, a raised letter is a little wider on top than at the face, and a sunk letter a little narrower at its floor. The volume is the sketch's area times (height + height x height / (2 x radius)) raised, or (depth - depth x depth / (2 x radius)) sunk.
- A 20 x 20 mm square raised 3 mm on a 40 mm round bar (radius 20) adds 400 x (3 + 9 / 40) = 1290 cubic mm. Sunk 3 mm it takes away 400 x (3 - 9 / 40) = 1110 cubic mm.
- On the inside of a tube or a hole it works the other way round: Emboss raises toward the middle and Deboss sinks into the wall.
Edit It Later
Right-click the step in the Model tree and choose Edit Feature. You can change Emboss, Deboss or Scribe and the height or depth in place. The face and the outlines stay as they were. The step is named Wrap and sits in the Bodies group.
Tips and What to Expect
- The face must be a round (cylindrical) face: the outside of a bar or a tube, or the inside of a hole. Wrap does not work on a cone, a ball or a curved face of any other kind yet.
- The whole sketch must sit on the face. It cannot run past the end of the face, over an edge, or over a hole or a pocket, even one under the middle of an outline (Emboss would seal it in as a hidden hollow, so it is refused). It also must be shorter than the way round the face (3.14 times the face's diameter), so it never wraps over itself.
- Circles, arcs and the curves of letters are followed in short straight pieces, within 0.005 mm of the true curve.
- Only closed outlines are wrapped. Open lines (a single line or an arc that does not close) are left in the sketch, even for Scribe.
- To change the outline or the text later, Undo the step (or delete it), change the sketch, and wrap it again. The sketch is not kept under the Wrap step yet, so there is no Edit Sketch for it.
- There is no dashed preview yet: press Wrap and use Undo if the result is not what you wanted.
- A long line of text, or text with many curves, can take half a minute. One step stops after 90 seconds and leaves the part as it was: wrap fewer letters at a time. When a saved model opens again (or a step before it changes) a wrap that is already made gets ten minutes, so it still rebuilds on a slower computer. A sketch that makes more than 1200 short straight pieces round its outlines (about 30 letters), or has more than 300 outlines, is refused before anything is built.
- A wrap on one body leaves the other bodies alone, and every body keeps its name.
Common Problems
- "Wrap works on a round (cylindrical) face." You clicked a flat face or another kind of curved face. Click the outside of a bar or tube, or the inside of a hole.
- "The sketch must be on a plane that runs along the round face." The sketch plane is tipped toward the face's axis. Sketch on a plane square to the ends of the face.
- "Part of the sketch runs off the round face." Move or shrink the sketch so all of it sits on the face, clear of its ends, its edges and any holes.
- "The sketch is ... mm across, and the way round this face is only ... mm." Make the sketch narrower, or use a smaller text height.
- "Part of the sketch sits over a hole, a pocket or a gap in the round face." Something under the outline is already cut away. Move the sketch to solid face, or make the outline smaller.
- "An outline in the sketch crosses itself." A shape like a figure 8 or a bow tie has no clear inside. Redraw it so its lines do not cross, or draw it as two outlines.
- "A circle in the sketch is ... mm across, too small to wrap." The smallest circle Wrap takes is 0.02 mm across. Draw it bigger or delete it.
- "That deboss is deeper than the wall under the face, so it would break through." The wall of the tube is thinner than the depth. Type a smaller depth.
- "The emboss runs into material already standing on the face." Something already stands out of the face where the outlines go. Move the sketch to a clear part of the face.
- "There is no closed outline in the sketch to wrap." Draw a closed shape or some text first. Open lines are not wrapped.
- "The face this wrap sits on is no longer on the part." An earlier step changed or removed it. Delete the Wrap step and make it again on the face you want.
- "Wrap took longer than 90 seconds." Wrap fewer letters at a time, or a simpler outline.
- "The sketch makes ... straight pieces round its outlines; 1200 is the most one Wrap takes." Wrap fewer letters at a time, or draw fewer curves.