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Text

Text places engraving-ready lettering in a sketch as glyph outlines you can edit, rotate, and extrude or cut like any other profile.

A selected wrapped text in a sketch: glyph outlines, the dashed wrap box with width handles, and anchor points

How to use it​

With the Text tool (T) in a sketch, click where the text should start for a box that grows to fit, or drag a rectangle for one that wraps text to that width. Type in the editor that opens; the outlines re-bake as you type. With no sketch open, click any face or plane to start a sketch there.

The text editor​

  • Text — multi-line. Embed parameters in curly braces: Bore {d} re-bakes whenever d changes. Any expression works ({d / 2}); {{ prints a literal brace; Tab accepts the completion popup.
  • Font — any installed font family. B / I / U toggle bold, italic, underline.
  • Size — font size in mm; an expression field, so lettering scales with the model.
  • Rotation° — turns the text about its start point.
  • Wrap width — empty grows to fit; a width in mm word-wraps. A selected wrapped text shows its box dashed with a drag handle on each vertical edge — drag to resize the width (the opposite edge stays put).

Constraining text​

A selected text shows nine anchor dots — the box corners, edge midpoints, and center. Each is a regular sketch point: with the Constraint tool, click an anchor and another point and press 4 (Coincident) to hold the text there as the model changes. The text translates to follow; other geometry stays put. Dragged points also snap onto anchors.

Rotating with the Move tool​

With the Move tool, drag the rotation ring around a selected text to turn it in place.

Fonts travel with the file​

The document embeds the font data and baked outlines, so the file renders identically on machines without the font.

Extruding and cutting text​

The Extrude tool treats a text as one face set: click it, then pull it out or push it in to cut (engraving). Letter counters — the holes in o, a — stay holes.

Help​

The Text tool's Context pane, each field explained

Scripting​

bearcad.text{ text = "Hello", x = 10, y = 10, size = 12 }
bearcad.text{ text = "Label", size = "w / 2", font = "Helvetica",
              bold = true, rotation = 30, name = "Lid label" }
bearcad.select{ kind = "sketch_text", index = 0 }
bearcad.count("sketch_text")

-- Engrave a text: extrude/cut the whole word (all its glyphs) in one call.
bearcad.extrude{ text = 0, distance = 1, body = "cut" }

-- Constrain a text's anchor coincident to a sketch point so it follows it.
bearcad.select{ kind = "sketch_text", index = 0, anchor = "center" }
bearcad.select({ kind = "line", index = 2, ["end"] = "start" }, true)
bearcad.add_geometric_constraint("coincident")

Like rect and circle, text begins a ground sketch when none is open. size accepts an expression; rotation is degrees about (x, y); optional wrap sets a wrap width in mm; font defaults to a standard system font.