Engraving setup
Which way it wraps
Geometry
Save
With an SVG source the SVG and PDF saves are real warped vector paths; anything else exports as pixels. Place output at 100% and centre on the highest point of the cylinder.
Image & output
Numbers
| Circumference | — |
|---|---|
| Developed wrap | — |
| Wrap angle | — |
| Head travel (chord) | — |
| Scale at edge | — |
| Source detail | — |
| Export geometry | — |
| Surface drop at edge | — |
| Output file | — |
| Output size | — |
Blue = original, pink = corrected, dark = where they agree. Match width stretches the corrected art back out to show how the squeeze is spread from centre to edge.
The head moves in a straight line, but the surface under it curves away. A point sitting s mm around the surface from the top sits only R·sin(s/R) mm across in machine X — so every millimetre of travel covers more and more surface as you move off centre. Pre-squeezing the file by the same amount puts the marks back where you want them once they are measured around the curve.
Two things get worse together as the wrap angle grows: the surface drops away from focus, and the beam or cutter meets it at an angle. Past about 60° total most setups need a rotary axis instead.