I have been working through the Solidworks tutorials this week and I think I am getting the hang of it. I have also been learning BobCad. I started out importing Autocad drawings into Bobcad and generating Gcode for my mill. I have done a couple of parts without much trouble.

This afternoon my boss asked me to create an embossed machine plate out of aluminum. He had a 2D sketch that he made in Autocad. My first thought is no problem. After I opened the drawing I find that the letters are pushed together and some of them are touching. What he would like is to engrave all the lines on the letters and emboss all that can be removed.

So how do I do this?

My thought is to bring the 2D Autocad drawing into Solidworks and make it 3D. I think I can do this but I am a little unsure how to do the engrave part of the letters. I am thinking just cut a slow the size of the smallest endmill that I have. Any suggestions?

The next part of my plan is to bring the 3D into BobCad and generate the GCode. I have some to learn here as well. All I have done so far is cutting cams out of flat plate. I have not done 3 axis milling at all. Any suggestions or tips would help.

I guess my real question is am I going about this correctly?