Engrave or Emboss Text & Logos onto an STL

1 Choose the model

Drag an STL here, or

Nothing leaves this machine.

2 What to put on it

Text A picture

Font Style Bold Italic

Swap solid and emptyFor light artwork on a dark background.

3 Place it and cut

Drag the artwork onto the model, or set the position by hand. The outline is your model seen straight on from the face you picked.

Face Which side of the model the artwork goes on. Artwork width mm Across Position along the face, in the model's own millimetres. mm Up mm Rotation 0° Cut or raise Engraving removes material to the depth below; embossing adds it on top. Depth / height Measured from the surface, so it stays even over a curved face. 0.6–1 mm reads well; deeper is rarely better. mm Detail How finely the model is sampled. Fine lettering needs a high setting — but the whole model is rebuilt at this resolution, so it costs time and triangles. 140

4 Result

How this works, and what it costs

The depth follows the surface. The cut is made in a shell that hugs your model rather than by pushing a flat stamp through it, so 0.8 mm deep means 0.8 mm everywhere — on a cylinder, a sphere or a scanned surface just as much as on a flat panel.
Only the face you pick is touched. Without that the artwork would come out on the far side of the model as well, mirrored.
The whole model is rebuilt, not just the cut. That is the price of working this way: the surface is re-created at the Detail resolution, so sharp edges soften very slightly and the triangle count goes up. If your model is mostly flat panels and you want the edges kept exactly, engrave it in the 3D Designer instead.
Detail has to resolve the cut. Fine lettering at a low setting comes out as mush — the page refuses outright if the depth is thinner than one voxel. Raise Detail until the preview looks right, and expect the file to grow with it.
Engraved text is easier to read than embossed on most prints, because the recess casts a shadow. Embossing is better when the surface will be sanded or painted afterwards.
Not sure the result will print? Run it through the Print Doctor — it will tell you if the lettering came out too thin.