Learn/Plasma/Toolpath Generation & Post-Processing
Engraving (Scribe)
At a glance
- Mark part numbers, bend lines, and layout text with a scribe in the same program that cuts the parts
- Move any contour to a named engrave layer — right-click, or drag-box many with the Contour Select tool
- Engrave paths run on center: no kerf offset, no lead-ins, no pierce cycle
- Scribe on/off from a machine subroutine picker or raw relay codes — no call syntax to type
- Engrave everything before cutting, or engrave each part then cut it
- The scribe's X/Y offset rides the tool table at run time — programs stay in part coordinates
- Works on every plasma post: FluidNC, GRBL, QtPlasmaC, Mach, and custom posts inherit it
If your table carries a scribe — an air scribe, a vibrating marker, anything on a spare relay — Plasma can now drive it. Contours on an engrave layer stop being cut geometry: they render in orange, the part fill shows the solid the torch will actually produce, and at post time they become scribe passes traced exactly on the line you drew — no kerf compensation, no leads, no pierce.
Tagging contours
Right-click any contour → Move to Layer to send it to an engrave layer, create a new named
layer, or send it back to Cut. The Contour Select tool (first on the toolbar, shortcut C)
drag-boxes any number of contours so a whole block of text moves in one step. Outer profiles always
stay cut geometry — a part keeps its outline. Most engraving never needs manual tagging at all: it
arrives on a layer in the imported file and is detected at
import.
The Engrave tab
Cut Parameters → Engrave holds one setup per sheet: the engrave feedrate, the layer list (its
order is the engraving order), and the Scribe On / Scribe Off controls. Each control either
picks one of your machine's stored subroutines from a dropdown — JetCad3 writes the call for you —
or takes raw codes like M64 P1 / M65 P1 for a relay without a subroutine. An Order dropdown
chooses between engraving the entire sheet before the first pierce or engraving each part right
before it's cut.
Tool offsets and posting
The posted program selects the scribe tool before engraving and the torch tool before cutting
(T… M6), and the machine's tool table applies the X/Y offset between the scribe and the torch at
run time — the file stays in part coordinates, so correcting the offset never means re-posting.
The engrave cycle lives in the post-processing core: every plasma post inherits it unchanged, and
pierce counts, cut-time estimates, and quotes all know engraving isn't
piercing. In the machine-control view the tool indicator switches at the moment the machine
actually reaches the change, and a configured tool-change subroutine runs at exactly that point.