Engraved products — jewelry, cutting boards, glassware, awards, pens, and metal items — have unique customization requirements. Designs are typically single-color, text-heavy, and must work within tight physical constraints. This guide covers configuring Chamevo for engraving workflows.

What makes engraving different

• Single color: Engraving produces a single mark color (the engraved surface). Color pickers are often unnecessary.
• Text-focused: Most engraving products involve personalized text (names, dates, monograms) rather than images.
• Tight boundaries: Engravable areas are small and precisely defined.
• Specific fonts: Not all fonts engrave well. Thin strokes and fine serifs may not survive laser or CNC cutting.
• Vector output: Many engraving machines work best with vector (SVG) output.

Step 1: Create the product structure

1. Go to Chamevo → Products and create a new product.
2. Open the product in the Product Builder.
3. Create a single view (most engraved products have one side).
4. Set the stage dimensions to match the aspect ratio of your product (e.g., a rectangular cutting board, a circular pendant).

Add the product image

1. Add an image element with a photo or illustration of the product.
2. Set it as not editable and not removable.
3. Set Exclude from Export so only the customer's design is in the output file.
4. Position it to fill the canvas.

Step 2: Define the engravable area

1. Configure the print area to match the exact engravable zone on the product.
2. Set the output dimensions to match your engraving machine's requirements.
3. For laser engravers that accept DPI-based rasters, set the DPI (typically 300-600).
4. For CNC machines that accept vectors, you may need SVG output.

The engravable area on many products is significantly smaller than the product itself. For a cutting board, the engravable zone might be a centered rectangle. For a ring, it might be a narrow band.

Step 3: Configure text for engraving

Predefined text fields with Text Layers

For products with specific text positions (e.g., "Line 1: Name" and "Line 2: Date"), use the Text Layers module:

1. In the Product Builder, add text elements at the desired positions.
2. Set each text element as editable.