Freecad

Freecad is a mechanical design tool. It can be used in

• additive / subtraction mode
• sketching / constraint mode

0.18

Adding Engraved Text to Shape

This is tricky. It seems that it always is (to add engraved text).

Make sure to extrude the text before adjusting x,y,z on the 3d plane. Otherwise the extrusion will be offset by the earlier placement.

See freecad wiki tutorial (0.17). you can skip the sketcher part.

For 0.18, some guides say to use shapestring to trimex. That didn't work for me. Trimex would fail.

However, shapestring, to then PART workbench (not part design)(its bad design they are named similarly is it not? Endlessly confusing.), To then part extrude worked. You must select a font for the text. By default, it won't choose one for you. Not all work.

Ugh. 30 minutes of my life

Spreadsheets of values

These are useful, but then if you duplicate a part, it makes a new spreadsheet.