Dee,
Nope I am just learning. I got my Xenetech secondhand and so I did not get the benefit of the salesman training. I am still learning and the curve is steep and sometimes I am thick in the head. I use the help menu a lot but they can't cover everything there.

What is the 45% rule?

Good show!!
Everyone has to start at the beginning.

Best of luck!

Steve

The 45% rule is that to look right, the engraving should be 45% of the height of the piece.

If you want three lines with the top one 1.5 X the height of the others you can use a formula. Difficult to explain so I will try to give an example.
The piece will be 2.5" tall in the example.

2.5" X .45 = 1.125" total engraving height

First line 1.5 X the next two. 1.5 + 1 + 1 =3.5
1.125 / 3.5 = .321

The bottom two lines (1 X) should be .321" tall
The top line at 1.5 X the others should be .321 X 1.5 = .482

As far as the left and right margins .08 X Width usually works, especially on smaller pieces. On larger pieces .06 works well. New Hermes Gravograph 98 defaults to .10, way too large except for tiny pieces. Dahlgren used .08.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.