Draw the cylinder

The steps are to draw a cylindrical surface, create text curves, and then apply the curves to the cylinder.

Create a cylindrical surface

1. First we will use the Cylinder command to create a solid cylinder.

   Use the Vertical option in the Top viewport.

   Give the cylinder a radius of 1.25 units, and a height of 4.5 units.

   (This is about the size of a soda can if your units are inches.)

    

2. Use the Explode command to separate the cylinder into surfaces.

   You can only apply curves to a single surface, not a polysurface.

3. Use the Hide command to remove the top and bottom of the cylinder from the view.