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mnemesh
Joined: 22 Jul 2004
Posts: 12
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 Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 8:17 am Post subject: Problem with PC8 DWG import using windows ttf and SHX fonts |
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One of my customers supplies DWG files for sign engraving. In the past he has always converted the text to lines so I could easily work with them since he often uses SHX fonts. I was very excited about the greater windows and SHX font support in PC8 but am having some issues with it and I'm not sure if it's PC8 or the way my client is creating his files.
It seems like whatever I choose in the import setting I'm getting font substitution whether it's a windows ttf font or a Autocadd SHX font. Is there something that my client should be doing when he saves his files or am I missing something in PC8? I have all of the SHX fonts and windows fonts he uses loaded in the windows fonts directory. Any help would be appreciated.
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Regards,
Mike |
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huc
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 658
Location: ::caddpower.com:: (Aurora, CO)
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mnemesh
Joined: 22 Jul 2004
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 2:45 pm Post subject: |
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Brian,
Thanks for the response. I've done your suggestions of resetting and restarting many times but to no avail. I've even removed all of the fonts except for the two fonts I need for this file just to eliminate any possible issues.
A few more details of what I'm seeing. When using a SHX font only (iso.shx), if I do visually accurate the font is rendered, but some arcs (not all) for various letters are inverted (often vertically as well as horizontally) making for interesting characters, and a bunch of cleanup. If I choose editable I get font substitution. I could live with simply having visually accurate but I was hoping V8 would support editing SHX fonts also, based on what I read on the engsw site.
When a file has both a ttf and SHX font (isocpeur.ttf, txt.shx) in it, if I choose editable I get font substitution for everything, even though both fonts are available in the correct folder as I get no messages about missing fonts. And if I choose visually accurate I get all of the text in the SHX font.
Any thoughts?
Regards,
Mike
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Mike |
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huc
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 658
Location: ::caddpower.com:: (Aurora, CO)
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| Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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A few things to remember as it sounds like you're expecting the translator to allow you to 'mix and match' in a single translation between Editable and Visually Accurate fonts, or distinguish between fonts:
* Choosing Editable will always use the font you specify and give you a real font in PCD8. The font specified (e.g. Arial) from the popup menu is applied to all text in the file (e.g. Foo1.shx, F002.ttf, Foo3.ttf, etc.). That's pretty much how it worked in PCD7 too; all fonts inbound were mapped to a single font.
* Choosing Visually Accurate will always convert fonts to polygon outlines by using the installed SHX or TTF file as the matrix for the conversion. If the font (SHX or TTF) is there, the conversion is WYSIWYG. IF it's not there then it's a stick looking font. Visually accurate will make a distinction between 'Foo.shx' and 'Foo2.shx' yielding two different looking polygon outlines in PCD8 file. Obviously we can't specify a font substitution; for example we can't say convert Foo.shx to Foo6.ttf.
* You can't mix and match between the two font translation processes in a single translation pass. The radio button setting is applied to all text during that translation.
If a drawing you receive uses Simplex.shx (as an example), and you have that font installed -- make sure it is spelled the same and is of the same case. SIMPLEX.SHX is not the same as simplex.shx for example. That could be a common cause. I had a condition where I was not getting accurate outlines from Simplex.shx and found that the version I had was newer than the version the file used. As such the spelling was different. Changing it, in my case, from simplex8.shx to SIMPLEX.SHX corrected the problem.
If your client uses TTF, then it may be possible to have the same TTF for OS X installed (I mean the same TTF font file, not a Mac OS X one with the same name). If you have to match them based on name, you might get lucky and find the same font for Windows and Mac OS X uses the same matrices. That would mean you could specify the same font for 'editable' then use Convert to Outlines in PCD to make the conversion. It's possible that using the same OTF in Windows and OS X will yield an accurate translation for editable text too -- I have not tested that condition extensively enough to determine if it works consistently but it's worth trying.
As you mentioned before, you could still have the client perform the text to polygon conversion in their application. It might be you tried that and if you're seeing the rotated arc problem. The rotated / inverted arc problem is a bug that has been reported to EngSW and we can only hope it might get fixed in an update to PCD8 ACAD Translator sometime in the future.
Sorry I don't have a more specific solution for you, but that's the best I can offer at the moment. Perhaps others can offer some other suggestions.
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I hope that helps
Cheers
Brian |
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mnemesh
Joined: 22 Jul 2004
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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From what I'm seeing little of the few things to remember are happening as you describe. So I understand choosing editable should work like it did in V7, it doesn't.
Choosing editable does not use the font I specify in the popup menu. It always seems to default to Helvetica, even when I have the windows font available in the system. And even though I chose editable it will still complain about missing fonts if they are not in the font folder. Just for grins I opened the file in V7 and it used the font I specified.
Font file name case does not seem to make a difference. No matter what the case is, it does not complain of missing fonts. I made every letter in the font file names upper and lower case, it didn't complain. It didn't work but it didn't complain. Remove the files from the folder and you get the popup about missing fonts, although it doesn't contain the font file name extension in the warning. But I do end up with a stick font.
Choosing visually accurate for a file that contains both a ttf and shx font converted all the text to a stick font. No complaints about missing fonts. Remove both fonts from the font folder and it complains they're missing and gives the same stick font.
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Regards,
Mike |
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mnemesh
Joined: 22 Jul 2004
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:10 am Post subject: |
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I've gone back to having my customer supply me with files where he has converted the text to paths. Now I notice extraneous artifacts in the converted text imported by PC8 that don't appear when I import them in PC7. Disappointment mounts.
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Regards,
Mike |
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