Converting Fonts to Autocad

[Anonymous]

HI!,
I can't get my font translation to work.
Althoug I state the substitutions to fonts I wan't, When oppend in Autocad, all the non Arial fonts are standard font.


Any help on this one, please?

Best regards,

António Pina

[Djordje]

Antonio wrote:
I can't get my font translation to work.
Althoug I state the substitutions to fonts I wan't, When oppend in Autocad, all the non Arial fonts are standard font.

Could we see the screenshot of your Translator font section?

Use the Forum!

[Rick Thompson]

I don't know if this will help, but this was sent to me by support. I still have my issue, which sound similar, but my fonts are stacked on top of each other. I thought I followed the advice below, but have not has sucess. I tried to attach the file but evidently can't attach an xml file:(

Dear Mr Thompson,


In the attached picture you ordered an ArchiCAD font to an AutoCAD STYLE (!) instead of an AutoCAD font.
In earlier versions (before 8.0)one could set font-style AND font-font conversion pairs in the config.txt file.
From ArchiCAD 8.0 only the font-style matching can be set in the dialogue. Font-font conversion is now automatic according to a built-in conversion table.


To properly make font transcriptions you should do either of the following:


1:
Prepare a DWG or DXF document in AutoCAD. In this file define a STYLE that refers the font required (For example create a style named ARIAL with a font type Arial CE)


Save this project onto your HD.
In ArchiCAD make a font-style matching (as shown in the pdf you sent). Note that you should use the same STYLE as you defined in the DWG file. (ARIAL)


In Translation Setup/Save Options page click on the magnifier icon (browse) near Template File for Additional Settings field and search for the DWG (DXF) you just created. Now it will serve as a template so when you link an AC font to an AutoCAD style the replaced font will be taken from the style you pre-set in this template.


2:
Create a fontconv.xml by using any text editor. In this file define the font matching you want (MrHand -> Arial)(see syntax in the attached example xml document)


In Translation Setup/Miscellaneous/Miscellaneous options page click on the magnifier icon (browse) near Font Conversion File and search for the xml you just created. Now font conversion will be performed according to the font-font pairs set in this document instead of the built-in conversion table.


I hope this would be of your help.
Please try again and let me know the result.


Thank you very much


Best regards,


Laszlo

[Rick Thompson]

Rick wrote:
I tried to attach the file but evidently can't attach an xml file:(

I will copy/paste some or the attachment for reference

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!-- The XML model of the DXF font conversion table -->
<FontConv>
	<Version val="1"/>
	<FontConvTable items="311">
		<Item AC="Lucida Console Western"             ACAD="Lucida Console"                 FONTFAMILY="LUCON.TTF"                      FONTID="53"/>

		<Item AC="Lucida Console Greek"               ACAD="Lucida Console"                 FONTFAMILY="LUCON.TTF"                      FONTID="41269"/>

		<Item AC="Lucida Console Turkish"             ACAD="Lucida Console"                 FONTFAMILY="LUCON.TTF"                      FONTID="41525"/>

[Djordje]

Rick wrote:
I tried to attach the file but evidently can't attach an xml file:(

You can attach a ZIP file; it is anyway better to attach ZIP or archived files in any case, as the encoding can damage a non-archived file.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for passing that info along. Any idea where the value for "FONTID" in the XML comes from?

Curious,
Karl

[Anonymous]

I hate to be that kind of people that's always complaining, but....

In this case, If I understand it rigth I'll have to have an Autocad licence to correctly convert to dxf or dwg?

Of course there's always the chance to ask a friend to make that template file, but the next time I use a differente font, I'll have to ask him again and so on.

This is not an option, of course. But maybe I didn´t understand it right.

I also didn't answer before because strangely, I couldn't register myself correctly. All ok now.

Let me congratulate Graphisoft or how ever started this new site that looks very nice. And also I'd like to thank who answered my question.

Thank you.


Now, obviously when someone in any kind of different activitie asks me for a dwg , and since I don't own a copy of autocad, I don't see myself spending hours, asking that person to make a template, and send it to me so maybe I can get my files right for him to see them.

Either archicad is dwg compatible (standalone) or is not. I need of course font-font conversion.

Forgive me I'm just trying to pass this disappointment fase. I'll get over it soon.

Best regards,

António Pina

[Rick Thompson]

Karl wrote:
Hi Rick,

Thanks for passing that info along. Any idea where the value for "FONTID" in the XML comes from?

Curious,
Karl

No, I have no idea, it's greek to me. I wish GS would design this stuff fro architechs, rather than computer programers...I would think that should be possible? Ferenc is going to help me get something done, so i will post that when he is done.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Rick wrote:
Ferenc is going to help me get something done, so i will post that when he is done.

Looking forward to it. I've found the font conversion (and a few other aspects of dwg import/export) to be about as cryptic as most aspects of the Calculate process.

Thanks,
Karl

[Thomas Holm]

The key is of course the font conversion table.

What Graphisoft should do is to let users set up a tab-delimited text file table (easy in Excel, or any text editor) with the required data and make Archicad read that instead of the XML one.

The XML format lets you do many things, but it's not easy to create without dedicated tools.

Djordje, should I cross-post this one in the wishes section?

[Ben Odonnell]

Thomas wrote:
The key is of course the font conversion table.

What Graphisoft should do is to let users set up a tab-delimited text file table (easy in Excel, or any text editor) with the required data and make Archicad read that instead of the XML one.

The XML format lets you do many things, but it's not easy to create without dedicated tools.

Djordje, should I cross-post this one in the wishes section?

XML can be crated in any text editor. Simply by saving it with the extention .XML.

[Djordje]

afpina wrote:
In this case, If I understand it rigth I'll have to have an Autocad licence to correctly convert to dxf or dwg?

No.

Now, obviously when someone in any kind of different activitie asks me for a dwg , and since I don't own a copy of autocad, I don't see myself spending hours, asking that person to make a template, and send it to me so maybe I can get my files right for him to see them.

That person SHOULD send you his average AutoCAD file, WITH the fonts (eTransmit in AutoCAD 2000 and newer, Pack and go before) if he wants to get anything like what he does. That is true even in AutoCAD-AutoCAD translation. Oh yes, there is such a thing!

Either archicad is dwg compatible (standalone) or is not. I need of course font-font conversion.

It is

Who uses which font (SHX or TTF) in which style, which pen for what layer and so on is exclusively local decision. If anybody expects you to follow a rule, he should tell you what that rule is, right?

[Karl Ottenstein]

Djordje wrote:
That person SHOULD send you his average AutoCAD file, WITH the fonts (eTransmit in AutoCAD 2000 and newer, Pack and go before) if he wants to get anything like what he does. That is true even in AutoCAD-AutoCAD translation. Oh yes, there is such a thing!

Let me throw some fuel on the fire, because this is a topic that I have never figured out to my satisfaction and I don't think I'm alone.

In my case, the structural engineer doesn't really draft - so he has no "average" (or any kind) dwg files of his own. He wants me to send him a usable dwg that he can read, check dimensions, annotate a bit, and print.

The problem I have had in every version through 8.1 is that when I publish as dwg, my carefully selected TrueType fonts seem to get mapped to something ugly, or spaced incorrectly, in the dwg. The Mr. Hand font, a proportional font, is mapped to a fixed-width Courier-style font. Two separate engineering firms plotted drawings with this ugly Courier look - which is how it appears in VoloView Express. Bringing the same dwg back into PM, the font shows up as Arial.

Arial seems to get mapped from PM to a sans-serif font that is pretty close to Arial, but is wider, so text doesn't fit inside boxes any longer. Special characters from Wingdings come across incorrectly - one AC doc uses codes 131, 132 and 133 (the numbers 3, 4 and 5 inside circles); in the displayed dwg, these all appear as the code 63 symbol (a right hand holding a pen).


The aesthetic problem bugs me (a nice sheet now looks like shit) - but the real problem is that any special characters that I had used as part of the TrueType fonts now appear as strange garbage in AutoCAD (at least as shown by the free VoloView Express viewer). The resulting dwg is unusable without the AutoCAD user somehow replacing each of these goofy symbols with the AutoCAD-world-correct one. He may or may not catch each such screw up, thereby introducing inaccuracies or errors in the document.

In April 2002, the good Texans Steve Williams and Eric Batte generously tried to help me out with this on the old forum. Unfortunately, it didn't get me past the above problems.

So, could someone explain for us AC-savy but AutoCAD-ignorant types:

1. Is it not possible for AutoCAD to use TrueType fonts?

2. If it is possible, why don't our AC fonts go across as we have used them? If it is not possible, then how will it ever be possible to truly exchange documents via dwg?


Thanks!! 😉

Karl

[Djordje]

Karl wrote:
1. Is it not possible for AutoCAD to use TrueType fonts?

Yes it is. Users don't do it. Volo View AFAIK does not use True Type.

Forget using any fancy font if the DWG is going to the consultant(s) - Arial, preferably narrow, that's it.

2. If it is possible, why don't our AC fonts go across as we have used them? If it is not possible, then how will it ever be possible to truly exchange documents via dwg?

Because they are not on the recipient's machine, that's why. If the True Type is not there, it cannot be displayed, and therefore your drawing is ... not censored , but not looking properly.

So if the font license agreement does not forbid it, send the TTFs along with the DWGs.

The other way is much easier, IF you have AutoCAD, as Autodesk supplies a set of True Type fonts that are exactly same as the standard AutoCAD SHX fonts.

No, I don't like it, either.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Djordje wrote:

Volo View AFAIK does not use True Type.

Forget using any fancy font if the DWG is going to the consultant(s) - Arial, preferably narrow, that's it.

2. If it is possible, why don't our AC fonts go across as we have used them? If it is not possible, then how will it ever be possible to truly exchange documents via dwg?

Because they are not on the recipient's machine, that's why. If the True Type is not there, it cannot be displayed, and therefore your drawing is ... not censored , but not looking properly.

Thanks, Djordje. So, VoloView is part of the problem when I examine the dwg's on my machine (which of course has the fonts) before sending them... perhaps the fonts really are referenced in the dwg.

But, there still seems to be more at issue...since the proportional font (Mr Hand) is treated as a fixed-width font - and in the case of one consultant who I sent the TTF file to...he still got a Courier-like SHX font instead of Mr Hand.

There is dark magic and mystery in all of this...

Karl

[Anonymous]

This might also belong to the save DWG from PlotMaker topic, but here is how far I got:

Here is what I did: I created a reference/template DWG file, for simplicity I created the text styles named after the Architectural FontPack fonts. The fonts I used in AutoCAD were freeware truetype fonts, ArchiTEXT, ArchiTEXT Bold, CityBluePrint, Architect, but this is secondary since it can be changed in AutoCAD by editing the Style itself. Any freeware or generally available font will do it with more or less degradation of artistic integrity:) as you can see the Glasgow style uses Broadway

(screencapture 1)

Entering the font-styles conversion, (like MrHand MrHand-clever:) reading in, it converted fine into a pmk drawing, and translated into the AFP fonts as
expected (the AFP fonts extend a bit more over the rectangle, but that could be somewhat compensated by tweaking the autocad style.

Then I saved the pmk file back using the same translation file, and the original DWG as reference/template for the output...

(screencapture 2)
Groovy! .......

Details from PMK files look nice in AutoCAD:)

(screencapture 3)

So what's the problem, why the long nose:

BECAUSE on the LAYOUT it is a different song.
You don't have the SAVE AS option on the Layout, you can only PUBLISH these into DWG, but that doesn't seem to use the Font-Style conversion settings, the resulting dwg file only has the Standard textstyle and it is goofing off. Moreover: when the same dwg is read back as a drawing, the arrangement of the text blocks is messed up. NOT A PRETTY PICTURE.

(screencapture 4)

P.S: Looks like I only could attach one screenshot at a time, so to be continued...

[Anonymous]

screencapture 2...

[Anonymous]

screencapture 3...

[Anonymous]

screenshots 4...the ugly one...

[Anonymous]

The only workaround I found so far:

Publishing DWF, reading into a PMK and saving as dwg WORKS, HOWEVER the layout gets translated into modelspace, so measurements are from paper, and
instead of 3'-0 it will be dimensioned as say: 1 1/8"

So if somebody wants a correct print, he/she is stuck with an out of scale flattened model space layout.
If somebody wants to edit (or measure dimensions of) the drawings, he/she is stuck with ugly text.