SHX DATABASE

[Anonymous]

We are usually receiving consultants files in DWG format and more often then not they are missing SHX files. Even when we ask for the missing files sometimes they are not tech savvy enough to know what we're talking about or how to export the files.

So, does anyone know of a free SHX database or want to help me start one?

[Anonymous]

I do not think you need the SHX file. All the DWG files that I have opened convert the text over to truetype fonts. I just skip all.

[Djordje]

Just ask them to eTransmit ... all will come.

Not all SHXs have all the TTF counterparts, especially if you don't have AutoCAD installed.

[Thomas Holm]

Djordje wrote:
Just ask them to eTransmit ... all will come.

Not all SHXs have all the TTF counterparts, especially if you don't have AutoCAD installed.

(edited 2007-09-29 for completeness)

Sorry to differ, but I believe that at least all standard SHX fonts have TTF counterparts. They are needed because MTEXT (multiline text) entries in Autocad can't cope with the old SHX fonts who only work in the one-liners of TEXT.

The MTEXT function depends on Window's TTF fonts. Thus, if you install Autocad, or Autocad LT (at least a couple of years back, I don't know about the current release), you get both SHX and TTF versions of all the standard Autocad fonts.

So if you need /almost*/ identical fonts when you open DWGs within Archicad, what to do is to ask the person that sends the dwg (or someone else with an Autocad version installed) to bundle copies of the TTF font files in question. They reside in Window's Font folder.

Edited: Djordje pointed out:
You can download and install in Windows the free DWG True View from the Autodesk web site. This means that you can get the fonts without Autocad. You will need a Windows PC or Windows installed on an Intel Mac. http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=101387#101387

Then transfer and install the fonts on your machine, in your system's font folder.

Please note that this procedure works just as well on MacOSX as in Windows. OSX can utilize all Truetype (.TTF) fonts immediately, regardless of their 'native' format (Window's TTF or Mac TTF). No conversion needed. But you may have to restart your machine after installing. After that, Archicad can utilize any font installed.

Please note as well that other entities than fonts may be stored as .SHX, like certain linetypes. I've got no shortcut for that conversion, though. Arrhcicad usually handles it well. You may have to edit linetype scaling, though.

*almost = this is because Archicad and Autocad renders fonts differently internally. Archicad doesn't apply pen widths/weights to text. Instead it depends on your system's font rendering. This means that certain zero-linewidth fonts (like Autocad's ISO font) may look very thin in Archicad. But they at least get the same shape.

[Anonymous]

So I should be able to export fonts from my PC laptop that has Autocad, and install them for Archicad on my OSX machine?

[Thomas Holm]

info.kaldis wrote:
So I should be able to export fonts from my PC laptop that has Autocad, and install them for Archicad on my OSX machine?

That's exactly what I mean!

[Djordje]

Thomas wrote:

Djordje wrote:
Just ask them to eTransmit ... all will come.

Not all SHXs have all the TTF counterparts, especially if you don't have AutoCAD installed.

(edited 2007-09-29 for completeness)

Sorry to differ, but I believe that at least all standard SHX fonts have TTF counterparts.

Yes they do, provided you have AutoCAD. My statement was that you don't have them if you don't have Auto CAD