AutoCad Native Fonts

agree - however, if ROMANSX is not copyrighted, it should be included with
e-transmit (the only way to fly for sending drawings if you want to be sure
all required data are attached) - no problemo.

characters. If I use your added special characters, then send that file to
someone who does not have ROMANSX, the special characters become gibberish.
IMMHO, bad idea, bad practice, bad business.

 

OLD-CADaver, Glenn White: You are both correct. You would have to send it along just the same as you would have to send along any other font that is used in your office but may not be used in the receiver's office -no difference.

ROMANS carries the Autodesk copyright and according to provisions of the copyright, ROMANSX carries the same copyright notice which means that technically, the font "belongs" to Autodesk.

This leads back to my original assertion that Autodesk should include my version simply because it's an improved edition of ROMANS.

 

<<agree - however, if ROMANSX is not copyrighted, it should be included with e-transmit (the only way to fly for sending drawings if you want to be sure all required data are attached) - no problemo. >>

And if I could control every place this file went after it left my desk, it solve many problems. But I don't have that capability.

I also can't control the font name ROMANSX. I can attach the one I use, but when the guy receiving the files already has a different one called that and chooses not to over-write it, what then? If we're lucky, gibberish.

Again IMMHO, custom fonts are a bad idea all way 'round. Even if they did something that I couldn't accomplish with the standard fonts, I'd think they were a bad idea.

 

Gee, I've never really needed anything that's not already in those fonts.<<

I never needed power steering until I had it.

I never needed color TV until I had it.

I never needed CAD until I had it.

I never needed a bunch of stuff before I even knew it existed!

Have you got something against NEW or DIFFERENT? How did you ever graduate from DOS? Or for that matter, to DOS from the board? Loosen up a little. Get a grip. It's 2004 already already!

 

<<Have you got something against NEW or DIFFERENT? >>

When it comes to custom fonts, I've posted my concerns elsewhere in this thread.

 

Hey Madcadd: Perhaps you should follow your own advice. You should be aware that everyone eventually reaches their own confidence and satisfaction level which, when compared with yours, may be intolerably low.

Looking through the responses to this topic, it's evident that many don't care if a font is ordinary or superlative. They're just satisfied if it puts the right character on the screen when they type it in. If Autodesk were to plop in my improved version of ROMANS instead of the old one, they wouldn't even know the difference -nor would they care, as long as it works.

 

I think you're missing his point. OC doesn't want to use fonts that may
have to be transmitted to someone else along with his drawings. It's kind
of a pain anytime I recieve files from clients who use custom fonts and
forget or just don't (as a general rule with copywriting and so forth) send
those non-standard fonts.

Matt

ROMAND so they look better. Not NEW but BETTER.

 

Hi teiarch,

Look at these replies once more. I was lambasting OC, as he is doing what he always does in all these threads. He tries to stir it up and usually does. Both my replies were to him.
*************************
Reply From: OLD-CADaver
Date: May/19/04 - 10:08 (CDT)

Re: AutoCad Native Fonts
Gee, I've never really needed anything that's not already in those fonts.
*****************
Reply From: madcadd
Date: May/20/04 - 11:28 (CDT)

Re: AutoCad Native Fonts
surprise surprise !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Many of us have! That doesn't surprise you does it?
*****************
Reply From: madcadd
Date: May/21/04 - 11:58 (CDT)

Re: AutoCad Native Fonts
I never needed power steering until I had it.

I never needed color TV until I had it.

I never needed CAD until I had it.

I never needed a bunch of stuff before I even knew it existed!

Have you got something against NEW or DIFFERENT? How did you ever graduate from DOS? Or for that matter, to DOS from the board? Loosen up a little. Get a grip. It's 2004 already already!
*****************
Reply From: OLD-CADaver
Date: May/21/04 - 12:16 (CDT)

Re: AutoCad Native Fonts
<<Have you got something against NEW or DIFFERENT? >>

When it comes to custom fonts, I've posted my concerns elsewhere in this thread.
********************
And I DO LIKE your font. And I am (too much) a perfectionist. I hate faceted circles, faceted shading and faceted font. And txt.shx.... why do they still have that in here?

As a matter of fact, I not only want AutoCAD to upgrade and continually improve, I am currently battling a couple of my own "Wish List" items.

I do however, after reading the developing post, have to agree with (shudder) OC that using it (now) when it's not part of AutoCAD's package would be foolish. But if you can convince AutoCAD....I'm all for you and I wish you all the best in this endeavor. But don't hold your breath. GL ;-)

 

You have been repeatedly asked to stop "lambasting" other users
of these discussion groups. Take it to email or possibly lose
your privelege of posting to these groups. They are a place of
business and will be treated as such. Posts aren't "to him" or
"to any one person". These are public groups and your language
and demeanor reflect on you.

If you care to post a legitimate email address I will send you
the URL for a group where you may argue as you wish.

 

Matt: ROMANSX is NOT a custom font; it is a more efficiently coded version of ROMANS with added features and characters to make it more useful. 'Nuff said.

 

<<with added ... characters to make it more useful.>>

That makes it a custom font. And therein lies the rub.

 

You have been repeatedly asked to stop "lambasting" other users
of these discussion groups.<

FALSE... "lambasting" was MY word, perhaps the wrong choice, but none the less, my usage. I was never asked to stop "lambasting" anything or anyone.

READ the thread ANNE, read the thread before you jump. Sounds similar to what I tell OC.

Thank you!

 

Here's what I've learned over the years (often the hard way, of course)

If you modify the AutoCAD native fonts at all, you should change the name of
the font as well.
If you do not, and later send that font to a client with your drawings, they
may end up hosing *their* own font. (And imagine the fireworks if *they*
*also* had unwisely modified (without renaming) the *same* font to suit
*their* needs.)

Provide a suitable prefix for all your modified fonts for easy
identification:

_XYZCoRomanS.shx
_XYZCoRomanC.shx

Once you have the new/modified/renamed font, then use it in your drawings as
you need, but **be sure** to send it along with your drawings, if you wish
it to appear correctly when others view/plot them.

About the only really useful changes I have found to be are just modifying
the <,>,[, and ] characters to be Superscript ON, Superscript OFF, Subscript
ON, and Subscript OFF, accordingly.

Since I find I use the (,),{,} characters much more frequently (for comments
and mtext formatting), I leave them alone.

If I don't need Super/Subscripting, then I just use the AutoCAD Native Font.

Pretty much all other desired modifications (I am speaking here about
*added* characters/symbols) I have placed in a BIGFONT file and access them
via the escape key sequence `<char> (although you can have a different
escape key, and even more than just one, should you need)

The `,<,>,[,] characters themselves are available in the BIGFONT file and
are accessed via ``,`<,`>,`[,`]

The BIGFONT shx file is sent to clients if/when I send drawings to them.

The BIGFONT file itself also makes extensive use of SubShapes for definition
brevity and integrated appearance with the Textstyle Font it is associated
with. Learn how to use SubShapes - you'll be glad you did.

The advantage of using a BIGFONT is that you can use it in conjunction and
as an extension with/for other fonts, without modifying those fonts.

Best regards,
David Kozina

 

Just my 2 cents... (maybe a 50 cents it got kind of long)

I have over 350+ fonts listed in my style dialogue, how many of them are
acad native? I don't know. Whenever I upgraded a release I would copy the
previous font files into the new release. So, over the years they have
added up.

I have anything from txt to xrated, there are also wingdings and symbols. I
figure if you attach your 'revised' romans, ROMANSX, to your drawings
eventually there will be another font file in my directory.

I will not use it - the reason being that I use romans and times new roman
in all of my drawings. So, 360+ fonts and I use 2. I had to trace our
title block logo font style and made it a dwg because it was a custom file
that was not available through Autodesk. The owner decided on the font for
the letterhead and didnt think "is this available in autocad?" or ask for
input.

I don't need a romans that is clearer when printed at 6" high. The tallest a
font in my drawings will ever get is 1/4" high.

I have dealt with custom fonts before, an architect wanted arial and arial
bold to match their spec's fonts. This is before they were available
through Autodesk and before TrueTypes were recognized. Man what a nightmare
regenerating the drawings and plotting them too.

So, if you can convince Autodesk to replace their existing romans then you
will see your romans on my drawings, if not it will sit in my font directory
along with the txt or xrated font.

Stephen J

 

See below...

forums is the diversity of opinions and solutions(?).

title block xref if I use it in a drawing for more than one layout...oops!
another topic?).

be confusing to some, but to each his own....


Actually - this is exactly why a bigfont (with subshapes) is nice, since I
can associate the *same* *single* bigfont file with RomanS, RomanD, RomanC,
amongst others, in the TextStyle definition, and get the extended characters
without double/triple the hacking.

Downside: Bigfonts don't work with .ttfs

Use of subshapes keep the 1/16 fraction numbers (in my bigfont fractions) in
sync with the associated "uber-font" (RomanD, say).

Superscripting and subscripting toggles in the uber-font (I've only
modified/renamed a RomanS for this, fwiw, but it would be easy to do the
others) allow for other, even less common, fraction-like/exponent/subscript
text. But since I don't actually need this capability too much, I only pull
in the modified/renamed RomanS on an as needed basis.

The additional symbols you describe below are in the bigfont file and also
appear 'in synch' with the associated "uber-font", since they too are
defined with subshapes.

Funny thing about the bigfont I have, as much as I like it, I actually need
to use very little of it. Only the sixteenth fractions get much of a
workout. Very little else.

THEY always use. The ones that seem to pop up the most are plate or
property line, center line (or centre line for Canadians and on the
continent), flow line, base line and monument line. These are compound
characters which can be created either by including them in a font
definition OR creating an editable attribute where the proper letters can be
plugged in.

native fonts don't use as much as they could -not even in the latest
versions.

lot of time and effort in putting new bells and whistles into the "big exe"
but doesn't update the native fonts in proportion. For example, RomanS has
a few added characters but is still vector coded; RomanC and RomanD bundled
with 2005 are the same as they were in 1996.

 

<<ROMANSX is NOT a custom font; it is a more efficiently coded version of ROMANS with added features and characters to make it more useful. 'Nuff said. >>

BTW is the same ROMANSX.SHX written by Chester Cannon that was posted to the CADALYST website back in May of 2002? Or us this ANOTHER romansx.shx?

 

OC: Wasn't aware of this. Have to check it out. My Initial font name was ROMANSX so it's most like a duplicate name. My lLatest update is ROMANSX5.

 

Stephen J. : AutoCad native fonts include ROMANC, ROMAND, ROMANS, ROMANT, SIMPLEX, TXT, and a smattering of others.

Go to CADDEPOT and look in Autodesk>Fonts, pages 5 and 6 and you can add to your collection.

Good Luck.

By the way, didn't copying the previous set overwrite the current set when you upgraded? Just curious....

 

Okay, so now there's at least two fonts called ROMANSX. What happens when a file using one is opened on a machine that has the other?

 

Don't know the structure of the "other" ROMANSX. Went to CAdalyst site and couldn't find it -perhaps looking in the wrong place? In any event, if the other author didn't significantly change the defintions of US keyboard characters, probably you would see no difference. Only if you tried to invoke a special character or symbol that wasn't defined would you get the "?".