#ACAD 3rd Party Fonts
8 messages in this thread
All,
I am looking for a third party ACAD developer that offers better
looking ACAD fonts (comparable to ROMANT) but with less of a byte count per
font file. I beleive ROMANT is around 4.8K and that really ups my drawing
file size. I tried changing my Standard font from ROMANT to Acad's default
and while it does make the regen/redraw time faster, the text justification
changes in the attributes and is very difficult to read. So I'm back to
ROMANT and suffer the consequences of sacrificing speed. I need the
clarity of ROMANT as this drawing file is published and sent out for
distribution throughout my company…Any help would be most appreciated
-Tom
Tom,
I hate to tell you this, but the size of the font file doesn't
affect the size of the drawing file – only the text that you type within
it. Just like a shape entity, only a "placeholder" for the shape is kept
within the drawing database. When AutoCAD load the drawing containing the
shape (or text), AutoCAD also loads the shape definition so it knows how to
draw the entity.
As far as speeding up your regen time, which _is_ affected by the
size of the font file (larger filey typically contain more complex
letters), have you tried using the QTEXT command? This will replace all
text entities within a drawing with "boxes" that show where the text
originally was. Unfortunaely, this doesn't help your situation because the
QTEXT boxes are seldom the size of the original text.
One possible work around might be the uncompile the ROMANT shape
file (there's a program in the Utilities library called SHP2SHX) and
replace each letter with a simple box set to the original letter's
dimensions. Then simply replace the existing ROMANT text style with your
modified ROMANT style.
Bill
Bill – I think Tom was referring to the amount of memory that a drawing file
consumes when it is loaded into the editor. The complexity of the fonts used
will have an effect on that.
-TonyT.
Bill,
Thanks for the reply, but Tony T. is right, I want to try to reduce
the amount of memory that the font takes up. I guess if I want the clarity
of the ROMANT font I will have to suffer with the font degradation to the
system…I will check out QTEXT thought..Thanks again..Tom
Tom,
Since ROMANT is a triplex, or triple stroke font, every letter gets three
passes from the pen. Try switching to ROMANS, this is a simplex font that
only makes one pass per letter. Using a heavier pen should give you the
clarity that you need. The more text you put into a drawing, the greater
the drawing size will become. Each stroke in a line of text counts just as
much as the longest line in the drawing. The TXT font that the STANDARD
style uses IS the most expeditious font you can use. What you can do is
utilize that font with whatever style you use as you build the drawing,
then when you're ready to plot the file, change the font back to ROMANS (or
ROMANT) prior to plotting. Doing this will change all the text using that
style to the new font.
Good Luck, Dennis
Dennis,
I failed to mention that this drawing consists of (21) 8.5" x 11"
pages – side by side. I use PRPLOT to a HPIII for each page, so you can
see how cumbersome this can be. The HP gives me good clarity and the
ROMANT resembles a Times Roman Font for publication. I appreciate any
ideas that you have given me and from all of the other Forum Members as
well..Thanks again….Tom
Tom,
I see, you need the serif. Have you tried any of the drivers that give
you linewidths on the LJIII?
Dennis