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Simple Font Conversion DWG > AC; Can it Work?!

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi,
Finally decided to map the fonts (1st screen shot) coming from DWG to Archicad and avoid a long list of bracketed font names in Text Font drop window (2nd screen shot).
After the initial Skip All conformation fonts are not converted.
They default to an Apparent Arial font, even-though my default font conversion is not Arial!
What am I missing here?
Thanks,
Joseph

Font Conversion.jpg
5 REPLIES 5
Anonymous
Not applicable
Missing fonts
Thomas Holm
Booster
Joseph, thanks for your PM, I really did check this thread earlier but decided it was too complex for me - the subject, that is. You got me here, I'm an easy target for flattery!

The background problem is that this process is very sparsely - and erroneously - documented. The Help files are better than the Reference Guide, you might check that.

Also, Autocad nowadays uses TrueType fonts by default for MTEXT entries (that is, More Than one line of tEXT 😉 This means that Autocad installs all its standard fonts in both .shx and TT formats in Windows. (The TT fons reside in Window's font folder)

Since MacOSX can utilize any Windows TrueType font like its own, this reduces the problem. I for one have the TrueType versions of all Autocad's standard (shx) fonts installed. You can get them from any Autocad user or by installing Autodesk's free DWG viewer (Windows only - use BootCamp on Mac). This should eliminate most needs for font mapping.

I really can't say what's happening in your case.
I think that Archicad on the Mac defaults to Geneva when it can't find the target font it wants. You can change that in the Miscellaneous section of the DWG translator setup. It looks like Arial (which is a rip-off of Geneva, which in turn is a rip-off of Helvetica).

I would guess there might be some small error in the font naming on either side of the conversion table. This is particularly problematic with PS (PostScript) fonts, since for each font they come in styles (bold, italic etc) who reside in separate files. TrueType fonts have all styles in one file.

Also, I'm not completely sure about what Autocad 'styles' mean as opposed to 'fonts'. I notice your font names on the Autocad side are complete with file name extensions .shx You might try to just remove the extensions, since if your DWG has font mappings to TT fonts, they would not work. And start by having only one-to-one mappings to isolate the problem.

Then try setting the conversion table in your translator to some other font that you've got. If you get it to work that way, it's your font that's the issue. You might try getting a TrueType version of your Postscript target font and try that instead. There are PS to TT converters out there, Google is your friend.

There are other issues that might affect this as well.

a) As you might have noticed, Archicad only fully respects your translator's settings when you Merge or Xref a DWG. If you Open it or Place it as a Drawing, Archicad doesn't give a shit for your carefully customised translator tables, even if you've set them in the default translator. I've only got very incomplete and unsatisfactory explanations from GS for this. It seems that the DWG conversion department at GS doesn't care about what the Archicad user in want of good controllable communications with Autocad users need. That the default translator should work regardless of how you import your DWG is beyond their horizon. So only Merge or Xref for the time being.

b) Also, in your Add-Ons folder, you've got a file called XReadCfg.txt.
(It was last changed the 6th of Sept 2004. It's older than the one I got with Archicad 9, but not as old as the one I got with Archicad 10, which is from 1999. My Archicad 7 is from 2002, so I guess that would be about Archicad 5 - I haven't kept older versions installed so I'm not sure. Didn't someone brag about Archicad being "completely rewritten' by Archicad 8? )

Whatever, this file is supposed to rule the default font conversion. You might try to edit it. N B that I guess explicit settings in your translator should override the settings in this file. However, I have serious doubts that this file works. Many of it's options simply don't apply anymore - they are ancient relics from the Classic Mac OS's times.

c) So for the last option: In the Miscellaneous section of the DWG translator setup you can set a "Font Conversion File: Even when one-by-one font-to-style matching is possible, a conversion dictionary may be necessary for Font Name conversion." to quote the Help file.

It also says: "A default version of this dictionary is installed during ArchiCAD installation. It is country- and platform-dependent but otherwise standard. You may wish to duplicate and alter the default dictionary."

So I went searching for this file. By the help of GS local Swedish support (they are very helpful) I found out that the default dictionary mentioned is in fact the Xreadcfg file mentioned above! Just one snag, though: The Help text says: "you can define a Font Conversion File (it is a file with *.xml extension)". So my efforts to edit the Xreadcfg.txt file didn't help much, because Archicad refused to let me select it in the Miscellaneous setup!

I went to GS local support again, and after a while Ben Odonnell turned up with an FontConv.xml file. Completely different from the above, and very complex at that, I haven't been able to gather enough energy to make it work. But if you have this need for a lot of files, you might want to give it a try. A tip: There is a free code editor for OSX called Smultron. Download it and use ti to edit the xml files. Much easier than a text editor. http://smultron.sourceforge.net/

Obviously, the guys at GS's DWG conversion development have work to do! I do hope they fix this in AC12. The least they can do is to get the installed files to be consistent with the help text!

I'm attaching the Xreadcfg.xml file in an additional post. Please note that before you test any of this, do full backups of both your programs and your data!

And do report back if you get it to work!
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
Thomas Holm
Booster
This is the PC <> Mac Font Conversion .xml file I got from GS support in Sweden. I hope you will be able to utilize it. I'm not sure where to put it but I would guess loose in the Add-Ons folder to start with.

I got these notes as well:

"Background info: it can be useful e.g.: when you insert a DWG to the AC file as "Place Drawing". Using that xml you can personalize the font conversion...

[my comment: Since the DWGtranslator you've set as default doesn't work when you Place Drawing (or drag-and-drop) a DWG, this would mean that this file works without the translator, that is without being set/chosen in the translator setup - well I'm not sure - please test]

...Attached you can find the MAC version of that XML. You can edit the file to get the font the way you want it in the following way:

open that XML file with TextEdit

in this line: <FontConvTable items="55"> 55 is the current number of the "Items". So if you add eg. 1 extra Item line, that value should be 56.

Add new (or rename) Item line:
<Item AC="ac font" ACAD="acad facename" FONTFAMILY="acad font file name.ext" FONTID="34" XSCALE="0.7" />

(change the font names, let the other parameters by default.)"

After asking some questions, I got this as well:

"You cannot see that file because it is "build in" content...

[my comment: please note that this contradicts what was said above and in the Help text (see previous post). If it's built in, how can you access, duplicate, edit and replace it? And i you create your own, where should you put it to make sure it overrides the built-in?]

...It should work both ways. The "AC="parameter (and scale) means an ArchiCAD value the others are ACAD values so they are coming from the Autocad content.
The XSCALE parameter is important on mac: when you have a very similar, but little bigger font, you can e.g.: reduce the font and you will get almost the same output. It should work both ways.

You can add more ACAD fonts to an AC font back and forth. When the program find 2 (more) font alternates and it is only one solution it will choose the first value in row (means the upper row). If there is no such font the output will be the default font, can be found in translator.

PC and MAC fonts are different, that's why another xml is needed."


There is obviously a lot missing in the documentation.

- In what order do the different settings options (Xreadcfg.txt, DWGtranslator settings, Fontconversino file) work, and override each other?

- Where should the files be installed do work correctly?

- What works in what import mode (Open/Merge/XREF/Place-Drag&Drop)?
Etc.

Please test and post back!

GS's DWGtranslator development needs to clean up their act in AC12!
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
Anonymous
Not applicable
Well here are the results:

1. Font conversion of TT font vs. my original use of PS fonts did not do anything and still did not work.

2. Removing shx extension from conversion did not do anything and still did not work.

3. XReadCfg.txt was looked at does not make any effect on imported files, besides with out more in depth understanding the characters I can not work on it.

4. Used the FontConv_mac.xml with TT font & shx modification did not do anything and still did not work.

5. I used different means of import:
Place External Drawing
Merge
Attach Xref
still no good.

I have given up after 3.5 hrs today and 5 hours during last week. Have reported to my reseller.
We sit and wait......
It reminds me of, almost MicroStation days.....
Thanks,
Joseph
Thomas Holm
Booster
Joseph wrote:
We sit and wait......
It reminds me of, almost MicroStation days.....
Thanks,
Joseph
So you've been there too? I was there btw 1989 and 1998. (I didthis then... )
At least we had working config files. And config group settings. And separate export and import configs. And...

Sorry I couldn't help any better
If you get any further, please report back!
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1