Typing Special Characters in Truetype fonts

We are in the process of moving our cad standard from shx based fonts, to truetype fonts.

Using shx fonts, I am able to type "~p" and the "plate symbol" would appear. In Arial, this is no longer possible, however, if you type out the unicode name for the plate symbol, "\U+2104", the symbol appears, using the font "ISOCPEUR"

My question is this: Is there a way to remap what character gets generated when you hit the "~P" combination?

I am also having trouble with the loss of vulgar fractions, which are generated the same way: "~1" = "1/16" for example.

For the "I don't do it that way" people that will inevitably pipe up here, I am trying to maintain my drafting efficiency, and clicking through a bunch of menus to find symbols to paste into my text is irritating and slows me down. Additionally, I find the autostacking feature in autocad to be very distracting, and makes typing dates difficult.

Thanks,

-Matthew

If you want to use extended characters and you have only a few you just need to hold the Alt key down and type in the key number have a chart on the wall etc

eg sq meters m (ALT + 0178) cubed (ALT + 0179)

It is possible to reprogramme the keyboard buttons and have say a certain key character reflect a different character but has been a long time since I did that.

Can you elaborate more re the ~p sounds like some has written something to capture keyboard input.

So evidently I'm the only person in the whole world that uses this. I'm quickly learning that what I thought was a standard practice is considered to be some arcade dark autocad secret.

@BIGAL

No, no-one has written anything to capture keyboard input. It's a basic feature of autocad when using shx fonts.

Try this: type "style" to enter the Text Style dialog, select "romans.shx" as your shx font, and "special.shx" and your Big Font.

Set that as the current font, and then type "mtext" to enter text.

type ~p for plate symbol, ~c for centerline symbol, ~

It allows for very fast structural drafting, but it's apparently archaic, and nobody uses it.

-Matthew

So evidently I'm the only person in the whole world that uses this.

 

"special.shx" and your Big Font.

This is not a standard font. You have got a customised font. Lucky you.

@Eldon

Really? Well that's terribly interesting. No wonder everybody thinks I'm crazy! This has been part of our cad standard for years, it never occurred to me that the behavior was non-standard.

Be careful using special shx files if you send the drawing to someone else they may not be able to see the special charcters you have to give them the special.shx as well.

New problem you can not give someone a shx if its copyrighted you could be sued as the other person has not purchased it..