David D Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Possibly in the wrong forumn, not sure. Moderators are welcome to move thread if needed. I am looking for a way to use objects created from lines and arcs as text because of a machine that will not read text. The objects look like letters and numbers. I am wondering if there is a way to create a text style, library or whatever with the created "text". There can be hundreds of characters on a single drawing so importing and aligning and placing each object 1 at a time is very slow and painstaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David D Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 Found a workaround on this forum page: http://cadtips.cadalyst.com/create-text/3d-text The first reply shows "txtexp" which does just what I need. Only problem is that for what I am doing I can only use .shx fonts. I would like a slightly less plain type of font but can get by with what is available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 There are many, many different styles of SHX fonts. Forum member Stykface has a link to over 700 right here at CADTutor. Maybe you can find one that suits your needs. What exactly are you looking for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David D Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 We are trying to use a router to engrave on plastic. The router program does not read text so we are trying to take the text that would normaly be printed or laser etched and convert it into actual objects made of lines and curves. I thought the txtexp would work but it actually takes curves and breaks them into multiple straight lines of varying lenghth depending on the font. I was just informed that that is not acceptable. I need curved parts of letters to actually be made of a curve. The company with the router has made a library of letters and numbers made of lines and curves but we need an easy way to replace the actual text with this new library. Right now we know of no way to do that except letter by letter. Considering there are usually at least around 150 and could be a thousand or thousands, very time consuming. So the font used is no big deal, just need a way to convert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkent Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 (edited) You will want to try this one out, it will use splines instead of lines. http://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/ACD/Detail/Index?id=appstore.exchange.autodesk.com%3aText-to-Geometry%3aen&autostart=true Edited September 6, 2012 by rkent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David D Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 Got it but cannot make it work. Anything special about loading it that I might need to know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkent Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 When you downloaded it, it should have loaded for you. Then in ACAD you type T2G to start it. You will have to have admin rights (I believe) for it to install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David D Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 It says it loaded when I run the app but "t2g" gets "unknown comand" in AC. Must be because because the AuotoCad is not registered. Boss was trying to save $ and found cheap computer with it loaded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkent Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 I believe it needs .net 3.5 or higher, you may be on 3.0 or less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 AutoCAD is not registered? The computer was used and had AutoCAD already preloaded on it and fully activated? By activated I mean the former owner received an authorization code for the program. Any chance you guys are using an illegal copy of AutoCAD? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David D Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 Not illegal but do not know about the rest. Do not know how it was setup. Boss handled purchase and said "use this computer" so I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 If it has been operating for more than 30 days then chances are there are no problems although what your boss did might be frowned upon by AutoDesk. That's his problem though and not yours so let's move on. Any further questions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David D Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 May have found problem. This computer is not the one I was using when I signed up to the site. I have 2010 version on this computer. Tried the app on another computer that has registered version of 2012 Lt and did not work there either. Just noticed that neither version is listed on compatible list for the app. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Since the app is not compatible with either version that you have access to then you would have to find and use a different method to achieve your objective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David D Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 Yes, I guess I am back to trying to create a "font" from objects. If this was Excel I might be thinking along the lines of using vlookup. I do not know if there is some sort of equivalent in AC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 What font are you attempting to emulate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David D Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 I do not know which font it was based on but I have one made up already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 So what is your next step? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David D Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 I don't know. Thats where I was hoping someone here might have some ideas I could try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 We've come full circle because you are married to the idea that you can somehow use these text-like objects like a font which when you think about it is kind of funny since one normally starts with a font, explodes it, then works with the individual letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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