Fonts on Civil Engineering Drawings - what ot use?

[ReMark]

Font lineweight is not even on my list of concerns given the way our drawings are set up. And yes, we do not use any Truetype fonts in our drawings.

[tzframpton]

Font lineweight is not even on my list of concerns given the way our drawings are set up. And yes, we do not use any Truetype fonts in our drawings.

That very well may be true. Most companies have their lineweight control down pat. Smaller firms, one-man CAD show, or a ByObject CTB File all are main reasons why Font lineweight is not on any list of concerns. But it still "technically" is something to be aware of because it remains an option to visually change or manipulate the SHX lineweight thickness.

[ReMark]

I can understand that in big companies font lineweight may be critical but it carries little weight here.

[BIGAL]

Forget fonts for a moment lets look at the work of arts now that we plot in full colour ! Wow what a can of worms.

[SunnyTurtle]

What is the advantage to using a different font for dimensions, leaders and notes? It seems counterproductive.

 

Yes it is counterproductive. If I was the boss it would not be allowed.

 

But you may want to specify different text height's for title's and annotations

As long as you get a consistent output across a project I'm happy.

 

But with out something specifying every little thing some people make drawing really inconsistent to the rest of the drawings. when you have 10000 drawings, 3 company's and 30 drafters it can become difficult if you don't do the appropriate setup and documenting which font to use and the various text heights to use is part of the setup process

 

but little jobs are much less significant as normally on 1 or 2 drafters are working on it. and consistency can be achieved just through reviewing each others drawings

[ReMark]

"But you may want to specify different text height's for title's and annotations..."

 

Are you saying that some fonts that your company uses are height limited? If so could you give us an example of one? Thanks.

[Barneel]

I'd be interested to see one of these multi-font drawings. I'm sure it's possible to make it look good but I just can't imagine how

[ReMark]

When I took a graphics arts course (a while back) we were specifically warned against using too many different fonts on our packaging or in our advertizement pieces as viewers were apt to think the artwork was too "busy" (i.e. - unfocused). But that was then and this is now so I guess the "rule of thumb" book or standard practices has been thrown out the window. Everything becomes a hodgepodge. Embrace chaos its new, its now.

[tzframpton]

We have two fonts: Optim and Arial. Optim is reserved only for our titleblock and coversheet which is our company's "branded" font. All other fonts that make up the design graphics are Arial only, and only two sizes: 3/16" and 3/32". Easy peasy.

 

 

*EDIT*

For my side business, I use two fonts: Arial and Arial Narrow. Arial is Titleblock and Arial Narrow is everything in the design graphics. I really like Arial Narrow but couldn't convince my company to adopt, haha.

[Organic]

 

• SHX fonts are dated.

It doesn't matter how old something is. Engineering and plan conveyance is not a new science.

 

 

 

• AutoCAD's performance can handle TTF fonts.

It can do a lot of stuff that most people don't need or use...

 

 

 

• TTF fonts cannot be override by any CTB/STB plot style, inherently maintaining consistent visual standards.

I've never seen this occur before.

 

 

 

• Arial is ubiquitous and the font style well known, clean, clear, legible, and generally accepted as having a professional look.

Except when printing on reduced size (e.g. A1 sheets pritned at A3 etc - we print both scales)

 

 

 

• Windows Character Map symbols are directly compatible.

AutoCad has built in characters for squared, cubed, diameter, degrees etc and most you need. Copying ones from Wikipedia has never given me trouble either.

 

 

 

 

• It is consistent with other newer CAD platforms that have emerged on the market in recent years, such as Revit, which gives a consistent standard across the board.

Why can't the font be changed to a shx font in Revit? It doesn't make sense. How do you submit (complying) plans to clients/approval authorities that say you must use XYZ font if Revit doesn't support that font?

 

 

 

 

• SHX fonts are not searchable in vector PDF outputs. TTF fonts are, which allows end users to leverage this powerful tool with large sets.

I can see the advantage of this. I don't think I've ever tried to search a PDF of a drawing though. I trust my own eyes more.

[tzframpton]

Fine. But what about overriding a font with a plotstyle. How is that accomplished? Sounds interesting.

I've never seen this occur before.

ReMark/Organic - please view the link below:

http://screencast.com/t/BA5bPnNCo

 

Notice that when a lineweight is applied to RomanS, it creates a thinner or bolder lineweight for the font characters. Then notice when I copy the text with the same lineweights applied but change it to Arial which is a TTF, there is no override. Making sense finally for you two?

 

 

I can see the advantage of this. I don't think I've ever tried to search a PDF of a drawing though. I trust my own eyes more.

Search tools has nothing to do with trust, but everything to do with efficiency. Do you use Google or any other search engine of choice? Do you use Windows Explorer search? Of course you do. So why not jump in the 21st century with the rest of the people and produce outputs with a certain grade of quality? Refer to this quick reference:

http://screencast.com/t/t9nKAJet

 

Notice that I easily searched a text string because I simply used a TTF font instead of an SHX. Nothing else changes other than the appearance of the font itself. Same method, procedure, etc - still plotting from vanilla AutoCAD. But it provides a valuable function for you and for recipients, so why is this such a closed minded area of discussion for you? When I have a job that has a large number of mechanical equipment, they are all tagged, so you can simply type in the tag label in the search box and it'll go right to the page/view instead of scouring sheet by sheet. Daunting tasks that can easily be fixed by simply using a TTF font.

Why can't the font be changed to a shx font in Revit? It doesn't make sense. How do you submit (complying) plans to clients/approval authorities that say you must use XYZ font if Revit doesn't support that font?

Do you use SHX fonts in Microsoft Word? Or Excel? Does your company use SHX fonts on their website? Goodness gracious man!! haha, it's simply because Revit isn't an application developed with SHX fonts. Granted you can get it to work with some pseudo tweaking, but for all intents and purposes I cannot see why on God's green Earth you would want to? I guess there are people that have a very, very hard time letting some things go in this world.

 

Hope this shines some light on the topic at hand for the original poster, and for you Organic. I'm not saying you "should" switch, but the arguments for TTF fonts in AutoCAD are far better than the arguments against.

 

- Tannar

Edited November 22, 2013 by tzframpton