Global font change?

[A1DWG]

Hi all,

 

I have been given a task relating to a series of old drawings. We want to update our library of details and I need to add a number of drawings to one larger file. OK so far, the problem is that although I can change the text style "Standard" to the font we use (arial), some of the drawings had the font modified within the text itself (\Fisocp.shx;text here).

 

Is there anyway to globally change this modifyer without having to edit each peice of text individually?

 

I'm using AutoCAD2008 LT.

 

Thanks is advance.

[Raggi_Thor]

I think you have to batch process your drawings in some way.

There are some free or low cost programs to help you with that.

SuperScript or BatchScript maybe?

 

A lisp routine would be handy here, searching for "\Fisocp.shx".

[ReMark]

Sounds like a Lisp routine is in order here (search and replace?). You can search for one over at cadalsyt magazine in their CAD Tips section.

[dbroada]

This isn't that simple as the font is embedded along with a few other bits of formatting information. To do it properly you need to search for {\fFontNAME and the , to delimit the formatting and the } to find the end of the text.

 

a sledghammer approach...

 

save all your drawings as DXFs.

open in wordpad and replace {\fisocp.shx with {\fArial.ttf

all the formatting will stay there so its not ideal

[rkent]

OP noted they are using LT, so lisp files won't help unless they have an extender of some type. If there are a lot of files to do then buying an extension to allow lisp files to work may be in order.

[dbroada]

maybe my sledghammer wasn't after all. That does all the changes outside of AutoCAD.

[ReMark]

Argh! Dang eyeglasses! Where did I leave them? Anyone see my glasses? Maybe I should buy a Braille monitor.

 

rkent is right (again). Can't use lisp here. Get out the sledgehammer boys, this is gonna get messy.

[Raggi_Thor]

As ussually, I recommend LT-Extender. You can try it 200 times before you buy.

[rkent]

MC Hammer says, "hammer time"

[A1DWG]

a sledghammer approach...

 

save all your drawings as DXFs.

open in wordpad and replace {\fisocp.shx with {\fArial.ttf

all the formatting will stay there so its not ideal

 

I suppose I'm not allowed to ask "Is there a way of doing this routine on 100's of drawings...":?

 

It would be a lot easier to use the sledghammer on the pc and let someone else change all the text by hand - The person who did it in the first place would be sweet, but his current employer wouldnt think so.

 

Thanks all, I shall look into LT-Extender and report back.

[Strix]

Argh! Dang eyeglasses! Where did I leave them? Anyone see my glasses? Maybe I should buy a Braille monitor.

how about 'ctrl' + 'shift' + '+' ? any better?

[Strix]

I assume the \Fisocp.shx; bit can't be found by 'search and replace' or CHTEXT? (if I got that right - a facility which predates 'search and replace', and somebody posted a link to download it recently)

[dbroada]

I assume the \Fisocp.shx; bit can't be found by 'search and replace' or CHTEXT? (if I got that right - a facility which predates 'search and replace', and somebody posted a link to download it recently)

certainly not S&R in 2008 - it was the first thing I tried. I didn't bother with CHTEXT though.

[dbroada]

I suppose I'm not allowed to ask "Is there a way of doing this routine on 100's of drawings...":?

You can ask.

 

 

Do you want an answer?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably not without spending some time writing a VB (or ...) program to do it for you. I keep forgetting that I have the tools here and, while it would take a few hours to tweak the program I have, it would be possible.

 

Sorry

[A1DWG]

Thanks Dave,

 

I still think your sledghammer might work (on the processor, hard drive, RAM...), but in our office any productivity enhancing software is not seen as productive / cost effective

[dbroada]

I was lucky. Although I wasn't that good at LISP, I was still better then anyone else here so I quickly obtained "guru" status.

 

We then had a project that required an inteface with a database and one of the programmers wrote something (can't even remember what language) that was far too intelligent for its own good. I said I could do remove the intelligence and write something in VB to do the job just as easilly. Fortunately I was right and we still use an only slightly modified version of my original program to create our loop drawings (about 500 similar drawings in one set, all with different data) which has enabled us to get lots of orders. On the back of that I am the "automation expert" so get a pretty free run on productivity enhancements.

 

The downside is I often set up things "my way" which get broken by the sort of people that explode blocks and then I am expected to work out why my bit of automation no longer works. But I do get to play with VB at times.

[A1DWG]

The downside is I often set up things "my way" which get broken by the sort of people that explode blocks and then I am expected to work out why my bit of automation no longer works. But I do get to play with VB at times.

 

As we only have LT, no Lisps, macros etc, its difficult enough to get others to be consistant in their work (eg draw a new, different section tag each drawing...)

 

Being brought up "Old School" (Roterings and tracing paper) I always get the job of setting up the CAD Standards and trying to get the youngsters who are all CTRL+C and CTRL+V happy to insert blocks, dont explode them etc. As I have access to many standards it is usually me who has to take on that role too.