Do You Want More "Editable" Fonts and Text Entities?

It is 12:56 PM and one of my clients called me with the old question, "How do I turn AutoCAD text into vectors?" It brought back great memories of running the Technical Support Department for Lackner Computer Systems, Inc. at the turn of the century. Lackner was an Authorized Autodesk Reseller and Training Center (ATC). That was one of my favorite jobs ever, as I got paid to solve CAD users urgent problems, learning Autodesk products in intimate detail in the process. It also allowed me to use my programming and customization skills to make AutoCAD work exactly the way my clients wanted it to work. This flexibility remains one of AutoCAD's strong suits.

The first solution that came to mind was to install an DXBIN device and plot to that device. Years ago, I remember having to install a driver for it. Then in more recent releases I have used the PLOTTERMANAGER command. It is also possible the simple DXBOUT and DXBIN commands combination might do the trick. Unfortunately, the DXBOUT command does not seem to exist.

When you issue the PLOTTERMANAGER command you will get the following dialog boxes:

When it is time to plot, issue the PLOT command and select the DBX File Plotter Name you installed in the previous step. The dialog box should look similar to the screen capture below:

OK. So using PLOTTERMANAGER worked and I could not find a DXBOUT command to go along with DXBIN, the way there is an DXFOUT and DXFIN set of commands. Perhaps Autodesk should contemplate adding such a command to avoid the seemingly unnecessary step required to add a DXB device. Furthermore, neither the EXPORT nor SAVEAS commands support DXB file format. Which brings us to an interesting piece of history about DXB courtesy of Darren Young, "At one point Autodesk pulled support for DXB. I raised a stink w/Autodesk and hooked them up with Paul Limburg of @Limburg Engineering Associates (https://leaprint.com/) who does custom plotter/printer driver development. I believe the existing DXB driver is his work. I'd used him before on some custom vinyl cutting equipment plotters and he did great work. A little Niche but a great resource to have should you ever need it."

This technique I am sharing here works like a charm and can save you countless hours whenever you are tempted to trace AutoCAD text entities over with native vectors such as lines, arcs, polylines and splines. At a minimum, you will want to start with this technique and then refine the result selectively and only as absolutely necessary.

As you can see in the resulting screen capture above, this technique works for both *.ttf true type fonts and Autodesk AutoCAD Font shape *.shx files. The yellow entities are the original AutoCAD text entities using the three annotative text styles (the ones with the blue scale profile symbol to the left of the names) TimesOut.shx, RomanS.shx and TimesNewRoman.ttf. The white entities below are all made with regular, native AutoCAD LINE entities.

Just as pixels are used to create the images and text you're looking at right now, so are curved elements in both shape font and true type fonts approximated by using straight line segments, sometimes very short ones, as you can see to a certain extent in the zoomed in screen capture below:

I have used this technique with great results to solve several drafting challenges in the past. I am curious what applications you have used it for and what new ones you are now inspired to to solve as you read this article. Please share in the comments.

The purpose for which this technique is most likely to be put to work in the next few minutes or hours involve laser cutting. How would you create the outline of text for laser cutting without using this technique and without resorting to manual, time-consuming approximations?

To be frank, I would not like other programs such as Revit, ArchiCAD, Vectorworks, etc. to bother offering this type of functionality. Doing so would create unnecessary bloat. However, it is nice to keep in mind what a great 2D drafting tool AutoCAD remains, not to mention its not so well hidden 3D modeling power. As I have said and written many times before, "To know a CAD or BIM program is to love it!"

It is now 2:23 PM and this took a little longer to write than I expected. It also sent me down some tangential experimental excursions. But this is the way some of the best learning happens, in a way you least expect, and then it becomes useful at just the right time in the future. You cannot learn any program really well if you don't give yourself permission to experiment. This is the beauty of teaching and tech suppport, you get paid to learn, and the learning never, ever stops. Be fearless and always ask when you get stuck for more than 30 minutes or so, 1 hour if you're very ambitious and want to become an expert. One of the keys to become an expert is to not expect other people to solve problems for you. But even then, after a couple of hours, it may be better to ask for help or at least Google your problem or challenge.

It is now 15:47 Pacific Time and I just read a comment by my long time friend Darren Young. He reminded me of a similarly effective technique using the WMFOUT command. As mentioned previously, you will also need a matching WMFIN command as well as the EXPLODE command to easily edit the BLOCK the WMFIN command inserts into your drawing upon import. You can see the result here:

I love my LinkedIn friends for their depth of talent, knowledge and experience. This brings back fond memories of AUGI and Autodesk University, where I first met Darren in person. We may have originally met in the Compuserve Forums in the 90's last century. I am carbon CAD dinosaur dating myself here. AU is a magical event where talking shop makes problems vanish and CAD dreams come true. Chances are, if you bring up a technical question or wish during meal breaks, somebody there has already "been there, done that." It is amazing how so much of what we need in life, not just CAD, is there waiting for us to simply ask. Without getting too religious or philosophical, remember, "Ask and you shall receive" is even a Biblical concept.

16:05 PM Come to think of it, I think I was introduced to Darren by Owen Wengerd. If not, we still walked a couple of miles down the main Las Vegas strip for some culinary variety during a long-time-ago AU. If Jim Fisher reads this, he will likely come up with even more related AutoCAD tips and tricks. Editing this post at 21:03 PM is making me feel nostalgic and several names of the past come to mind, such as Michael Puckett, all past NAAUG and AUGI directors and presidents such as all lowercase dave espinoza-aguilar, David Harrington, Donnia Tabor-Hansen, Don Spencer, Greg Robinson, Scott McFarlane, Paul Jackson, Phil Kreiker, LeAnne Thurmond, Mike Harkins, Roopinder Tara, Joel Orr, Ted Boardman, Randy Newton, Kevin Campbell, Kay Dickman, Ken Gerew, Bob Diaz, Paul Martinez, Barry Owen, Charles Bell, Stephen Cotton, David Kingsley, John Gibb, Craig Reed, Yoshi Honda, Phillip Shivel, John Clauson, Marv Mauston, Peter Jamtgaard, Elise Moss, Beth Garrison, Chris Linder, John Moran, Richard Binning, Robert Bell, Jill King, Mark Kiker, Rick McNeil, Mike Perry and Mistress of the Dorkness Melanie Stone-Perry, Donnie Gladfelter, Jane Smith, Paul Aubin, Lynn Allen, Kean Walmsley, Lee Ambrosius, Shaan Hurley, Bud Schroeder and many others. The list almost feels like a list of relatives or sibblings. If you do not find your name in the list I most likely considered you too young to make it. ;-) Again, the learning never ever ends and all the people I have listed here are very generous with their talents and knowledge.

20:08 PM I am glad both Jim Fisher and Michael Puckett have chimed in with further comments and tips. Michael, in particular, contributed, "with AutoCAD 2017+ one can just hi-res plot desired content to pdf files, then use the pdfimport command to bring in the flattened info, complete with intact layering, text objects (depending how you config the PDF plotter) yada. Wrap it up in programming and abracapocus, clients that require flattened drawings at turn over get hi-res, flattened drawings that appear just as the original x-ref'd, viewport'd drawings -- sans the latter. Bonus: Works with all verticals and wonky viewpoint'd | clip plane'd viewports too, unlike the Bentley flattener."

2020.09.12 16:53 Pacific Daylight Time Update: Reading the comments reminds me of the names of other CAD friends and colleagues who, through their inspiring online behavior, have made a great impact in my career, generously contributing tips and tricks through the years. Steve Johnson, R.K. McSwain, Paul Li, Matt Stachoni, Craig Black, Jimmy Bergmark, James Murphy, Matt Murphy, Kenneth Wong, Malcolm Davies, DM Hoke, Scott Sheppard, Eric Stover, Doug Cochran, Jeff Hanson, Jeremy Tammik, Peter Sherin, Evan Yares, Ralph Grabowski, Dietmar Rudolph, Heidi Hewett, Brad Holtz, Matt Dillon, Patrick Hughes, Robert Green, Alex Lepeska, Frank Mayfield, Tom Stoeckel, Luciana Klein, Scott Wilcox, Professor Reinaldo Togores Fernández, Jo?o Greno Brogueira, José L. García Galán, Guillermo Melantoni, Paul Munford, Jay Zallan, Ed Goldberg, Casey Jung-Fagan, Alfredo Medina, Chris Currie, Adam Munoz, and others come to mind. But a list for Revit, Civil3D, AutoCAD Architecture, etc. would bring many more different names to mind. Writing and reading the names brings back great memories. The AutoCAD worldwide community is indeed a closely knit group, especially when you focus on the original group of AutoCAD dinosaurs. Again, if you're not listed here, you're probably too young.