flaky autocad fonts - and is there a drawing purge command? 1

[DanT]

We have trouble making decent autocad drawings from SW drawings. I read Tick's post about flaky fonts and GED info. Those are some of our exact problems. I am about to try saving as older versions of acad, maybe as dxf instead of dwg, and using acad fonts. We have yet to try the mapping options.

 

[DetroitPickles]

Should be no difference between dwg and dxf. I don't think there was a difference when I tried older ACAD versions either.

You may be "stuck" like most of use, and have to get by with what you get...


Mr. Pickles

 

[TheTick]

I keep the font settings (under "optins" in the "Save As" menu) set to "AutoCAD Standard Fonts". The results are usually cleaner than using True Type fonts.

It's never completely clean. I go for legible. Sometimes I append a note indicating that the source is SW.

We use Century Gothic for our default font. It seems to translate OK.

One of the foibles inherent with EVERY CAD program I have seen is that they do not process fonts the way Microsoft Office does. I think the developers don't put a high priority on it. I see it as an issue of content over style. Most engineers aren't too concerned with the exact prettiness of their fonts. Really, that's more the domain of graphic designers using Adobe Illustrator, etc.

Gravity is a harsh mistress.

 

[vanner]

this is a reply to tick: the posed question comes from DanT who is a associate of mine. I would like to further comment about the autocad/solidwork translations. I just checked my settings and they as per your recommendations. We not only get skewed dims. but dimensions backwards, upside down,etc. The biggest problem is when we do a circular section view not only does the area within the circle come along but other bolt circles both near and far. This is most troublesome due to some of these drawings escape us and are sent to our customers or our manufacturing plant. Have you or anyone else reading this,experienced this sort of translation problem?

 

[TheTick]

I wish I could tell you more. We have four stations with SW, and I can't get any two to do the same thing w.r.t. AutoCAD translations.

Gravity is a harsh mistress.

 

[TheTick]

for what it's worth:

Autocad version R14
custom mapping off
1:1 scale output checked

If all you need is a legible 2D drawing, and the downstream recipient doesn't need to take geometry off of the drawing, try sending an eDrawing.

Another good 2D format is PDF. There is a good PDF translator at

http://www.pdf995.com,

and it costs $9.95.

Gravity is a harsh mistress.

 

[Standing]

Is there a drawing purge command? Remember SolidWorks does not condone the use of defrag.
Look at

http://www.nhcad.com

under download.

UNFRAG is written by Jeff Prosise and is a utility to unfragment compound files. This program is fantastic! You can run it on a single directory, with the option to include sub-directories. The sizes of your SolidWorks files should shrink significantly. This program will accomplish the same thing as renaming your SolidWorks files, but without the hassle of losing or misnaming files...


Bradley

 

[CajunCAD]

When I save a SolidWorks file to AutoCad I perform the following to clean it up:

Set all fonts to RomanS
I have to run through this 2 times to get it to work

Move text as required
During the translation things seem to move down some

Purge All

Audit

Not necessarily the best process, but its what I have to do.

 

[DetroitPickles]

Concerning "purging", "defragging", or "squeezing" SW files (Parts, Assemblies, & Drawings), I use ECOSQUEEZE instead of UNFRAG (mentioned by Bradley).

EcoSqueeze (

http://www.ecocom.com)

does the same as Unfrag, but also allows you to "squeeze" out the Preview Image and the Display List Information. It also does NOT update the Date/Time stamp like Unfrag does. And EcoSqueeze is "Freeware".

FWIW: I just did our main job directory of 9235 files and squeezed out 798mb, and I didn't do the Preview Image either.


Mr. Pickles

 

[rocheey]

I do the following, and virtually *always* have perfect results....
Export Options:
Version: R2000-2002
Fonts: True Type
LineStyles: Solidworks Custom Styles
Custom map SolidWorks to DXF: YES
Dont Show Mapping on each save: YES
1:1 Scale Output: YES


I also have made up a map file, which doesnt so much have
anything to do eith the quality of the export, but merely maps Solidworks entities to individual colors/layers in the acad drawing. Cut the following text out (not couting the lines that say "Cut here" and paste them into notepad. Save the file, then point your map file to the file you saved:

'----- cut here ---------------------------
[Version]
SW990001

[Layers]
0 = 7, 0
DEFPOINTS = 7, 0
DIMS = 1, 0
CENTERMARKS = 8, 0
SECTIONLINES = 9, 0
BILLSOFMATERIALS = 0, 0
CENTERLINES = 10, 0
DIMENSIONS = 251, 0
NOTES = 0, 0
GEOMETRY = 7, 1

[Entities]
Geometry [0] = BYLAYER, BYLAYER, GEOMETRY
Notes [2] = BYLAYER, BYLAYER, NOTES
Center Marks [4] = BYLAYER, BYLAYER, CENTERMARKS
Section Lines [5] = BYLAYER, BYLAYER, SECTIONLINES
Bill of Materials [12] = BYLAYER, BYLAYER, BILLSOFMATERIALS
Center Lines [14] = BYLAYER, BYLAYER, CENTERLINES
Dimensions [1] = BYLAYER, BYLAYER, DIMENSIONS

[Colors]

' ---- cut here --------------------------


if you like the results, I have a macro for you that automates the whole process from export out of SW to import into acad.

 

[JNR]

Just some comments, having been a CAD person of most hats and brands since 1979. The origins of "CAD" fonts are in stroke fonts (ie: stick figures) from the orignal pen plotter orientation of CAD programs. Many "CAD" fonts which claim to be a named font (eg: Leroy) are actually stroke approximations. Naturally all the CAD vendors have their own ideas on font definition!!! Heaven forbid there should ever be a "Standard" in the CAD industry!!! When you add in other sometimes-fonted-sometimes-not items (like GDT, arrows, etc.) plus tha fact that some have features others don't (variable pitch, for example)its a mess for translation purposes. Couple this with the fact that DXF is not a national standard, but belongs to AutoDesk, and it's amazing anything works. Of course, on top of this is how drafting view space and drawing sheet space are mathemetically accomplished in various CAD systems...... yadda, yadda, yadda......

We use Adobe PDF file format for drawings we are sending to anyone else. We actually use full-up Adobe for this and it functions as a print driver from ANY Windows application. (But the cheap PDF converter sounds interesting). The advantage is that ANYONE can read and print the file. (If they claim they can't - tell them to download the free Adobe reader, or use their web browser.) Also the resolution is great. AND they can't inadvertantly or otherwise alter it easliy. (An interesting little legal wrinkle.) BTW: you can obviously save model pictures this way too - anything you can print.

One final plea for patience - no matter what CAD systems you are using. Remember the first rule of generic "Translators". If the source system has apples oranges and pears, the translator has bananas and apples and the target system has apples coconuts and pears, the BEST you are going to get logically is real apples, maybe some orange colored apples, no pears and who the heck uses bananas?

;-) Do the best you can, try to keep ya hair on and above all keep it fun, guys-n-gals. JNR.