NX 7.5 font problem - ARGH! 3

[ToigaT]

I remember somebody having a similar problem with NX5.

All the fonts for the menu's in NX 7.5 are now bold and everything looks very ugly and nothing fits quite right; text doesn't fit into some windows, etc.

Last time it was recommended to replace the 'Lucida Sans Unicode Regular'

I have tried to replace this file but I am still exhibiting the problem.

I am pretty sure this came about because some program was uninstalled and has affected windows in some way.

I have tried everything to try and get this to work to no avail.

Any ideas?

 

[ToigaT]

It seems as if it's 'Arial Regular' in this instance, arial.ttf

I still do not know how to fix it yet.

 

[MickyV007]

Have you looked under Preferences-User Interface?

you can Reset Dialog Box Setting in the General tab.

Or in the Layout tab there you are able to change the Window Style via a pull down menu.



Best regards,

Michäël.

NX4.0.4.2 MP10 / TCE 9.1.3.8_build_0711 / NX6.0.5.3 + TC8.1 Unified / NX7.0.0.9

Belgium

 

[ToigaT]

Thanks, but this does not help at all.

My window style is set to 'NX (Recommended)' as it has been all along. Resetting dialog boxes and completely reinstalling NX has no effect at all.

I have uninstalled, deleted all registry entries, removed all entries under AppData and reinstalled and this has not helped at all.

This is a glitch between the Windows font subsystem and NX.

 

[ToigaT]

If I change the window style to 'NX with system font' it works better, however I prefer to have my NX as it should be.

 

[ToigaT]

Here is a screen grab so you can see for yourself.

 

[MickyV007]

How about Customer Defaults, there is the same setting under Gateway - User Interface - Layout?

Best regards,

Michäël.

NX4.0.4.2 MP10 / TCE 9.1.3.8_build_0711 / NX6.0.5.3 + TC8.1 Unified / NX7.0.0.9

Belgium

 

[ToigaT]

No, this is purely the fact that when NX is loading up it cannot find the correct font. It is looking for this in the Windows font subsystem.

John, do you have any advice please?

 

[MARINA221171]

hi,

for no reason all the fonts for the menu's in NX 7.5 are now italic!!!!!

 

[NXPERSON]

I had the same problem. I called GTAC and they solved the problem with this procedure:

Check the Display Properties in the Control Panel, select the Appearance tab --> Advanced Button --> select Menu under the Item dropdown --> check to see if the Italics button is pressed to the right of the Font dropdown. If so, turn off the itallics button.

NX uses system settings for displaying menu fonts.

NxPerson
NX6.0.2.8, TcEng8

 

[ToigaT]

Thanks NXPERSON, but this didn't help me with my problem.

NX only uses system settings for displaying menus when your 'Windows Style' is set to 'NX with system fonts'.

 

[ToigaT]

I have figured out what is causing the problem and I will post details soon about what is causing it and how to fix it.

 

[ToigaT]

--- TT's NX 7.5 font fix ---

Version: NX 7.5.x
Operating system: Windows 7 x64
Symptom:
NX menu and other NX windows are displaying font incorrectly or displaying wrong font entirely when using the default windows style ‘NX (Recommended)’ (Preferences -> User Interface -> Layout -> Windows Style).

Quick fix:
Install ‘Lucida Sans’ (Lucida Sans Regular) into windows font directory. (C:\Windows\Fonts)

Cause of problem:
Derivative of ‘Lucida Sans’ (Lucida Sans Regular)’ is installed into Windows font directory without original font being present. For example, ‘Lucida Sans’ (Lucida Sans Regular) is not present in system but ‘Lucida Sans’ (Lucida Sans Demi Bold) is.

Original font (Lucida Sans Regular)
‘Lucida Sans’
Font name: Lucida Sans

Derivative (Lucida Sans Demibold)
‘Lucida Sans Demibold’
Font name: Lucida Sans (This has the exact same name as the original ‘Lucida Sans’ (Lucida Sans Regular))

*Note: Please do not confuse this with ‘Lucida Sans Unicode’ (Lucida Sans Unicode Regular) as this is a different font set altogether despite the similar name. Leave these alone.

Explanation:
NX searches the Windows fonts directory and there is a specific search for ‘Lucida Sans’ (Lucida Sans Regular). If ‘Lucida Sans’ is not installed into the fonts directory but a derivative is, such as ‘Lucida Sans Demibold’ and it has the same font name (this is not the same thing as a file name. The font name resides inside the font itself and cannot be changed simply by renaming the file.), NX will default to using the derivative and will therefore display the wrong font, in this case, a Demibold version of the font.
One of the quick fixes is to ensure to have ‘Lucida Sans’ (Lucida Sans Regular) installed into windows or alternatively, remove these derivatives of ‘Lucida Sans’.

Please be very careful to note that there are other versions of Lucida Sans such as ‘Lucida Sans Unicode’, which has a font name of: ‘Lucida Sans Unicode’. This is a different name than ‘Lucida Sans’ and should not affect NX at all. In fact, it is advised not to remove these files as they are used by other programs as well as by NX.
On a windows system, if you double click a font file it will bring up a preview of the font, as well as displaying the font name for you to see. This is a better albeit slower way of checking the font names. After removing these derivatives of Lucida Sans, NX should return to normal.

I hope this helps, and perhaps if you have a problem with another font, this may guide you to resolve it. I have attached a 'Lucida Sans' (Lucida Sans Regular) font file for your convenience.

 

[ToigaT]

I would like to point out that this is an issue with the Windows font subsystem itself and the blame cannot be squarely placed on NX's shoulders as other applications are affected as well.

The creator of the derivative font file can also be to blame since there really should not be a stand-alone derivative of the font using the same font name.

 

[JohnRBaker]

While one might THINK that the problem is with Windows (i.e., Microsoft) I'd be a little careful placing the blame quite yet.

OK, how does NX work. If you set using...

Preferences -> User Interface -> Layout

...the Windows Style as 'NX (Recommended)' NX will use the MS Windows supplied font 'Lucida Sans Unicode Regular' (this is always our first choice), and if that is not found it will 'fail-over' (as has already been described) to one of the other 'Lucida' style fonts, often the Italics version.

Now if you select in Preferences the Windows Style 'NX with System Font' then you will get whatever font is the Windows default.

OK, that explains what is supposed to happen, but how is it that your system is losing fonts and therefore forcing NX to use a substitute, often one which is less than desirable. Well it turns out that we've been starting to get more complaints about this and the only common 'thread' that we've been able to identify is that this seems to happen after certain software packages have installed on your system (note that NONE of these are Siemens PLM Software products so we're not doing it to ourselves ;-).

Now I don't want to name names, but for those of you who have had this problem, have you recently installed any new software on your system? And if so, what?

Note that we have a 'culprit' in mind, but until we get more feedback, we can't be 100% sure and even if we did nail this down, I'm not sure how we could solve this problem since even if we made sure that 'Lucida Sans Unicode Regular' font was properly installed on the system when we did an NX install, there's no way to prevent some other install script from coming along later and removing that font file. Anyway, any information that you can provide us will be appreciated.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[ToigaT]

John,

In my case, 'Lucida Sans Unicode Regular' was still properly installed but NX failed to get to it for some reason or another. I cannot begin to fathom why it was defaulting to a derivative of Lucida Sans, in my case, Lucida Sans Demibold; which is in the same font group/family.

Let me just state that I am 100% certain of this. I spent a lot of hours trying to figure out this problem only to discover what I describe above.

It was indeed another application that caused this grief and whilst I cannot be certain, I suspect it may have been PTC CoCreate that I was testing. This caused me many hours of grief.

 

[ToigaT]

John,

I just created myself a broken 'Lucida Sans Regular' font, installed it into the windows fonts directory (C:\Windows\Fonts), started up NX and sure enough, it loads my broken Lucida Sans Regular font before anything else.

I can post a link to the broken font so you can install it into your font directory and I am willing to bet you'll have the same problem.

I have tested this on my Desktop (which was the original problem) and I have tested this now on my Laptop which never displayed this problem before.

Deleting the font fixes the problem straight away. (In fact, it fixes it without even closing NX when you move your mouse cursor over menu items again, if windows lets you delete it, which I've been able to do several times.)

 

[ToigaT]

Just thought I'd note that I'm on Windows 7 x64, running NX 7.5 64bit.

 

[JohnRBaker]

On my Windows 7 system I don't even have the 'Lucida Sans' font, but I do have 'Lucida San Unicode Regular' and it works just fine, which is what our UI people told me I should see.

Note that in addition to 'Lucida Sans Unicode Regular', I also have the following 'Lucida' style fonts:

Lucida Bright
Lucida Calligraphy Italic
Lucida Console Regular
Lucida Fax
Lucida Handwriting Italic

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[ToigaT]

John,

Yes Lucida Sans Regular doesn't come with Windows 7 by default, BUT, it is installed by other programs at times and THIS is where my problem came in.

If you can confirm you exhibit the same problem on your system, I would be relieved to know that it's not a problem with my systems configuration and is a glitch in NX itself.

I would just like to point out that 'Lucida Bright' is not actually a part of the 'Lucida Sans Regular' family in the technical sense, even though it is literally a derivative.

If you examine the font name itself, it is 'Lucida Bright'.

If you have a look at the broken Lucida Sans Regular font I posted, double clicking on it, examine the font name (this is actually what determines whether it is in the same group or not), you can see that the 'A' & 'a' letters are broken, as well as terrible spacing issues.

On all my systems, whenever 'Lucida Sans Regular' is installed, NX uses this font and not 'Lucida Sans Unicode Regular'.