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]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxiEgibm7DE

I made a quick video to display this problem.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Are you saying that the 'Lucida Sans Regular' font file which some installation scripts are adding to Windows 7 is what's causing the problems?

Does that mean that the font file which is being added has somehow been modified in such as way as to cause problems with NX?

Note that I tested the 'tainted' font file and I see the corrupt letters, but I also copied (from an older Windows XP system) a clean version of the 'Lucida Sans Regular' font file over to my Windows 7 system and it worked with no problems.

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.

 

[JohnRBaker]

OK, I think we've gotten it straight now, at least as to how NX is supposed to be working, which is not quite as I originally described it.

Now first off, in my defense, when running an out-of-the-box Windows 7 system, it does work as I described, that is the NX uses the 'Lucida Sans Unicode Regular' font since that is the ONLY 'Lucida Sans' font on the system, and key words here is 'Lucida Sans'. We checked the actual source code and spoke with the programmer responsible for that code and this is how it works:

NX is looking for a font with the name 'Lucida Sans', period. Now there are several fonts which uses the words 'Lucida Sans' in them, including a Regular font, an Italic font and a Bold font, and if all THREE are there (sometimes combined together into a single item named simply 'Lucida Sans') NX will use the 'Regular' font. If the Regular font is missing, but the Italic font is present, it will opt for that font. And if it's not there, then it will use the Bold font. Only if there are no other 'Lucida Sans' style fonts available will NX move on to the 'Lucida Sans Unicode Regular', which of course is the situation with an out-of-the-box Windows 7 installation.

Now you may be wondering what happens if there are NO 'Lucida Sans' style fonts of any kind there? Well it turns out that there is a font named 'Lucida Console Regular' which is present on both Windows XP and Windows 7 systems, and it turns out that you CAN'T delete that font since it's hardcoded by Windows as IT'S default system font, so in a worst case scenario, this becomes the font that's used when NX starts using the so-called 'Recommended' Windows Style.

So now you know WAY more than you probably ever wanted to know, but it should help explain what's happening and why.

So what's the solution to these problems discussed earlier in this thread?

Well if you somehow ended up with a bad 'Lucida Sans Regular' font file, replace it with a good one. And if that's not possible and you don't want to use Italic[/] or Bold fonts, then delete them as well and just use the Unicode or the default Console version of the Lucida fonts. Other than that, we don't really have anything else to recommend.

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,

The problem in my case is that the Regular (Non bold or italic) version was removed from my system by some other program but I had another Bold (Non Regular) version that was left behind and this is what caused me to experience this problem.

My particular problem was caused by 'Lucida Sans Demibold', which is still part of the Lucida Sans font family.

Since I did not have a Regular (non bold/italic) version on the system, NX failed over to the Lucida Sans Demibold version, which lead to everything in my menu using the Demibold version, despite having other normal fonts such as Lucida Sans Unicode.

This behaviour seems less than idle to be honest, and this is what caused my problem.

One would think that 'NX (Recommended)' windows style would aim for fonts either included in the NX install itself or perhaps look for very specific fonts in the Windows Font library.

At the end of the day, it's not up to me but I do consider NX to be one of the best systems in this day, but the fact is that my hours of grief of reinstalling NX multiple times was caused by the fact that there was a font, a single font, which was a perfectly working font, installed into the windows font directory.

Installing programs, one expects new fonts to be installed into the font directory and just this one action could possibly break NX.

NX continues to function, but text does not fit properly into some windows which makes things harder/slower in terms of user/designer performance.

 

[ToigaT]

Obviously, I would like to add that I have fixed my system but this situation is easy to find in the wild and this information should help other NX users who experience these problems to sort out their systems without requiring to reinstall the whole of Windows.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Our installation scripts generally do not attempt to either install or reinstall system fonts (note that this policy may change in the future, but not because of this issue). Rather we implemented NX in such a manner that it leverages the basic set of fonts included with, in this case, Windows. 'Lucida' is one of those basic fonts which are included with all Windows installations so it was chosen as the safest route to go (for the so-called 'NX (Recommended)' Windows Style).

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]

I understand, but as an NX user, this is the problem that I experienced and the reason why I experienced this problem.

I understand your position completely and I'm not trying to tell you any different.

This is how I fixed my NX. At the end of the day, NX installed perfectly fine and it was another program which caused this problem but I am willing to bet people will continue to encounter this problem.

 

[JohnRBaker]

I'm willing to bet that as well, and there is even speculation as why this situation may exist, but THAT discussion is for another time and another place.

In the end, there is absolutely nothing which we can do to avoid problems created by other vendors. Even IF our installation script had verified the presence of the proper font files (and installed copies if they were not present), there is NOTHING that we can do if a subsequent installation of some other vendor's software causes these same font files to be removed and/or modified in such as manner as to make them unusable/unacceptable with the previously installed version of NX. That's reality, pure and simple.

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.