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Office Automation Example -
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| Arial;ROMANEUR.shx | In XP, this combination allows you to see foreign
language fonts in MTEXT editor and as soon as the MTEXT dialog closes, the text appears in
the drawing as ROMANEUR.SHX which
speeds up the drawing display. The ROMANEUR.SHX font has been adjusted to include some of the Eastern European font characters found in Romanian and Greek alphabets. |
In the (Arial;ROMANEUR.shx) line shown above, the Arial.ttf font will be replaced by ROMANEUR.SHX in the drawing, and in the DT dialog box. To make this work, the ROMANS text style points to the ARIAL.TTF font file which is used in the MTEXT editor. Once the MTEXT editor is closed, ROMANEUR.SHX font is used in the graphic screen. You can see the substitution in the -style command shown here:
Command: -style
Enter name of text style or [?] <ROMANS>: ?
Enter text style(s) to list <*>: <Enter>
Text styles:
Style name: "ROMANS" Font files: ARIAL.TTF
Substitute font: ROMANEUR.SHX
Height: 1'-10 1/2" Width factor: 0.9000 Obliquing angle: 0d0'0"
Generation: Normal
The ACAD.fmp font map substitution will affect DTEXT, Block Attributes and MTEXT based on the ROMANS style.
Before starting AutoCAD, the Start / Settings / Control Panel / Regional and Language Settings must be set to the language that you are translating. It is not enough to just switch the keyboard settings. This will help AutoCAD display some of the unicode characters in the MTEXT dialog box.
The following examples are using the Greek language. Substitute
Greek for your foreign language.
First close AutoCAD then follow the steps below for your operating system.
This is the Windows 2000 Regional Settings dialog box.
Under the General tab add Your Locale: Greek
[Set as Default] Greek
[x] Enable indicator on taskbar
You must re-boot your computer to have the settings take effect.
Go to Start / Control Panel / Regional and Language Settings dialog
box /
Regional Options tab
Standards and formats: Greek
Location: United States (or your country)
Go to the Regional and Language Settings dialog box /
Languages tab /
[Details...] displays this dialog:
Default input language: Greek
[Language Bar] displays this dialog:
[Key Settings] displays this dialog:
You can set up hot keys to switch between languages quicker.
Here, we selected Ctrl+Shift+1 and 2 to switch between the primary and secondary language
on the keyboard.
Go to the Advanced Tab.
Language for non-Unicode programs: Greek (this causes AutoCAD Command line to
display the foreign characters as you type). The AutoCAD Command line is
Non-Unicode.
Only the MText editor in AutoCAD is a unicode interface.
You may want to add Code page conversion tables for you language.
You must re-boot your computer to have the settings take effect.
Start AutoCAD.
Go to Format / Text Style. If you are set to English, use ST Style command. Set your ROMANS font style to use the font name: ARIAL.TTF.
Start the T MTEXT or DT Dynamic text command.
Use the Windows Taskbar to switch the keyboard over to EL Greek and
start typing.
(NT)
(XP)
If you are in English, you can type these in at the command line.
If you have switched your Windows task bar to a foreign language, you must select these
text commands from the menu.
Menu commands will work in other languages because they start with "_." (an
underline and a period).
While you are in English, you can create a toolbar button for MTEXT with this code:
^C^C_.MTEXT
and for DText with this code:
^C^C_.DTEXT
While you are typing the text in DTEXT, the text at the Command: line or the DText editor may not appear as you expect.
MO Modify Properties also does not display it
correctly:
Check your Control Panel / Regional settings again and make sure you are currently set to your language on the taskbar.
This is how the DTEXT dynamic text characters appear on screen if the Regional settings and the Keyboard settings both match the current language being translated. This is how the DTEXT dynamic text appear on screen if the Regional is set to English but only the Keyboard is set to Greek (either thru Control Panel, or the Windows Taskbar).
The text on screen, at the command line, in the MO Modify Properties dialog box and in the text editors should also be readable in your language, as you see here:
To edit DTEXT, click on the text to select it, then right click to edit it.
When you are in the block attribute editor, you may not be able to see special Unicode characters. The will appear like this: “U\+0391”.
Check your Control Panel / Regional Settings to make sure your language is properly set.
Some Blocks have Attributes that are currently designed to use the ROMANS style. These were originally designed with the ROMANS.SHX shape font. By setting the ROMANS style to use the ARIAL.TTF font, foreign language characters are readable in the editor window.
To edit attributes in blocks, use the menu Modify / Attributes / Single... and select the block.
This picture is a portion of the ST Text Style dialog box showing the ROMANS Style Name based on the Arial.ttf font. The MTEXT editor wants to use TrueType fonts and does not react well to the AutoCAD fonts like ROMANS.SHX as you see here. The MTEXT editor uses a TrueType equivalent when you select an SHX or any other non-TrueType font for editing.
Although AutoCAD claims that some of their shape fonts are now Unicode fonts, many foreign characters are missing. A missing character causes a foreign character to appear as "\u+0000" or squares within the MTEXT editor. They may, however, display correctly on the graphics screen once the MTEXT editor is closed.
When you paste special characters from the Windows character map, you
will get these Unicode characters and you will not be able to see what you typed until you
exit the MTEXT editor:
To correct this problem, exit MTEXT and then edit the MTEXT using the MTEXT editor.
4D Automation, Inc.
P.O. Box 68
Steubenville, OH 43952-5068
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