AutoCAD 2010/2011/2012 DWG Format

[#1]

ACAD seems to be unable to show Arial Narrow (true type font) on our new Windows 7 64-bit machine.  Has anyone else had problems? All other fonts seem to be OK, so if we change the font type to Arial the issue is resolved, but in the meantime all of our drawings have missing text when they are opened on the machine in the office that is running windows 7 64-bit!

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

>> ACAD seems to be unable to show Arial Narrow
Not at my AutoCAD 2012. Look to the screenshot, you will see (within the Screenshot) that it will be displayed within my drawing.

So either you Win7 has a some problems with that font (==> therefor try it with Word or any other app) or the description "unable to show" depends on specific drawings/geometry-types/.... don't know all possibilites what else could be the reason for you.

I would say, reboot first your pc, then look through some different drawings, look if the font itself is working on your pc and upload one drawing where this issue happens PLUS one screenshot that we can see how it's shown/not shown on your AutoCAD.

 

- alfred

[#3 · Accepted solution]

Do you even have that font installed in Windows7? We use it, works fine. Only time AutoCAD does what you claim is when the font is missing (simply copying a TTF to Windows does not install it).

[#4]

Arial Narrow is listed in C:\Windows\Fonts and is available in other programs such as Word and Revit.  I have discovered that Arial Narrow is not installed on Win 7 machines until you install office. I am concerned that ACAD was opened before Office was installed, so something happened that made ACAD stop looking for Arial Narrow. Note that I have added C:\Windows\Fonts to my Support File Search Path which has made other Office fonts available in ACAD (such as Papyrus), but Arial Narrow is still having problems...  

I've attached two screenshots. The first shows what it looks like when Arail Narrow is not showing up and the second shows this missing text when I apply the workaround - making the Arial Narrow style use Arial font.

[#5]

Hi,

>> Arial Narrow is listed in C:\Windows\Fonts

That does not automatically is a proof that it is "installed"! If you (or anyone else) just copied the file into the directory it is not installed and may or will result in troubles using it.

>> I have added C:\Windows\Fonts to my Support File Search Path

And as your AutoCAD have then found more files than before makes me thinking (more than before) that you copied fonts into that directory instead of heving installed them.

Try to create a new drawing (use a template from AutoCAD), create a style that uses Arial-Narrow, create a TEXT and a MTEXT with that style and close the file with saving. If you have now troubles as described upload this DWG for us to look into it. That's just to prevent that you have any DWG-internal problems.

- alfred -

[#6 · Accepted solution]

From the Windows 7 help file:

To install a font

• Right-click the font you want to install and click Install.

  Tip

  • You can also install a font by dragging it into Fonts in Control Panel

[#7 · Accepted solution]

Success!! Even though the Arial Narrow font was supposed to have been installed during the Office installation, and the font appeared to be available in Word and other programs, it was not actually installed (Go figure!?)

I did three things, and I am not sure which one fixed the problem: 

1. Copy the arial narrow .ttf files from an older XP machine to the new Win 7 machine, right click the file to install, ignore the error that the font was already installed and install it again anyway

2. Install all available Windows updates

3. Download + install a free trial version of Office from Windows website, despite having already installed Office