Question about FONTALT system variable

[david.morgan]

Hi fellow cadders,

This is my first ever question to the forums.

I am finding with certain types of fonts, mostly on architectural title sheets, that they get substituted to romans font.

When I go to the Fontalt Setting Variable though and enter a period for no selection and then regen, all the 'missing" font regenerates and looks fine.

My question is why is the font not appearing properly in the first place? I must have the font if it is appearing properly.

I don't want to have to reset the fontalt variable everytime I want to plot a drawing!

I would appreciate any help on this issue.

Thanks

[nestly2]

Welcome to the Autodesk forums.

The fonts may be remapped in the acad.fmp file 

Substitute Fonts

This should be the contents of the file unless additonal fonts have been remapped, in which case, delete the unwanted entries.  (You may need to close/reopen AutoCAD after editing)

cibt;CITYB___.TTF
cobt;COUNB___.TTF
eur;EURR____.TTF
euro;EURRO___.TTF
par;PANROMAN.TTF
rom;ROMANTIC.TTF
romb;ROMAB___.TTF
romi;ROMAI___.TTF
sas;SANSS___.TTF
sasb;SANSSB__.TTF
sasbo;SANSSBO_.TTF
saso;SANSSO__.TTF
suf;SUPEF___.TTF
te;TECHNIC_.TTF
teb;TECHB___.TTF
tel;TECHL___.TTF

[pendean]

Ina ddtion to other info...

You must have the font installed on your PC, and AutoCAD to find it, in order for it to never get substituted.

Fonts are not imbedded in the file. Never have been. Still are not.

FONTALT gets used when the font in the file is not found on your system in AutoCAD's search paths.

Get in the habit of asking the file creator to also bundle and send along their font files: SHX can be dropped into the AutoCAD fonts folder, TTF fonts must be installed in Windows.

[david.morgan]

Thanks for your reply. I understand all that you are telling me.
What I don't understand is why didn't the font load properly right away but shows up fine when I change the fontalt system variable away from the substituted file?
How can it now find the font without me re-pathing anything?

David Morgan
CADD Technician

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GENIVAR Inc.
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[nestly2]

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@david.morgan wrote:
Thanks for your reply. I understand all that you are telling me.
What I don't understand is why didn't the font load properly right away but shows up fine when I change the fontalt system variable away from the substituted file?
How can it now find the font without me re-pathing anything?

---

FONTALT tells AutoCAD which font to use if the specified font can not be found,

ACAD.FMP will cause font substitution even if the font specified in the drawing is available.

[david.morgan · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your help

After searching, it appears I don't have the font (Futura Bk BT) in my pathed folders.(which I should ge!t).

[pendean]

99% if the time that is the problem: I take it at some point you took it upon yourself to permanently dismiss AutoCAD's startup warning box that tells you that and now you must always guess at solutions.
Do yourself a favor and turn back on all the startup notifications: drafting blindly is unproductive.

[rkmcswain]

---

@david.morgan wrote:

Thanks for your help

After searching, it appears I don't have the font (Futura Bk BT) in my pathed folders.(which I should ge!t).

---

If Futura Bk BT is a truetype font, then it does not need to be in your support path.

It needs to be installed as a Windows font. (assuming we are talking about AutoCAD here, and not AutoCAD for Mac)

[david.morgan]

Thanks for this tip re: the windows fonts.

[david.morgan · Accepted solution]

This is good advice to turn the missing font warning boxes on and to always request the e-trqansmit files so as to have the right fonts.

In this particular case I was trying to solve the font issue for a job that was done a long time ago and I'm not overly concerned with it specifically now.

I think your advice will help me in the future.

Thanks very much.