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Civil 3D 2014 True Type Font Problem

19 REPLIES 19
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Message 1 of 20
kylenewcomer
6457 Views, 19 Replies

Civil 3D 2014 True Type Font Problem

It is well documented that when text objects using a TrueType font (ie Arial) have a non zero elevation that they do not display correctly.  Before we upgraded (in May our office upgraded from C3D2009 to C3D2014) I was meticulous about making sure our text objects always had a zero elevation and we largely avoided any problems.

 

However in Civil 3D 2014 it seems that by default contour label objects and certain other label objects are given a non-zero elevation (they are assigned the elevation of the contour or in the case of a pipe network object, the manhole rim elevation).  Thus the text in these labels displays incorrectly.

 

This is a very frustrating problem as we are now faced with having to revert all of our styles back to .shx based fonts.  Does anyone know of a way to solve this problem? Is Autodesk aware of the bug?

19 REPLIES 19
Message 2 of 20

I tested this and I am confirming that mine acts the same way.



Todd Rogers
BIM Manager
Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn

Message 3 of 20
tcorey
in reply to: kylenewcomer

What do you mean by "do not display correclty?" Can you post a screen shot?

 

I am using 2014. Arial font for contour labels looks fine and regular text objects at non-zero elevations look fine.



Tim Corey
MicroCAD Training and Consulting, Inc.
Redding, CA
Autodesk Gold Reseller

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. -- Kurt Vonnegut
Message 4 of 20
kylenewcomer
in reply to: tcorey

I've attached a couple of images showing the problem. One is a screen print of my AutoCAD window, the other is that same view printed to a pdf.  You have to look closely at the pdf to see the degredation in the text.

 

These images show pipe network objects. I tried to reproduce the problem with contour labels, and I may have been mistaken about those.

 

Message 5 of 20
rl_jackson
in reply to: kylenewcomer

Within the PC3 file, go to Graphic and verify that you are printing True Type Text as True Type within your PDF.

Rick Jackson
Survey CAD Technician VI

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Message 6 of 20
tcorey
in reply to: kylenewcomer

You text is certainly jacked-up on the screen. Because you have to look closely to see it in the PDF, I assume the screen display is your main issue? What does it look like if you print directly to hard copy?

 

What happens as you zoom in on the text? Do the edges display better?

 

One other thing, what is your system setting regarding ClearType Text? Have you calibrated? Go to Control Panel, Display, Adjust ClearType Text. TrueType fonts are a Windows-supplied resource, so this setting is likely to be the culprit.

 

If that doesn't help, maybe you can post a drawing or send me one directly -- tcorey at shasta dot com. I would be interested if my system displays properly the same drawing that yours displays incorrectly.

 

Tim



Tim Corey
MicroCAD Training and Consulting, Inc.
Redding, CA
Autodesk Gold Reseller

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. -- Kurt Vonnegut
Message 7 of 20
kylenewcomer
in reply to: tcorey

I've checked my .pc3 files and the Windows ClearType Text Issues. Both of those settings are correct.  I'm working with a drawing that begain in C3D 2009 and it is giving me the most problems.  Arial font looks bold in my surface label spot elevations, but not in my MLeaders when I print it to 11X17 sheets. I've uploaded the file.

Message 8 of 20

Has this been resolved?  I am having the same problem since updating to 2014.  Arial text on point labels and surface spot elevations prints bold.  Regular text when sent to zero elevation plot correctly.

 

Tried taking off backroung mask, still plots bold. 

 

Strangely the line slope labels and surface slope labels are not printing bold.

Message 9 of 20

I haven't come up with a solution, but in my case it seems like the problem is only with drawings that were created with older versions of AutoCAD.  For instance, I had several drawings I created with AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 and I could never resolve the problem in these cases.  For these drawings, I just reverted back to using RomanS instead of using a TrueType font.

 

But for new drawings created with 2014, the text still displays poorly on the screen, but the prints are actually fine. I'd be curious to see if this is true for anyone else. It's hard to believe that AutoCAD has as much trouble as it does with such a basic element as displaying and printing text.

Message 10 of 20

I just started using 2014 and the problem is with a 2013 drawing.  My fix is to print using 2013.

 

I will see if it persists with other drawings.  I agree, it is very frustrating.

Message 11 of 20
danth
in reply to: DanielBurns3250

I too am having problems with surface labels in 2014. This worked fine in 2012 now all surface labels are plotting bold, fat, incorrect in 2014 unless they at at elevation 0.

Doesn't matter if it's a 2012 drawing brought forward or completely new drawing. Has anyone figured out how to fix this? I'm using calibri.ttf

Message 12 of 20
gregscolyer4692
in reply to: danth

Come on Autodesk this problem needs to be fixed as a matter of priority.

 

It is not only a problem in Civil 3D but has been a known issue in AutoCAD since before AutoCAD 2010 & to my dissapointment it still exists today.

 

The company that I work for adopted Arial Narrow as our default documentation font 6 years ago & has caused many issues,especially with Civil related

drawings since inception & is something I would have expected to have been be fixed by now.

 

Please escalate this issue to the development team to get it fixed asap?.

Message 13 of 20

I've recently upgraded to 2015 and this font issue is persisting.  The anger is so great right now, I don't know why AutoCAD cannot resolve this issue.  My computer was recently reformated so I will have to reload 2013 in order to plot drawings.  How crazy is that?

 

This is totally unacceptable.

Message 14 of 20
rkmcswain
in reply to: kylenewcomer

kylenewcomer wrote:

It is well documented that when text objects using a TrueType font (ie Arial) have a non zero elevation that they do not display correctly.

This is a very frustrating problem as we are now faced with having to revert all of our styles back to .shx based fonts.

The non-zero elevation TTF problem has been around since at least AutoCAD 2000. 15 years later, I don't think it's ever going to "be fixed".

 

I've noticed recently (due to an internal push to move to TTF) exactly what you have, that certain C3D object labels are "at elevation" and therefore the text appears non-aliased on the screen and in the plot preview. But, as far as we can tell, the non-zero TTF text does not appear any different in the finished print (PDF, DWF, PLT). 

 

Are you saying that you can tell the difference in a finished print?

R.K. McSwain     | CADpanacea | on twitter
Message 15 of 20
rkmcswain
in reply to: gregscolyer4692

gregscolyer4692 wrote:

Come on Autodesk this problem needs to be fixed as a matter of priority.

It is not only a problem in Civil 3D but has been a known issue in AutoCAD since before AutoCAD 2010 & to my dissapointment it still exists today.

The company that I work for adopted Arial Narrow as our default documentation font 6 years ago & has caused many issues,especially with Civil related

drawings since inception & is something I would have expected to have been be fixed by now.

Please escalate this issue to the development team to get it fixed asap?.

In case you missed it in my earlier post, this is not a new issue. I recall the same problem as early as AutoCAD 2000.

Either it's something they can't fix due to a O/S issue (I wonder if AutoCAD for Mac has the same problem?), or it's just not on their radar at all. I can't think of any other reason to not fix it. 2015 just underwent a graphics subsystem overhaul too.

 

EDIT: here is a link from early 2001 discussing the problem and how an Autodesk rep replied with what was causing the problem (the non-zero elevation)

 

 

R.K. McSwain     | CADpanacea | on twitter
Message 16 of 20
DanielBurns3250
in reply to: rkmcswain

Yes the text when plotted on paper is also bold.  I am able to change the elevation to zero on some text, but the 2014 and 2015 versions now display text attached to a 3D object as bold.  I cannot change the elevation of the 3D object to zero so I am left with bold text.  How silly.

 

So in my opinion, the issue has actually gotten worse.  

Message 17 of 20
rkmcswain
in reply to: DanielBurns3250

DanielBurns3250 wrote:

Yes the text when plotted on paper is also bold.

Interesting. The printed text does not show the same properties (bold and not smooth) as the screen and print preview do for me.

 

See the image below. The "MH" and "STM" calls are pipe network labels and are at a non-zero elevation. The "INLET" and "PAVING" callouts are alignment labels and are at elevation 0.0

 

TTFISSUE3.PNG

R.K. McSwain     | CADpanacea | on twitter
Message 18 of 20
dodgese
in reply to: rkmcswain

Did you guys try to change the font on the Text component editor? 

 

Capture.PNGGo to 'label style composer' . Toolspace> (point or aligment, etc) label style. Right-click on your style and clidk edit. Go to the layout tab and under the Text sub menu locate the 'contents' setting. Highlight (select all) the text and change the font to your appropiate font. 

-regen drawing.

Make sure your point style has the label style matching or as <default> in the case of a point group to update your font style.

 

 

Message 19 of 20
C_Calder
in reply to: dodgese

I realize this is kind of a dead thread, but I have figured out a workaround for this problem so if anyone else runs into it in the future, google might avail them too.

 

What I did was set my label styles dragged state to "as composed" Then I grabed the labels move grip and snapped to a piece of geometry with zero elevation and voila, the TTF displays as it should. from there the label can be dragged with the grip as needed and as long as you do not snap to anything with a non zero elevation it should continue to display corectly. Kind of kludgy, and it would be a total P.I.A. if you have a lot of labels to correct, but barring autodesk actually fixing this issue its at least some kind of workaround.

Message 20 of 20

Note that if you use an arrow or dot or another Arrow Head Style this may cause the arrow head to change to a skewed look. So yea now you get to trade one defect for another. Isn't it always fun to play the defect roulette game?

 

If you don't need the arrow head then it shouldn't be a problem. 

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