topic Re: Feedback on upcoming Text in Fusion 360 Feedback Hub

[CLOSED] Feedback on upcoming Text

anandjoshi — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:43:30 GMT

I am working on modernising Text in Fusion and also introducing Text on Path.

Existing & planned UI details -

Text creation workflow would be as follows -

Create a text frame > Enter the text string > Set any additional styling & alignment options > Commit

Would love to hear your feedback on below points -

1. Overall, what is your first impression of this ?

2. Do you feel the need of precise move options for text frame while creating text ?
3. Manipulators shown here are enough (free move, rotate, scale) at the step of text creation step ?
4. The label Spacing is easy to understand for the purpose it is designed ?

I will share similar details on text on path in a separate post.

Thanks for your time !

Regards,

Anand

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

pepesunseri — Mon, 25 May 2020 22:05:32 GMT

@anandjoshi

1. Overall, what is your first impression of this ?

- This looks like exactly what i have been looking for the last couple of days. It looks clean and easy to understand.

2. Do you feel the need of precise move options for text frame while creating text ?

- Yes i can definitely make use of this. In my opinion its better to have more precision and not need it, then to need it and not have it.
3. Manipulators shown here are enough (free move, rotate, scale) at the step of text creation step ?

- Yes this will make it a lot easier to get the text right without having to go into to other ways of editing.
4. The label Spacing is easy to understand for the purpose it is designed ?

- Yeup

The only thing i can think of that other programs have that i didn't see here is text width. As in the individual width of each character. I know size can affect this, but i have seen it as an extra adjustment in other programs. This is not as important as text spacing from my experience but i can definitely see its use.

Anyways this looks great and I am looking forward to the update.

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

PrilTech — Tue, 26 May 2020 18:20:15 GMT

1. Overall, what is your first impression of this ?

Much needed update to Text which is currently pretty limited.

2. Do you feel the need of precise move options for text frame while creating text ?

No, as long as there is a way to do precise moves and constraints after the text is created. This seems to be the main issue with Text currently. As described in this thread the bounding box is NOT actually tangent to the edges of the text so the Height field is pretty meaningless. The bounding box should be the exact width and height of the text. For example, if I set the height to 10mm, with Arial font, the actual dimension of the text is 7.2mm. If I choose a different font, that number changes despite the height still being "10mm".

3. Manipulators shown here are enough (free move, rotate, scale) at the step of text creation step ?

Again, yes it is fine for the creation step as long as you can move and dimension the bounding box after text is created and have the bounding box be the actual size of the text.

4. The label Spacing is easy to understand for the purpose it is designed ?

Yes.

A few other issues with text:

Currently, when starting a Text sketch, the first dialog box you are placed into is the Height field (red). I think it makes much more sense for the first dialog box to be the actual Text box (green). The first thing I think most people naturally do after starting a Text sketch is to start typing their text not define the Height.
Text does not always get oriented in the standard left-right, non-inverted orientation when first created. Depending on what plane/face you are sketching on, sometimes the text is initially created inverted and needs to be flipped 180 degrees. I would suggest the orientation be based on your current view, not absolute axes.
Manually adjusting the bounding box by grabbing and moving the top or bottom line of the bounding box scales the text but the left and right lines of the bounding box do not do that. Again, it seems logical that the text fills out the full bounding box and adjusting it would scale the font/spacing to fit.
After Exploding Text, I sometimes have to Fix/Unfix twice before the text is Unfixed and I am able to move it. (Additionally, I've run into a situation where Unfixing the exploded text and moving it moves all the letters in a string except for a single letter, seems like a bug, not consistent or repeatable.) Also, after Exploding Text and Display Control Frame, is there a way to hide the control points?

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

Anonymous — Thu, 28 May 2020 12:06:49 GMT

Hi @anandjoshi ,

Take a look at my last big radius Go-template... I've spent two hours locating every single letter over the 950mm arc!

This is my feedback:

1. We need text on arc ASAP.

2. The frame is always larger than text height. In my last template, I was looking for a text height between 25-30mm. I had to put 40mm in the dialog box and put a 40mm parametric dimension to the frame to get 28 mm after text exploding.

3. Is there any way to create text on the DXF files that I send to laser cut without having to explode text?

4. I've tried to create NC code from fusion 360 but the available post-processor is not good enough so, my laser cut guy prefers a DXF file instead.

Two hours spent to get text on arcFrame text handler is a nightmare

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

Anonymous — Thu, 28 May 2020 15:26:28 GMT

1. Oh god yes.

2. Likely no.

3. IMO yes.

4. The term is "kerning" and IMO verbiage should reflect typesetting conventions, because it's typesetting.

"Centering" will rely on more info than presented here--F360 seems to have a different notion of text bounds than I'm used to.

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

ChrisHeerschap — Thu, 28 May 2020 18:42:28 GMT

1. Overall, what is your first impression of this ?
Absolutely love it. Long overdue and can immediately think of several places I can use it as soon as it's available.

2. Do you feel the need of precise move options for text frame while creating text ?
Echoing the other comment that I don't need it during creation as long as I can control it precisely after the fact.

3. Manipulators shown here are enough (free move, rotate, scale) at the step of text creation step ?

I would say so.

4. The label Spacing is easy to understand for the purpose it is designed

Agreed with the comment that "kerning" is more accurate - "spacing" made me think of "single spaced" or "double spaced".

The only additional thing I would ask for is the ability to include parametric text - like referencing a dimension's value in the actual text - but that's probably far, far outside the scope of this change. Focusing on just the scope of this change, I can't wait to see it rolled out! Thank you!

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

magnus.brandtPB4X8 — Fri, 29 May 2020 08:32:49 GMT

We are doing a lot of engraving serienumbers so it whould be grate to edit text in manufacture workspace

not be need to go back in design workspace to edit.

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

Anonymous — Fri, 29 May 2020 16:11:30 GMT

Try the clock face use case. Create a circle, Place numbers for each hour along the circle, in the same vertical orientation. Be sure to redefine the size of the clock face a number of times to be sure it scales the text along with the feature it's attached to correctly.

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

Anonymous — Fri, 29 May 2020 21:01:20 GMT

In addition to the ability to control the formatting of a single text element, you may also want to consider some kind of grouping mechanism such that you can apply font, style or size to multiple text elements at once, either as a named style you can apply to multiple text elements, or as levels within a document (this document, this sketch, this specific set of text elements.

Since a text may be the basis of further processing, you will want to be able to change the font,style,size of a text and have that further processing re-done based on the new text parameters.

I'm looking forward to whatever you come up with.

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

PrilTech — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 15:57:52 GMT

I would like to see better support for single line text as well.

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

jkrueger — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 01:51:12 GMT

1. Overall, what is your first impression of this ?

All of these options look fantastic!

2. Do you feel the need of precise move options for text frame while creating text ?

Not really, no

3. Manipulators shown here are enough (free move, rotate, scale) at the step of text creation step ?

For me, yes.

4. The label Spacing is easy to understand for the purpose it is designed ?

Like others have said, "kerning" is more applicable hear, but the option itself is very appreciated.

I hope to see these improvements soon!

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

anandjoshi — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 10:21:55 GMT

Thank you everyone for your replies and valuable feedback.

You will soon see some good stuff coming.

Stay tuned !

Regards,

Anand

Re: [OPEN] Feedback on upcoming Text

CoastalMachine — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 15:36:48 GMT

All comments above are spot on and greatly needed.

I noticed it Says "Text on Path" . What type of paths are going to be available for use?

My most important question is when can we expect some of this to come in an update?

Re: [OPEN] Feedback on upcoming Text

pkoepfgen — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 04:16:32 GMT

consider how many fonts are installed in most computers, if there are ways to organize them or sort them, or to help preview them 20 or so or whatever at a time, that might be good. nice to have, not critical.

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

randyT9V9C — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 18:43:15 GMT

@Anonymous nailed it. Frame text handler is a nightmare! The text height should be the height of the text, not the text frame. Frequently I have to factor the text height to get the height I need. For example, for a 0.5" high ISO.SHX font has to be 0.5" * 1.33 = 0.665". For fonts and heights I use everyday I've memorized the factor. For unknown heights I explode the text, measure it, undo the explode and then set the text to the required height. In cases where the placement is critical I also have also know the offset in the frame.

It would be nice if the frame was the true text boundary.

Re: Feedback on upcoming Text

pkoepfgen — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 19:39:38 GMT

It would be nice to be able to define a vertical centerline or center point of the text box.

Re: [OPEN] Feedback on upcoming Text

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 19:52:01 GMT

1. Overall, what is your first impression of this ?

Amazing

2. Manipulators shown here are enough (free move, rotate, scale) at the step of text creation step ?

Yes, obviously.
3. The label Spacing is easy to understand for the purpose it is designed ?

As others suggested, "Kerning" would do fine but the option itself is truly appreciated.

Apart from it, as an optional suggestion.
Snap or alignment of text relative to grid might also help.

Hoping to see the improvements. 😎

Re: [OPEN] Feedback on upcoming Text

vogeljames — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 12:26:04 GMT

1. Overall, what is your first impression of this ?

- Overall, a great improvement, thanks for taking time to update this feature!

- I noticed that 'Underline' no longer is shown as a style, is that being removed?

- As others have said, please

include ability to include parametric text.
have the 'text' be the first active input. Normally, you type text, then adjust how it looks.
have the ability to have different fonts/sizes/styles in the same text box.
have a defined center point to use for aligning/snapping to other objects in the sketch.
have line spacing, something like https://docs.vectric.com/docs/V9.0/VCarvePro/ENU/Help/Drawing/Text%20Selection.html

2. Do you feel the need of precise move options for text frame while creating text ?

- No, precise positioning can happen after creation. Positioning in relationship to objects should be designed to be easy. Very often, you want to constrain text to the center of a rectangle/circle/other shape; so besides 'snap ability', the standard constraints should be able to be used with text objects.
3. Manipulators shown here are enough (free move, rotate, scale) at the step of text creation step ?

- Yes
4. The label Spacing is easy to understand for the purpose it is designed ?

- should probably be 'Kerning', as that is the standard word for "the spacing between letters or characters in a piece of text ".

Thanks again for working on this!

Re: [OPEN] Feedback on upcoming Text

IanP0rter — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 22:02:32 GMT

Is there any progress on have the 'Text on path' a parametric value.
Currently you have to manually edit the text via the sketch. Which is a bit annoying when you can set up an entire model parametrically and edit it from the parameters window. Except the text...

Re: [OPEN] Feedback on upcoming Text

jean-michel_legoff — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 10:56:15 GMT

Hello,

I find these new option useful, but I have another wish.

Is it possible to get the value of "Text" as a variable parameter?

It could be valuable to be able to change the text automatically, for serial numbering for example, which can be generated from the #item of a pattern, or the name/version of the part could be embossed automatically on the part too when exporting for 3D print...