topic Re: Cannot emboss specific font - self-intersecting loop found in Inventor Forum

Cannot emboss specific font - self-intersecting loop found

SEC_MECH — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 03:57:01 GMT

I need to use a font specified by others - Quicksand.

When I extrude or emboss text written in this font I get an error - "Self-Intersecting loop found in this profile."

I can extrude and emboss other fonts. I need to use this font. How can I fix this?

Re: Cannot emboss specific font - self-intersecting loop found

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 07:12:59 GMT

I think I would go to AutoCAD and use the express tools to explode the font into polylines.

I don't know why Inventor can extrude some fonts and not others.

Re: Cannot emboss specific font - self-intersecting loop found

-niels- — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 07:28:32 GMT

Just to show you what the problem is, here's what you get if you change the font to text outlines in adobe illustrator:

I've circled the overlaps, there are more in other letters as well.

So, if you really have to use this font...

If you have access/experience with Illustrator (or maybe Inkscape, which is free) then you could change the font to outlines, clean it up and export it as dxf/dwg, import it in Inventor and see if it works then.

That's a way i can think of to use this specific font, though it is a lot of work if you need to make changes...

Hope it helps.

Re: Cannot emboss specific font - self-intersecting loop found

johnsonshiue — Sat, 06 Mar 2021 01:47:06 GMT

Hi! I am not sure what happened. It seems to work for me. Please take a look at attached part.

Many thanks!

Re: Cannot emboss specific font - self-intersecting loop found

-niels- — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 07:19:40 GMT

@johnsonshiue i think you found yourself another bug!

Im not sure why but the font that got embossed is not Quicksand, see what happens when i highlight the sketch over the emboss:

Seems to me the embossed font is the previously used Arial, because if you suppress that first emboss the 2nd one fails.

Re: Cannot emboss specific font - self-intersecting loop found

johnsonshiue — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 22:24:45 GMT

Hi Niels,

Good catch! I was not paying enough attention to the difference. This is a bug for sure. We do have font-specific profile issue. Besides converting to geometry using another tool, I cannot think of a different way. I will work with the project team to understand it better. But, I don't anticipate a quick fix here.

Many thanks!

Re: Cannot emboss specific font - self-intersecting loop found

SEC_MECH — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 02:49:28 GMT

Thanks Niels. I think that you are right.

I have tried downloading this same font from different sources to see if there is any difference.

I discovered that there are two variants with the same name and author.

The official Google font has even sized loops to the "8" character.

This constantly fails regardless of where I download it from. https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Quicksand?preview.text_type=custom&preview.text=8

https://fontswan.com/quicksand-font/

The other variant has small and large loops used in the 8. https://www.dafont.com/quicksand.font?text=8

This variant extrudes successfully but does not match the graphics produced externally that I need to match.

Re: Cannot emboss specific font - self-intersecting loop found

SEC_MECH — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 02:54:43 GMT

Strange. I don't see that.

Yep - Had more than my fair share of Inventor bugs!

Re: Cannot emboss specific font - self-intersecting loop found

SEC_MECH — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 02:58:36 GMT

Thanks Yannick. That might work but would be a lot of work to maintain.

Re: Cannot emboss specific font - self-intersecting loop found

SEC_MECH — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 01:39:04 GMT

I found a version of the font that extrudes/embosses.

Thanks all for your ideas and support

Re: Cannot emboss specific font - self-intersecting loop found

-niels- — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 07:01:18 GMT

@SEC_MECH wrote:

I found a version of the font that extrudes/embosses.

Thanks all for your ideas and support

Yes, this is a nice "clean" version of that font. Good find!

Just to show, there are no overlaps in this one when converted to outlines in Illustrator: