Company Standard Text Font(s)

[Anonymous]

I know this may pale in comparison to other troubles posted on this forum but ...

I am now working at a place where the de-facto head designer insists on using the ancient "TXT" font.  She does not have a reason other than it is what they/we have been using for as long as she has been here.  My manager is still trying to drag the design/drafting group into the 21st century and force solid models to replace the old (100% modelspace) stick drawings ... with limited success, I might add.

I have been trying to get them to make the switch to Simplex because it is easier to read and does not get a chunky appearance (like Arial does) from being squeezed with a width factor of 0.65-0.75 as is very common.  But that's not the way we have always done things around here.

Other than the readability issue that was decided back in the days of board drafting and Leroy lettering, how can I give a winning argument?

I'm afraid my resistance is futile.  We may be stuck with the HPGL memory-saving font of TXT.

[pendean]

Boss rules sadly: and if your manager can't change it I doubt anyone else can.
In your industry, what do you competitros do? what do consultants you exchange files with do? Sometimes presenting "industry standard practices" may help a case but ultimately its the Boss' choice.

[Anonymous]

My opinion is that the TXT font just looks like absolute crap.  Besides the readability thing, my argument would be that Simplex would allow for a better looking drawing.  Something 'easy on the eyes' always has a little more value in my opinion.  On the other hand, if the drawings are functional and they get the point across as they are meant to, does it really matter what font you use?

Sounds like you de facto head designer is pretty set in her ways and doesn't care for change.  You will be assimilated.

Best of luck with your argument, though.

[smbrennan]

Silly question, but have you tried re-creating a drawing and replacing the font with SIMPLEX? Then, show it to the head designer. What about some sort of small survey within the company? 

What about templates? Does your company use them? Do you have access to change them without over-stepping your role? If so, consider changing the default font in the template - make it MORE work for anyone using it, hopefully in time they will just use the default current style.

[dgorsman]

If TTF looks bad with a width factor other than 1... don't change the width factor.  Or use Arial Narrow.  🙂

One argument for using TTF fonts is the ability to produce text-searchable PDF files.

Do you get drawings in from outside sources?  What are they using for fonts?  How successful would you say those companies are?

What industry are you in?  Architectural and related fields usually benefit more from "pretty" drawings than more industrial services.

[Anonymous]

Most other AutoCAD shops around here just use whatever is the default out-of-the-box.  That means TXT is pretty common still even though Arial has been the deault since R2010 (?).  Often times management clamps down on spending time making drawings look good.  But other times they like things to look good for the customers, if they get drawings.  Our customers get both PDF and DWG files so there is a chance I can appeal to that.

We make pressure vessels for industrial refrigeration and the Oilfield. Our manager graduated not long ago with degrees in Math and Aerospace Engr.  Like other grads of the 21st Century, he has been taught to love SolidWorks (and similar) and to despise AutoCAD because of all the dumb 2D stick drawings made by people originally trained on the board.  We have all worked with them.  So I am also trying to impress him with what AutoCAD can do now.  I have told him of times I have had to explain new methods to the head designer and it blows her mind to the point of being embarrassed of not knowing what she claims she is an expert with.  Of course, she is responding with trying to downplay any new methods and we now have 2D/3D hybrid "models".  So this is my second angle for everything.

Now if I can just get the hidden line Visual Style to do decent-looking hidden lines and not blank out sections of continuous line edges/profiles.

[Anonymous]

Shawn,

Yes, simplex is my preference.  Yes, I have shown the difference to the Head Designer and she is not impressed.  It simply is not what she has used for her whole career. She manages the templates and is getting more aggravated that I do not like TXT .. and that people are learning that she stopped keeping up with the software back when she started here - about 15 years ago.

The Manager is supposed to be planning a meeting for us to trade ideas and bring up possible upgrades.  Maybe even tomorrow but more likely next week or two.  I have made a simple drawing with a 3D pressure vessel the way I think we should make them - hollow.  And I have set up the dimension style for associated dims that automatically adapt to different viewport scales.  She still changes dimlfac when changing between views and does not know how to deal with associated dimensions. They blow her mind!

If I must, I will deal with primitive AutoCAD methods since it pays the same.  But I want to show the Manager that AutoCAD can do MUCH better than what the Solidworks users keep saying about it.  And that we should bring our methods up-to-date since our customers get the DWG files for their records.  We want to look smart enough to handle 21st Century CAD.

[BeKirra]

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@Anonymous wrote:

...

She manages the templates and is getting more aggravated that I do not like TXT

...

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If you are not in the possition of "CAD manager" or the like, you will not have a chance to win unless your boss stands on your side.

You need to have the rights setting up company drawing standard, and it includes the company drawing templates.

[BrianBenton]

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@BeKirra wrote:

If you are not in the possition of "CAD manager" or the like, you will not have a chance to win unless your boss stands on your side.

You need to have the rights setting up company drawing standard, and it includes the company drawing templates.

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BeKirra is right. the CAD Manager has to make this call. If the boss won't listen to the CM then there is nothing you can do. Make suggestions, try to improve the quality of the work you do there. From your posts above though it seems the company policy is to get the work done and it doesn't have to be pretty. It's about the bottom line and taking time to set up new styles is not billable. 

I can understand this point of view though I don't fully agree with it. There is a balance of quality and quantity that has to be achieved. 

On another note, if you don't like your company's CAD standards you can always protest by wearing this t-shirt.

http://staging.cadalyst.com/files/cadalyst/nodes/2004/5062/1204cartoon.gif

But in the long run it may not work out! 🙂

[Anonymous]

No, I do not want to be the guy in the t-shirt.

I am using the TXT font but nudging the manager every now and then.  Don't want to be obnoxious, though.

Funny thing is that the three top designers have all told me that I know more about AutoCAD than they do.  But they still do not like changing from their mid-1990s 2D methods.  Give it time, at least.  The pay may be low but the benifits are really good, which is important in the age of Obamacare.

[dgorsman]

I'm in somewhat the same field - oil and gas.  We've put together everything from very small to very large projects, all using AutoCAD in 3D.  So it *is* possible, practical, and profitable to use AutoCAD for such things.  Inventor or Solidworks is not an absolute given requirement, although if your shop leans heavily in the mechanical design direction it may be a good idea to investigate available training.  And I think most of those are using TTF fonts for their drawing text.

About the only place I see TXT SHX font on drawings is from companies using ISOGEN, as thats the default font for that product.  We're set up to use Arial TTF (and it looks great), except where clients require RomanS SHX.  None of them get TXT.

[jggerth]

If you need an additional reason besides the crudity of TXT,  you could point out that the National CAD Standards call for a romans sans-serif font.  TXT may lack serifs, but is definitely not sonsistent with the typographic idea of roman style fonts.

[Anonymous]

AH!

Where can I get a copy of those national standards?  ANSI?  ASME?

As for the TTF fonts, I have worked at other places where the CM just plain liked Arial even before AutoCAD changed their out-of-the-box standard font to Arial.  The problem is when you squeeze it to a width factor of anything other than 1.0, it turns thick and chunky when you zoom out.  It will also look out of place with thin dimension lines.  Nothing looks better or plots better than a simple AutoCAD font like Simplex or Romans/Romanc/Romand/Romant.

But ANYTHING looks better than TXT !