Font emboss no meaningful result

[niels_wittje]

Hey all,

I am testing an aircraft panel design into which I want to emboss a text with a specific font. Sadly, it seems that the font is partially not suitable for an emboss, but I cannot find out why, as the error message with an emboss/engrave/extrude only throws "no meaningful result" without detailing whats the exact problem. In the attached file, the A and the B are perfectly fine for an emboss, but C and D are not. I will also attach also the font ttf file (somebody at a flight sim forum created that font once for enthusiasts, so it is free to use), I tried to check it already with FontForge, but no success. Can anybody tell me whats wrong with this fontfile there? Is there any way to get a proper log from Inventor what EXACTLY is the problem?

(going the way via externally creating the font in for example Illustrator, export as DWG etc also not an option, as I would need to be able to quickly adapt multiple font boxes etc with this font for a panel inline, and also a panel may contain quite a few font boxes)

[-niels-]

I don't think Inventor is able to tell you what exactly is wrong with the font, but judging from what i get when i convert the font to outlines in Illustrator:

My guess is that because of the non-tangent radii and the short lines (circled in the image in a few spots, there are many if you check for clusters of blue dots) the font becomes too complex.

I couldn't see any on my short examinations, but there might even be self intersection on some characters.

If this font was created for such a specific purpose then i doubt you'll find it in a version that wouldn't have these "flaws", so my suggestion is to find a font that looks similar.
There are sites that can identify a font by uploading an image of it, they usually give suggestions for alternatives if they can't find the specific font.

Hope that helps.

[gmwi]

I'm not sure what steps you are taking but this font works ok. It will emboss in 2021 either direction.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I believe you did not install the OP's font. As a result, the text was converted to Tahoma (default). And, it worked. You will need to install the true-type font in the original attached file.

We do have font-specific and alphabet-specific failure like this. It is because the particular letter in the font has degenerated geometry when converting to a profile. It is indeed tricky.

Many thanks!

[gmwi]

Well dag-nab-it, I was hoping that no one caught that BUT I used your font and it still works, hehe. For whatever reason , sometimes you have to use the wrap to surface option to have it work. I know, not really what comes to mind but I'm including proof.

[-niels-]

@gmwi Hah, you are correct it works when you do it that way.... but only if you do it that way. 👍

@johnsonshiue  This is an interesting one, can you think of any reason why the font would work when embossing with "wrap to face" but not when extruded or without the wrap function?

I tested it with the full alphabet and numerals just to make sure it wasn't limited to any characters, though i didn't try any special characters:

Emboss with wrap did work but extruding gives the shown error.

[gmwi]

Neils, I can not answer that. I can only ASSume that emboss and wrap to face allows for small variations of font problems. I have in the past come across that same problem and just find work arounds for the short-comings of the program. I know that Inventor is very picky about weather it can calculate the results.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Folks,

The process of converting fonts to profiles is a mystery to me. I think we use a proprietary algorithm to do that. It is a bit hit-or-miss. In some fonts, most alphabets work. In some fonts, failures like this are frequent.

I don't think we have a reliable solution yet.

Many thanks!

[niels_wittje]

The weird thing is that the failure messages seem a bit random. When I tried today again (as I wanted to replicate @gmwi work, instead of the "no meaningful result" from last time, I get an "self-intersecting loop" error. I can not use a similar font as the work requires a replica of the original font; I would be willed of course to built a specific font myself, but then again, I am before the problem how to find out exactly what works with Inventor fontdesignwise and whatnot. Is there no debug log at all, for example where exactly the self-intersecting loop position is or something like that?