How to get rid of TXT.SHX

[Joef]

When I open a drawing from a dxf file of an exported Revit drawing the standard font that AutoCAD uses is txt.shx. I want to change this to Arial or Arial Narrow. I do not want to go into the drawing and change the font. I want the Standard font to be Arial instead of txt. Is this possible?

[archie.manza]

Yes it is. Type FONTALT then type your desired Font. But I don't think that there is an ARIAL.SHX on the default Autocad. But you can try Arail.ttf.

[Joef]

When AutoCAD opens a dxf file or a file generated from another program like REvit, it starts up with certain parameters. For instance the Standard text style is set to txt.shx. These parameters do not seem to be controlled by a template file, so I am wondering how to get AutoCAD to start up with the standard font set to something other than txt.shx.
Fontalt only controls which font is used when AutoCAd cannot find a font. It is normally set to simplex. Why and where txt.shx comes from is a mystery to me. I wonder what would happen if I deleted it? would it replace txt.shx with the font set in fontalt?

[archie.manza]

How about modifying the Standard Text Style after laoding your imprted DXF file?

[jaberwok]

How about modifying the Standard Text Style after loading your imported DXF file?

That seems the simplest answer.

[Joef]

It seems like a good answer except for the fact that when Autocad substitutes txt.shx it is larger that the font I am using in Revit. So it relocates a number of dimension strings to accomodate this. When I reset the font it does not relocate the dimension strings.
If I export the file to DXF and open it in AutoCAD the dimension font looks correct on the screen and all the dims are in the correct location. If I save the file and then reopen it, all the dimension fonts revert to txt.shx. I have to export files from Revit frequently and I want to set things up so that I can be confident that the AutoCAD files impart the same information as the Revit file without having to do a lot of manual work on each file.

[jaberwok]

edit -


Another approach might be to find out if Revit is stipulating that txt.shx is used (I know that some other abc>shx converters do that) and if the font can be changed there.

[scott.wilcox]

How about define Standard style with Arial and INSERT the dxf file into it?

[jaberwok]

How about define Standard style with Arial and INSERT the dxf file into it?

IIRC, you can no longer truly Insert a dxf file. DXFIN actually opens the dxf file. :-( but copy and paste may work depending on file size.

Opening the file Is working for me using acad>dxf>acad but it might not using revit>dxf>acad.

[Joef]

There is definitely something strange going on. I exported the Revit file to AutoCAD 2007 and opened it in AutoCAD 2007. It looks fine. The dimensions are in the right location and are showing the correct font. However, if I click on one of the dimensions it reverts to txt.shx because that is the font that is set in the "Standard " font. I can, however set the standard font to arial and everything is OK. Not the case with Auto CAD 2009. If I open the same file in AutoCAD 2009, the dimensions are txt.shx and are a mess.
What I would like to do is get AutoCAD to forget that txt.shx ever existed and use a font that I select for the default "standard" font style. There is no facility in Revit to map fonts and since Revit does not use .shx fonts the problem must be somwhere in AutoCAD.

[archie.manza]

I wonder what would happen if I deleted it? would it replace txt.shx with the font set in fontalt?

Yes! Just give it a try. But do not forget to set your fontalt sysvar.

[scott.wilcox]

you could open the DXF file in notepad, and find/replace txt.shx with arial.ttf

[jaberwok]

There is definitely something strange going on. I exported the Revit file to AutoCAD 2007 and opened it in AutoCAD 2007. It looks fine. The dimensions are in the right location and are showing the correct font. However, if I click on one of the dimensions it reverts to txt.shx because that is the font that is set in the "Standard " font. I can, however set the standard font to arial and everything is OK. Not the case with Auto CAD 2009. If I open the same file in AutoCAD 2009, the dimensions are txt.shx and are a mess.
What I would like to do is get AutoCAD to forget that txt.shx ever existed and use a font that I select for the default "standard" font style. There is no facility in Revit to map fonts and since Revit does not use .shx fonts the problem must be somwhere in AutoCAD.

So, you could open it in A2007, redefine the Standard text style to use Arial and save it and it would then behave correctly in both A2007 and A2009. Yes?

[Joef]

So, you could open it in A2007, redefine the Standard text style to use Arial and save it and it would then behave correctly in both A2007 and A2009. Yes?

Yes.

But this is not the way things should work. I do not want to do the extra work of opening each and every file to fix something. I should be able to export and archive the file completely confident that AutoCAD has not messed up the location of my dimensions.

Txt.shx is a virus. I deleted every instance from my hard drive and it still shows up as the default standard text style. I even rebooted. It must be hard coded into AutoCAD. Time to send this problem to subscription support.

[jaberwok]

Yes.

But this is not the way things should work. I do not want to do the extra work of opening each and every file to fix something. I should be able to export and archive the file completely confident that AutoCAD has not messed up the location of my dimensions.

Txt.shx is a virus. I deleted every instance from my hard drive and it still shows up as the default standard text style. I even rebooted. It must be hard coded into AutoCAD. Time to send this problem to subscription support.

I'm inclined to agree that this should not be necessary but bear in mind that txt.shx is THE original font in acad and it may not be possible to lose it entirely - if that is the answer, which I doubt.
"There has to be another way."

[cadtag]

Txt is the default, and is probably hardwired into autocad products. Standard is definitely hardwired into AutoCAD.

I would suggest that if possible, use a different style name in Revit. Standard is not the best choice for text style (or dimension style, or mline style or anything style) in AutoCAD if you want to have portability. I don't know if Revit uses a 'style name' to control the font used internally, but if it does, call the flavor you use something other than STANDARD

[Joef]

The text style name in Revit is not " Standard" and there is no reference to txt.shx in Revit.

[jaberwok]

But the dxf output conversion may be controlled by an external file (xml ? ) which tells the conversion programme about acad styles, dimstyles, linetypes, etc.. Perhaps an enquiry in the Revit forums would throw up a lead?

[Joef]

I posted a message in the Revit forum but there was zero response.

[Joef]

From Autodesk support:

Thank you for choosing Autodesk Subscription:


The issue you are referring has been logged with development and they are working to correct this problem. Other than manually changing the fonts in AutoCAD there is no workaround at the present time.
I apologize for the inconvenience this causes. I will link this case to the issue so that development can see that this is an increasingly important issue to customers.

[archie.manza]

Txt.shx is a virus. I deleted every instance from my hard drive and it still shows up as the default standard text style. I even rebooted. It must be hard coded into AutoCAD. Time to send this problem to subscription support.
There are a some ways that I did on removing TXT.SHX. Like making a file (any file) then rename it like TXT.SHX and paste/ overwrite the ones that you have on your drive Autocad will not recognize it then it will use the Alternative Font. Or maybe rename my Arial to TXT.SHX but I am sure on the first one.

[Joef]

Thanks! I'll give that a try.