Creating custom line types with oblique text style

[cadman1957]

Good morning...

I'm creating a set of new utility line types for our surveying department. Water lines, sewer, and so forth. They will all have a "W" or "SS" in them, depicting the type of line. I want them to look different from our civil department's lines, so I am trying to make them with an oblique text style.
I created a new text style called Simplex, and used the simplex.shx font type with it. However, the line styles I created don't recognize that I put an obliquing angle on the text style. And, of course, the simplex.shx doesn't allow you to put an obliquing font style on.
My problem is that these drawings might be sent to clients who don't have civil 3D, but are using other software, so I really don't want to use any Truetype fonts. Anyone have any ideas?

[Tom Beauford]

AutoCAD installs with the Swiss721 family of Truetype fonts, but most of them are installed with Windows. Not sure what other software you're talking about, but how would it have access to the simplex.shx font type if it wasn't an AutoCAD vertical?

[remi678731]

Interesting, I think I understand the problem, not sure of the answer I will be watching to see if anyone else comes up with a solution

[remi678731]

Try this not perfect but different I made each letter its own, then rotate each letter the desire amount then created my linetype

[Tom Beauford]

Lots of ways to make them look different from your civil department's lines. To keep it simple I'd use the same prefix you use for your survey or field layers like "V-" so "W" or "SS" would become "V-W" or "V-SS". You could also put them inside [], {}, or ().

[rkmcswain]

You could also use shapes instead of text characters. The downside is you'll have to include the shape file with the DWG, but the upside is the characters you define will look exactly as you define them.
When you use textstyles in a linetype, the STYLE can be changed, which will affect the characters in the linetype.

[dstephens]

Don't know if you got the answer you were looking for but our solution has been to use lower-case text and dashed linetypes for existing utilities, upper-case and continuous for proposed.

Not knowing what "other software" or platforms (Windows, Mac, etc.) others are using makes it tough to know if using .shx or Truetype is best, but the AutoCAD compatible software that I'm aware of has replacements for the basic text styles (txt, simplex, etc.) Truetype fonts can be tricky because even though many will translate easily between Windows and Mac, there are often formatting differences that affect how they display (if at all) within a linetype.

Shape files can be a good solution in many situations - if you're willing to invest the time, the software they are using knows how to use shape files, and your clients know to place them in the same folder as the drawings. Remember, if the shape file isn't found when the drawing is open, those entities will simply not show up in the drawing. If the client doesn't know what to look for, they may not realize that anything is wrong.

Welcome to the wonderful world of collaboration!

[BIG-AL]

This was discussed at length on another forum and the bottom line was that it appears to not be supported, you can change your textstyle to have a oblique angle and any text will show this angle but a line type using the same style does not oblique. Tested on CIV3D 2013.

[cadman1957]

First of all, let me say thanks for all the suggestions.
Two of them are interesting...the lower case and the prefix. Lower case gives me pause, however, because "W" and "S" look the same either way. Dashed lines would help of course. What I'm doing currently is using the "beitc.shx" shape file for my simplex text style. It's packaged in Civil 3D and has built-in obliquing. It doesn't look exactly like simplex style, but it's close. Going to run it by the powers-that-be and see if it sticks...if not, I might try one of your suggestions...thanks again.

Tom

[cadtag]

>> the "beitc.shx" shape file for my simplex text style. It's packaged in Civil 3D and has built-in obliquing.

That does not appear to be a standard C3D font file -- it does not show up here when I search for it (c3d 2014 and c3d 2011 both installed).

if it works for your in-house stuff, that's great. but it won't look right on other people's setups.