Global text setting?

[david.metcalf]

Is there a way to change the global text so that all families will adopt a font as specified by the firm standard?

Similar to Text Style setting in AutoCAD?

Thanks,
David

[michael.deorsey]

No, you have to change the font in each text type. It would be nice if they added a feature, similar to the dimension settings so that there was a project setting, and then each type could accept or override those settings with their own. No such luck.

[Scott D Davis]

This has been on the wishlist.....

[david.metcalf]

That's what I told everyone, they can't believe it.

Oh well. Let's move on I say....

Thanks,
David

[Scott D Davis]

yeah, once its set up correctly in your template, its fine until someone says "i dont like Arial, lets change to Archiwhatever font."

[david.metcalf]

I know.... Contractors are happy with Arial and we don't have to worry about matching fonts between offices and consultants.

It works I say, don't break it.

David

[tcatana]

Sorry to bring up old threads, but I am amazed that this question and request has been going on for so long.

I am on my third set of changing the font, and I expect that when someone finds a better font, I will be doing it again. I have all my annotation archived now into specific Font-Folders just in case someone say "No, I kinda like the old font better".

I think someone who knows programing should be able to go through a RFA file and substitute the fonts. Some smart programmer should work on the software so you can quickly go through a few hundred files and change the fonts.

[twiceroadsfool]

Sorry to bring up old threads, but I am amazed that this question and request has been going on for so long.

I am on my third set of changing the font, and I expect that when someone finds a better font, I will be doing it again. I have all my annotation archived now into specific Font-Folders just in case someone say "No, I kinda like the old font better".

I think someone who knows programing should be able to go through a RFA file and substitute the fonts. Some smart programmer should work on the software so you can quickly go through a few hundred files and change the fonts.

Fonts, Object Styles, and Fill Patterns. All fun stuff considering every family and every file can BOTH dictate them, hehehehehe.

As for Font, yeah, if you have to change it ten times its annoying. All the more reason to make the powers that be pick a font and cut it out. When we implemented Revit at thiws office, we also decided the font game was at its end. Arial for us, period, end of story. We even converted the AutoCAD side of the office back to it. TTF's everywhere, no more silly fonts to pass around,

[jpolding]

Maybe someone out there can write an app for this? A global 'annotation styles' manager. It would be a modeless, auto-update, dialog box. In it you would be able to change all of the text, bubbles, dimensions, titles etc.

[twiceroadsfool]

That would be an interesting app, but i doubt it will ever happen. Maybe it could be feasible, for any given project... But there would be a ton of issues to work out writing such an app.

It would have to check every System setting that has text or font (Text, Dimension Styles, Schedules)

Then it would have to open EVERY family loaded in the project to look for:

1. Every Label Type in the Family.
2. Every Text Type in the Family.
3. Every Nested Family:
3a...
3b...
3c...
3ca...
3cb...
3cc... and so on.

Then, the app would have to know if it was only supposed to change and reload the families, or Change, save, and reload. If the former, it may even be doable with an API app to generate a list of families loaded that churns out a Journal file that would make all the changes, though it would take someone really code with code. It would have to be capable of encountering all of the dialogue boxes that may come up associated with:

Worksets
Loading families
Loading nested families
Overwriting Families
Write permission to the files (if its saving)

And *if* it was done as a journal, it would still take a while to run. There are a LOT of families in a revit project when you include annotations. And (if its running in 2010) ill bet a C-note it fatal errors from the Ribbon changing between family and project so many times so quickly.

Im hopeful we will get something native to control Office Standardizations soon. Revit is my obvious tool of choice, after having spent years in MANY different platforms. But, while there are many benefits to everything being "natively loaded" in a project, there are a few downsides, and this is one of them.

I hate to say it, but we could learn something from (gasp) AutoCAD in this regard. The way you can select certain aspects of content from other projects through Design Center is amazing. They still have some of the same issues with Text styles in annotation blocks from palettes and the like, but its a hair more flexible, albeit too flexible...