New Feature Suggestions - Scale and DXF Text

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David_Lelen01
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New Feature Suggestions - Scale and DXF Text

Post by David_Lelen01 »

Hey Les,
Is there any current way to change the scale of the drawing after it has been imported. The status bar has the coordinates and rotation that can be adjusted on the fly, but i do not see a scale. Could this be easily added so we can quickly change a drawing scale without having to re-import the drawing? I'm sure the scale affects the import options like arc fitting and all, but it would be nice to be able to change the scale after the drawing is imported.

Also, the DXF importer does not currently handle any text. Im sure this has been discussed before, but is there any format of text that would be easier to import through a DXF? When i have a lot of similar looking parts, i etch a part number or some description onto them, but it is very painstakingly slow to do this after nested and imported into sheetcam. I would love to just put a simple text box on each part while i am drawing it before nesting.

How is the next update coming along? Could we expect to see an update with some of the new features released anytime soon? My anticipation is growing quickly haha.

Thanks,
David
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Les Newell
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Re: New Feature Suggestions - Scale and DXF Text

Post by Les Newell »

The original SheetCam had a scale option but it really messed with offsetting so I removed it. I have had quite a few requests for scaling so I may re introduce it.

Text in dxf files is a screaming nightmare. No two cad packages do it the same way. Some cad packages can't even keep text looking right if you save as dxf then immediately reload it. It should be possible to use text from SVG files. I've avoided doing this up until now for two main reasons:
1) I'm lazy :oops:
2) If SVG supports text, I'm going to receive even more requests for text in dxf files.

You can use text if you 'explode' it into lines before saving it. Of course that stops you being able to edit the text so you need to remember to undo the explode after creating your dxf file.
David_Lelen01
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Re: New Feature Suggestions - Scale and DXF Text

Post by David_Lelen01 »

I would hardly call you lazy Les. The amount of work you have put into SheetCAM is impressive. I, on the other hand, am truly lazy lol.

I understand about the text. Unfortunately just exploding the text is not a simple task for us. We only can afford Autocad LT which cannot just explode text to lines. Instead it is a rather lengthy process to get lines out of text and i only do it when absolutely necessary. If only there was a font that was nothing but simple lines. Maybe one day someone will create one or enlighten me to one that already exists.
David_Lelen01
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Re: New Feature Suggestions - Scale and DXF Text

Post by David_Lelen01 »

Thanks for the link Rob. Unfortunately AutoCAD LT does not have the express tools. The WMFOUT/WMFIN process is what i have to do and it works well, it is just what i would call a lengthy process. And once you do the process, if you did not have the original text on a separate layer, it is gone for good. One day hopefully there will be something quicker.
robertspark
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Re: New Feature Suggestions - Scale and DXF Text

Post by robertspark »

This may not work for you but it's probably worth a shot....

try https://librecad.org/

I've struggled a bit with it, but that is because I have autocad to hand and have been using it for 20+ years now.... (so am lazy to use it...)
It is suppose to be equivalent to autocad LT (+ its free)

If you want to use autocad LT, that is fine as you obviously know it well .... but as a suggestion, try to save the file as a DXF and open it in librecad and explode the text (Go to Tools >> Modify >> Explode (not explode text to letters but EXPLODE)

it may work.... it may not work..... I just created a file in autocad with some text in it with an oddball font, opening it in librecad and it did not recognise the font..... (it may be because I saved it as a R12 DXF....tried again with 2018DXF file format and no go either ....) .... it may be because of my random font choice.

however I did add some text with a font and exploded it straight down to lines / entities without any issues....

It's worth a shot if you have a few minutes to try it out as its free

good luck.
David_Lelen01
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Re: New Feature Suggestions - Scale and DXF Text

Post by David_Lelen01 »

Rob,

I tried it out, it works perfectly for turning basic text into lines and arcs just as you described. I believe i am going to have the same struggles as you, since i am so used to AutoCAD and have all my shortcuts and commands set up. I'll probably still do all my drawing in ACAD and then use Libre to convert the text to lines. That was WAY quicker than the WMFOUT/WMFIN routine.

Thanks for the help!!
robertspark
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Re: New Feature Suggestions - Scale and DXF Text

Post by robertspark »

David_Lelen01 wrote: Thu Jun 25, 2020 12:59 pm That was WAY quicker than the WMFOUT/WMFIN routine.
Thanks for the help!!
No problem, glad it helped / may help, see how it goes
WyoGreen
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Re: New Feature Suggestions - Scale and DXF Text

Post by WyoGreen »

David,

When I first started out in the CNC world I was using a program called CamBam. In turn, someone developed simple fonts for it called "CamBam stick fonts", which were simple single line fonts. These fonts worked well for my CNC sign routing that I was doing at the time. You might do a search for them to see if they might be something that would work for you.

Steve
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