Wish List item: SINGLE STROKE FONT

You might want to check out Timplex…it’s a GH definition that will convert any string into a single line “font.”

@John_Brock: The CDM_NC.shx font is something native to AutoCAD, I believe. Looks a bit like arial when it is done with the router. What I’m proposing for future updates/versions is a tool that will allow a user convert text to something CNC friendly. Another option might be to somehow link to the font list within AutoCAD, and allow the user to specify the font that AutoCAD uses. This could possible be achieved through the DWG export options dialog box. I recognize that may not be possible as Rhino exports a generic dwg, does it not?

@carvecream: I’ve done quite a lot of searching online, and found one called CNC_vector, which seemed promising. But alas, it was unreadable on the screen in Rhino, and still treated as an outline of letters. The search for a workaround or some other hack will continue. I’ve even considered writing a script of some sort to accomplish what I need, but the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is start coding for something I will only use at work!

@dan: I’ll give it a shot and report back.

Thanks all for your responses. If I have success with anything, I will be sure to share.

Laying out engraving in Rhino is so much better than the Type3 software that come with my engraver. Thank god Type3 allow me to import dxf`s.

With the lack of good single line fonts I often have to create them myself by tracing over trueType fonts. Timplex looks promising but the fact that it is only Upper case rules it out for me.

I have used Cambam stick fonts 2 & 3 a couple of times. Maybe someone else can use them.

I had a chance to do that at work, a few years ago and wrote these scripts for Rhino 4.
wirefont.zip (55.6 KB)
The toolbar contains two buttons: the first is for drawing texts. It uses a simple ‘font’ that worked for me.
The character set only supports uppercase letters plus numbers
If the char set is OK but the font is not … please keep reading … :slight_smile:
The second button lets you store your own font: just draw the font like in the attached 3dm file: the characters have to be clearly separated and the last one must be a ‘jolly’ char that the script uses for chars outside its char set. The script reads the curves and writes some code to the clipboard.
Then you have to save that code into the wirefontlib.rvb file … or use a different name and edit the button command text.

HTH

Hi All. I have successfully used Windows pseudo single line fonts for CNC in the past BUT they do require some panelbeating to be usefull.

  1. Chosen text is set to designated single line windows font.
  2. Explode the text into lines.
  3. Explode again into line fragments.
  4. Clear selection and then use SelDup and Press Delete - remove the windows ‘closing’ lines which end up being duplicates
  5. Select all the leftover bits and JOIN.
    This normally works ok, but it’s also a good idea to run the SelBadObjects command on this text.
    If there are some bad lines then just explode and join again to fix.
    Michael VS

Can you help me understand what you’re trying to get to with all that?

Is there a reason TextObject doesn’t work for you and Text is better, even with all that added effort? Are you trying to use fonts that are shaped differently than the single stroke ones you can find?

We do have a single stroke font here that we could distribute, but when I’ve asked about it, I haven’t yet gotten an answer.

Here’s a single stroke font, in case its at all helpful -

SingleStrokeFont.zip (6.1 KB)

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Thanks @lowell for posting the font. Not something I can use but for those that are interested prior to installing this is what the font looks like on my machine windows 7.

@sochin, not sure why you cannot use this font. I hope it’s not because of the closed curves that are shown in your picture. If you use TextObject with the allow single line fonts option ticked, you will get something like this:

thanks @wim, the photo above is using Rhinogold`s text on curve function and selecting the font. Works as you said with TextObject and flow.

More & more I use plain old rhino than plugins. Thanks for the heads up and thanks to @lowell for another single line font.

FeatureCam used to give away a set of single stroke fonts called 'Machine Tool…" they had Sans Serif, Gothic, and a few others. I have these on some hard drive, but they used to be available right off their site. Seems they changed things around and now they are called ‘Delcam’ and there is a little Autodesk logo on the webpage. Anyways, it would be great to add all of the liked to fonts to a wiki page for easy reference: http://wiki.mcneel.com/rhino/engravingfonts. I’m uploading the only one I have installed which is Machine Tool Sans Serif Regular. Again, must be used through the _TextObject command.
machtssr-gm.zip (10.2 KB)

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Yep, Delcam bought FeatureCam (quite awhile back) and then Autodesk bought Delcam (quite recently)…

–Mitch

Hello.
I want to say that this is very, very important topic for me.
Hi Rhino team, isn’t it difficult to make Rhino support an old, but still popular usual Windows plotter font format “.FON”? It is the only format from which I can get letter symbols that are necessary for me…

I think .FON files are bitmap fonts, aren’t they?

What is it about .FON that makes it important to you? The shapes of a particular font?
What do you want to use the fonts for in Rhino?

It would be pretty complicated to support .FON for general text in Rhino, and I don’t remember ever hearing any other requests for it.
Maybe there’s another way.

Lowell

They actually aren’t bitmap only. To be more exact, .FON file is capable of containing bitmap glyphs, but also can contain single-line plotter glyphs suitable for engraving.

Here is a screenshot of the .FON I need in Rhino:

Oleg

P. S.: you also would google some information about multilingual Orach Technic font.

Hi Oleg,

maybe an (online) font converter could be of help:

HTH
-Willem

Hi Oleg,

Thanks for the info.
I don’t think its likely that we will support .FON files, at least for general text use, in Rhino.

I’m still interested in what it is that you really want to do and what the workflow is that makes what you’ve described seem like the only way.

Do you need that specific font face because of the shape of the letters?
Would some other font be ok if it had Cyrillic characters?
What is the process you use to plot or engrave from Rhino?
Are .FON files important for some part of the process outside Rhino?
Do you want to use the font for Text, or do you want to end up with Curves?

Thanks,
Lowell

Hi Lowell,

thank you for your attention and understanding me correctly. Let me answer you…

  1. I need that font face in Rhinoceros because its shape comply with ГОСТ, and maybe because it is the only cyrillic single-sroke font that I could find during about four hours of Google search;
  2. Of coarse, any ISO, DIN, ANSI single-line multilingual fonts would also be a pretty good solution; maybe some day I’ll need a serif single-line font, but not just now;
  3. The process is mostly 2D CNC metal shield work or wood&stone engraving, maybe madCAM can manage it;
  4. For me, .FON files are just a still useful part of some 80’s computer junk that I have lived among for a decade of years - and maybe only such programs still actually need .FON files support in Windows 7, while others do not;
  5. I want to use a single-line font in Rhino basically as Curves, but it would also be nice for me to see it available in an editable condition - as it is made with the “Text Block”, the way like .shx fonts are still used in AutoCAD.

Thank you for answering clearly. I think I understand much better now.

I think that you said if you had a good cyrillic single stroke font that would work with TextObject you would be able to get your work done? Correct?

\I’m sorry for the manner I replied you last time, Lowell… It was my inconsideration of the Discourse interface.\

Yes, an option to make TextObject from a good cyrillic single-stroke font would greatly help me, and not me only, in further. There are no actual text-engraving tasks for me just now, but it is very likely that they will come at any time.

Thanks a lot,
Oleg

Hm. It seems to me that the “reply” function is failing now O_o.
Maybe it is a reason for creating a separate “meta” topic…