Welcome to the Onshape forum! Ask questions and join in the discussions about everything Onshape.
First time visiting? Here are some places to start:- Looking for a certain topic? Check out the categories filter or use Search (upper right).
- Need support? Ask a question to our Community Support category.
- Please submit support tickets for bugs but you can request improvements in the Product Feedback category.
- Be respectful, on topic and if you see a problem, Flag it.
If you would like to contact our Community Manager personally, feel free to send a private message or an email.
Uploading fonts for Onshape drawings
Richard_Inv
Member Posts: 28 PRO
in General
Is there a way to upload a font for Onshape drawings? Arial or the like.
Our DWG files exported out of Onshape don't display properly when opened in other packages such as AutoCAD or the like, because none of the Onshape fonts are standard with Windows. So they tend to end up automatically substituted, which messes up the size and positioning.
We provide these DWGs to clients to use in their own drawings, so they need to display consistently.
If anyone knows any workarounds that'd be awesome :)
0
Comments
I’m guessing that PDFs aren’t ok with them? How are they editing/changing the DWGs you release?
@Richard_Inv A couple of questions in here:
1. Font uploading. Not currently supported in Onshape. Fonts are owned by various parties, so their use is something that is regulated via license. It seems likely that there is a legal/business concern governing Onshape's stance. On the other hand, PTC is a massive company. Licensing fonts seems like a very solveable problem! But so it goes. File a feature request.
2. DWG export: After some research it sounds like DWGs (and to @S1mon 's point, PDFs) may or may not contain the font definition themselves, so your customers can either
a) install the fonts on their machines (the fonts Onshape uses are all free and readily available) OR
b) you can try this export option @lougallo directed me to. See down on the export screen. There's an option to explode in to polylines. This would remove the font dependency in your drawing. I suspect this has a great many other consequences but one that you could try.
Thanks but polylines make a big mess and are generally best avoided. I have tried it but it doesn't give good results.
Good point on licensing. Thinking about it, most software just uses your own installed fonts. It's not Photoshop or AutoCAD or Word's fonts; it's the OS's fonts. The software maker doesn't have to license them, because their users will have them.
This would become problematic for a cloud-based software, but surely some super common ones could be licensed I'd hope!