A TrueType font library that provides drafting and other CAD symbols

Not sure if this will help anyone or not, but I am in the process of working with CONNECT on a regular basis and I am helping to setup our workspace (inside ProjectWise at the moment). I am also creating sample files for users to reference how our firm prefers to label & dimension our drawings (plans, typical sections, profiles, etc.). There are several special symbols we use, centerline, baseline, property line, less/greater than with equal to, etc.). The DOT is finally in the process of switching to TTF rather than .rsc fonts and they provided us with 2 TTFs. I was going into the list of special symbols for the one proposed font and adding these symbols to my list of favorites. This is not optimal because we would like these to be available to all users to maintain consistency (obviously) and so others do not need to fumble around to find the correct ones or create hybrids graphically as many have done in the past.

Looking through the config variables I found MS_DGNTEXTEDITORFAVORITESYMBOLS. This variable points a file on our C: drive (C:\Users\mwl\AppData\Local\Bentley\MicroStation\10.0.0\prefs\Personal.DgnTextEditorFavoriteSymbols.xml). Opening this file I found that the symbols I added were defined here.

Opening the file in an html browser shows "<FavoriteSymbol Description="Less than or equal to (Engineering Vert)" CodePoint="0x2264" FontFace="Engineering Vert" FontType="2"/>". If I simply use Wordpad you get "<FavoriteSymbol FontType="2" FontFace="Engineering Vert" CodePoint="0x2264" Description="Less than or equal to (Engineering Vert)" />"

I copied this file, renamed it and dropped it in our ProjectWise standards directory then modified our Standards.cfg file to redirect MS_DGNTEXTEDITORFAVORITESYMBOLS to this file. Now everyone can see the same special symbols for that specific font. Obviously the downfall of this is that it is still dependent on other users to have the specific font, but for your organizations standards you can create a list for all users to access easily.

Also, you can only point to one file with this variable. One downfall that may cause an issue (keeping mind I am utilizing ProjectWise) since I redirected the variable is I tried to add another special symbol. I opened the file on my C: drive and the new symbol is not defined there and opening the new file on ProjectWise I do not see the new symbol defined there either. It must only be contained within the current .dgn file.

Take this information for what it is worth to you. I do not know if this is a good solution for anyone else, but it seems like a relevant workaround to some point.

mwlong said:

it is still dependent on other users to have the specific font

TrueType (TTF) fonts are a standard feature of Windows.  Your IT dept. can help by ensuring that your organisation's TTF fonts are part of the Windows image build by placing them in the Windows/Fonts folder (C:\Windows\Fonts on my Windows 10 computer).  Alternatively, add the TTF fonts to the MicroStation MSI installer.

Oto said:

We need some kind of ISO fonts embedded in OS

You'll have to take that up with Microsoft.

Oto said:

Installing custom fonts is not good approach as can't be sure that end-user will have same fonts available

Surely the end-user would welcome the ability to use ISO fonts with drafting symbols? 

Jon Summers said:

You'll have to take that up with Microsoft.

Bentley Systems is Microsoft MSUS Partner.

Jon Summers said:

Surely the end-user would welcome the ability to use ISO fonts with drafting symbols? 

Seems RSC is still the norm.

Jon Summers said:

You'll have to take that up with Microsoft.

Bentley Systems is Microsoft MSUS Partner.

Jon Summers said:

Surely the end-user would welcome the ability to use ISO fonts with drafting symbols? 

Seems RSC is still the norm.