3D Text Generator
Overview of Capability
Once the desired fonts are available (and three fonts, "block", "Helvetica Bold", and "Times Roman" are currently available for download), then all the end user has to do at "run time" is to execute the I-DEAS macro "soltext.prg". The user is prompted for the desired text string, height of the characters, and depth of the extrusion and also presented a menu of available fonts (again currently "block" and "Helvetica Bold"). In a minute or so the desired text is generated as a 3D solid part in I-DEAS Master Modeler.
If the desired fonts are not yet available, then the user (or more likely a support engineer or system administrator) needs to first locate a stroked version of the text (e.g. from CorelDraw), import this into I-DEAS Drafting, cleanup the geometry into chained lines and arcs, and then run the "mkfont.prg" macro to "compile" the font. At present the font is stored in a Unix shell script that is called at run time by "soltext.prg". As might be expected, rather than the "run time" task that is very automatic and takes a minute or so, the "compile" task is somewhat labor intensive and will likely take an experienced I-DEAS Drafting user a couple hours to define a new font.
Limitations
The current capability has the following limitations:
 | runs only on Unix and not on Windows NT -- this is because of the Unix shell script that is used to store the font description |
| only "block", "Helvetica Bold", and "Times Roman" fonts are available, with the first two fonts only as Uppercase letters |
| although numerals (0-thru-9) are provided, only a limited set of special characters (_ - . / : *) are available at this time |
| when run from within I-DEAS via the "soltext.prg" macro, there is a limit of 80 characters including the path name -- this is not a limit when running "solid_text_abc.com" or when running directly from the WAMware web site. |
| the resulting I-DEAS program file should be run within an English language session of I-DEAS, as the macro commands have not been converted to assure successful operation with non-English language user interfaces. |
Based on your feedback, we are keen to prioritize removal of these limitations plus provide additional enhancements and make these available as soon as possible. Using the comment field below, please indicate any specific enhancements that you feel would be valuable at your site.
Register and Download
We intend to further enhance this capability, and therefore we'd like to capture contact information about you so that we can keep you up-to-date via e-mail as new developments become available. Please fill in the following brief information and then select either "register only" if you have general interest but do not wish to download at this time (e.g. perhaps you need a Windows NT version) or, of course, "register and download" to get going immediately.
We intend to further enhance this capability, and therefore we'd like to capture contact information about you so that we can keep you up-to-date via e-mail as new developments become available.
| Name (Required) | |
| E-Mail Address (Required) | |
| Company | |
| City, State, Country |
|
| Platform |
