Incorrect Text Size

[ljgomes]

I am just learning Part Wizard, but something does not seem right. I drew an object 28"L x 12"H x 2.5"D. I then selected the Text tool and selected Ariel font and made the size 2". I then positioned the text on the object and typed in the word TEST in all caps. I hit done and then selected the Transform tool and it comes up and says the height of the text is 1.3252. When I compare the text to the rulers, the transform size looks correct. Why didn't the text come in at 2" high as I specified in the Text tool?

[Brady Watson]

Larry,
I don't know why this is, but my version has always done this as well. Instead of Transforming the letters, edit the letters by hovering your mouse over them and pressing the E key. (This also works for rectangles and circles)

Not all fonts come in at the desired size. Some will be smaller at a set height and others will be larger. I have found that 3" Arial letters are pretty close to 2" high...Also, 6" letters are closer to 4" high. I usually just make a rectangle the given size and highlight the text to resize, then try different values until the height lines up. Otherwise, transforming will distort the letters, and after you transform you can no longer edit the text block as text.

Hope that helps,
-Brady

[jkforney]

Larry
Have you contacted ShopBot. I tried a couple of fonts and while the boundry box of the letters came very close to the desired height, once I finished with the text tool the size of the letter dropped almost in half.

I tried the same test in ArtCam Pro and a two inch letter is 2 inches. Something is not working correctly unless they feel it is a feature.

It also seems to me that the height of a font is determined by a particluar letter. If memory serves (bad to depend on my memory) it is a capital M.

John Forney

[bill.young]

Hey Larry,

Fonts in most CAD programs are sized by the "Bounding box" which I believe is a holdover from the printing press days when each piece of type for a particular font size had to be the same height, no matter what the character was. It is the height of a box that would contain the lowest point of any character in the font (like the bottom of a lower case "y") to the top of the highest point of any character ( maybe the little "degrees" circle). It's a way to make sure that all the characters stay consistant height no matter what the text is.

This is something that we've had to deal with in Typesetter. The past versions have worked the way you expected...if you type "May" and specify 4" high, it will be 4" high from the top of the "M" to the bottom of the "y". It seemed very logical like that until we realized that if you then typed "ma" at the same 4" tall, it would be 4" from the top of both letters to the bottom of both. So the "a" might be 2" high in the first string and will be 4" high in the second, making it hard to do multiple lines of text. It also made it difficult to do blank layouts in your CAD program and then size the text the same in Typesetter.

The next version of Typesetter will work the way that other most other CAD programs and Part Wizard work, using the "bounding box" to specify the size. It also makes the preview on the blank in Typesetter a much more accurate representation of what you will get.

Hope this helps,
Bill