Fonts Not Displaying Correctly

Issue

Your Land F/X functions are not showing the font they are set for.

For example, you've set your schedule text to use architxt.shx in your Preferences, but when you generate a schedule it is not using that font.

Are you having this issue when trying to match a design to California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) stndards – specifically, when using CalTrans linetypes? If so, here's what to do.

Causes/Solutions

This issue can have a few possible causes:

Cause #1: AutoCAD's strange behavior with font substitution

When you open a drawing and you see the Missing SHX File dialog box, this can cause problems if you do not specify the correct file to use.

A user in another discipline or office who does not have your desired font (such as architxt.shx) on his or her system may have opened your file and clicked Cancel on that screen. This drawing will now be set to not display that font and substitute it with the default font – (in our example, likely simplex.shx). Unfortunately, Autodesk remembers that substitution and will not display your desired font correctly until you revise that substitution setting. This setting can also come from an Xref, affecting your current drawing.

Solution #1

Type FONTALT in the Command line, and press Enter. When prompted to Enter a new value, type your font's filename (example: ARCHITXT.SHX). The text will then display correctly.

Cause #2: Corruption and bloat in a drawing

This has been more and more of an issue lately with base files coming from civil engineers with DGN linetype issues, proxy object issues, REGAPPS, and various other embedded settings, such as the font substitution issue above. If you have Xrefed a site base file with these issues, they will be reflected in your currently drawing. This is a reminder of the importance of quarantining files from other offices and cleaning them thoroughly before implementing them in your plans. 

Solution #2

Clean your drawings to prevent this issue.

Cause #3: You're having this issue in a drawing that includes CalTrans linetypes

If you're working on a project for, or in conjunction with, the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans), the issue may be resulting from CalTrans linetypesthat are included in your drawing.

Solution #3

See our article on CalTrans linetypes.