Text display errors in DWF files

If you have been following the Autodesk discussion group thread “Text display errors in DWF files,” with assistance from DWF Technical Evangelist and Software Engineer, Ben Cochran, Software Quality Assurance Engineer, John Schmier has documented the issues and identified some workarounds.

There are two issues in the thread: one is with AutoCAD and its verticals the other is with Autodesk Inventor.

1. With regard to Autodesk Inventor, the issue is that DWF files opened on systems that do not have Autodesk Inventor (or other products like AutoCAD) fail to display the diameter, counterbore, countersync, and +/- symbols correctly.

   Here’s a list from a discussion group member:

   " v "	in place of the	counterbore	symbol
   " w "	in place of the	countersink	symbol
   " n "	in place of the	diameter	symbol
   " ' "	in place of the	plus/minus	symbol (see example below)

   

   The issue at hand is that these systems do not have the AIGDT font installed. Simply installing this font will solve this issue.

   There is a Knowledge Base article that points out similar problems with AutoCAD viewing Inventor files in prior releases http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=2864103&linkID=4183228.

2. The second issue is with AutoCAD and is not related to the above Autodesk Inventor issue. The issue is that if a user uses the Tahoma font and uses the diameter symbol provided by the Mtext shortcut key, the resulting DWF when opened on a system without the Asian font pack will see a box instead of the diameter symbol.
   
   This is because the AutoCAD produced DWF uses a hex value that is not available in the non Asian pack fonts (Hex value 008D).

   There are three workarounds available:

   1. If you install the Asian font pack on these systems, the diameter symbol will work.
   2. You can recreate the DWF file without using the Tahoma font.
   3. There are two diameter symbols available in the Tahoma font. If you use the larger one when inserting a symbol (don't use the %%d), the text should look correct.

   Two defects have been logged:

   1. 812857 Inventor DWF with diameter, +/-, counterbore, or countersink in text display wrong char
   2. 812851 Diameter symbol not displayed when Tahoma Font is used in DWF

   John tried rolling back to DWF Viewer 6.5, but this did not resolve the problem.

These issues will be considered for future updates of Autodesk Inventor and AutoCAD.