[Plugin] importDXFtext

TIG

For v4.6 it seems to work OK with TEXT for me, but I welcome your insights / comments ...

In passing, I have now added the text's box-width to MTEXT, but currently do nothing with it.
Usually it's 0.0, but if the text-string is long it can have a dimension.
However using that to divide up and wrap the string using \n is fraught with issues - like how do we decide where to break etc... So I've left it along, for now...

uwesketch

I think I found the issue regarding TEXT:
in v4.5 you take the font Arial Narrow, as indicated int he DXF "map with Isocontours TEXT.dxf".
In v4.6 you take the font Arial.
The screen shot below shows in green the original DXF, in black the text imported with v4.6
The text in grey above is a 3DText I created with font Arial. The text in grey at the bopttom is a 3DText I created with font Arial Narrow (same as when imported with v4.5.
Can you change that back for TEXT to how it worked in v4.5?
DXF v4.6 Font Issue.png

Oblique angle: Where we will always have a difference is the oblique angle. It is in this DXF 15° - see green text above. As there is no corresponding feature in SketchUp 3DText and the scale tool cannot be used, an approximation would be making the text italic. However italic has an obliquity angle of only 9°.

MTEXT in "map with Isocoutours.dxf" imported with v4.6:
This looks now perfect!

MTEXTs and ATEXT in "dxf issues with special chars.dxf" imported with v4.6:
also here all looks very good. Great.
The "Nische für späteren Duscheneinbau is now as well shifted to the right height.
Also the text with "Masse am Bau:"

text word wrap: Indeed, the next step would be to do the text word wrap. I have written down a few ideas. From a simple approximation to a luxury implementation.
Unfortunately I forgot to take the notes with me. So I can only send it next week.
But I remember the simple approach

Get the width of the box (BoxWidth) from code 41 not being empty/missing and not 0
calculate an average character width (CharWidth). This is done by taking 2/3 of the letter height - which we know from the DXF.
calculate the number of characters fitting into the width of the box:
NoOfChars = BoxWidth / CharWidth
Loop over each line in the MText (= \P delimited string) and wrap this line using some regexp or below piece of ruby:


BoxWidth= 660
CharHeight = 100
CharWidth = CharHeight * 2/3
NoOfChars = BoxWidth / CharWidth
result = ""
word_array = 'To be or not to be-that is longwordwise the question'.split(/\s/)
line = word_array.shift
word_array.each do |word|
  if (line + " " + word).length <= max_length
    line << " " + word
  elsif word.length > max_length
    result << line + "\n" unless line.empty?
    line = word
  else
    result << line + "\n"
    line = word
  end
end
result << line
puts result

Maybe you can already do something with it and maybe it is even enough.

TIG

Thanks for the word-wrap ideas...
I had some similar ideas...
I'll investigate further...

The 'Font' name is taken from the DXF text's entries [3] from Style 1000.
in ...TEXT.dxf 'Arial Narrow' is the font in the STYLE 'STANDARD'
It defaults to 'Arial' if the font is not available on your PC computer.
But 'Arial Narrow' should be available !?

Although the ...TEXT.dxf includes that Font in a Style, it is not picked up in the file parsing...
But some other Fonts are e.g. 'Cadastra' and 'Univers'...
It's because the names 'Standard' & 'STANDARD' are used in the file in different lines...
Now trapped...

Here's v4.7
https://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=importDXFtext

uwesketch

Well done. I looked at the "map with Isocontours TEXT.dxf" and now all fine!
The other imported dxf files are unchanged good.
Looking forward to see how the word wrapping works.

TIG

Here's v4.8
https://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=importDXFtext
MTEXT with overly long text strings, but with a predefined 'width-box', now get extra \n's added to split them into shorter strings.
Thanks for your ideas which helped me crystallize my code...

uwesketch

Instead of assuming an average width of a character, we could also do it precisely without having to change the code sent earlier too much. Just create the 3Dtext for each line and word, get the width and then compare this with the BoxWidth. It takes now more time to calculate the word wrap.


boxwidth= 600
charheight = 100
result = ""
word_array = 'To be or not to be-that is longwordwidest the question'.split(/\s/)
line = word_array.shift
word_array.each do |word|
  txt = line + " " + word
  group = Sketchup.active_model.entities.add_group
  group.entities.add_3d_text(txt, TextAlignLeft, "Arial Narrow",true, false, CharHeight, 0.0, 0, false, 0)
  txtwidth=group.bounds.width
  group.erase!
  group = Sketchup.active_model.entities.add_group
  group.entities.add_3d_text(word, TextAlignLeft, "Arial Narrow",true, false, charheight, 0.0, 0, false, 0)
  wordwidth=group.bounds.width
  group.erase!
  if txtwidth <= boxwidth
    line << " " + word
  elsif wordwidth > boxwidth
    result << line + "\n" unless line.empty?
    line = word
  else
    result << line + "\n"
    line = word
  end
end
result << line
puts result

uwesketch

OOps, our messages just crossed.
Cool. I will have a look, thanks.

TIG

That was the type of solution I was originally looking at, but seems long winded...
The method I used is pretty much like your earlier idea...
I think - 'sufficient is fit' - to quote someone...

uwesketch

Somehow the wordwrap is now based on a too narrow box. What is the width you take for below two cases (file "dcf issues with special cahrs.dxf")?
It seems it is that narrow, that each word is on a new line. Even two short words like "vor der".
Here the "sufficient" is too tight

DXF v4.8 WordWrap Issuse 1 Nische.png

DXF v4.8 WordWrap Issuse 2 Masse.png

TIG

I don't get that !
What dxf file & units are you testing ?
I think I'm using the same one ??
But I have noticed the \P is not being respected as \n and I'll fix that !

uwesketch

I took “m” as import units

TIG

With 'inches' it works - I can trap that !?
Inches defaults from the DXF's units settings !

TIG

Here's v4.9
https://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=importDXFtext
MTEXT with overly long strings originally with \P v \n addressed, also non-specified units no longer affects the words' wrapping.

uwesketch

Looks good, except that the line spacing for the text "Masse am Bau" is far to big.
For the "Nische ..." it is better.

In the dxf file, the Text "Nische ..." ha a line spacing defined in Code 44 being 0.9381651742200441
The Text "Masse am Bau...." has a line spacing defined with Code 44 being 0.6070814881175318

Do you catch this line spacing?

Assuming, the line spacing is not considered for the import:

It seems the line spacing in the imported text "Nische..." is 1 and in the DXF it is defined as 0.938. So that looks good.
DXF v4.9 WordWrap Issuse 1 Nische.png

But for the long text "Masse ..." the imported line spacing is much more than 1.
In below picture, the green text is the text from the DXF with line spacing 0.6.
The yellow text I created in SketchUp with the "3DText" tool (line spacing 1, I assume).
The red text is the imported text.
The letter height of the green text is 125mm, the yellow text is 116mm, the red text 118mm.
The numbers in the picture are the distances between two lines
green: 256mm ( ~391 * 0.6 )
yellow: 391mm
red 460mm (line spacing ~1.16 = 460 / 391)

As the letter height is not exactly the same for all texts, the measured line spacing values above do not perfectly match the formula. (256 should be 0.6 * 391)

My Question: Why is the line spacing of the imported text that big, meaning why is it not 1?
Would it be possible to apply the line spacing as defined in the DXF or do you simply generate the whole 3DText using the add_3d_text command and hence there is no way to indicate a line spacing?

DXF v4.9 WordWrap Issuse 2 Masse.png

TIG

The text's line spacing is set by the 3d-text, and is fixed.
Why it's different between the manually made version and this tool's seems very odd though.

I see no way of using the dxf's line-spacing setting to adjust the 3d-text in the tool...

So this might be as good as it gets...

uwesketch

Yes, seems like it is what it is and indeed strange. But that is fine with me.

Meanwhile I have looked at Dimensions and Leaders in DXF and SketchUp and found a straight forward way of implementing these as well in the import.

Will send you the notes with examples in the next days.

TIG

Thanks for your work on this...
I'll look at it as soon as I have some free time and come back to you...

uwesketch

Now I have finally the pieces for importing linear dimensionstogether.
If only the dimension lines without text shall be created in SketchUp it is pretty straight forward.
To also add the dimension text at he right position to the Sketchup dimension, a bit more is needed.
Pls find attached a text document with examples on the DXF codes needed.
The samples values are taken from our test file "dxf

In order to only create the dimension lines without adding text, the DXF Codes needed are:

0 DIMENSION
70 for the type of dimension
13, 23, 33-- defines the start point of reference line
14, 24, 34 -- defines the end point of reference line
10, 20, 30 for the point where the dimension line starts (above the end point of the ref line

To also create the dimension text at the right position and orientation:

11, 21, 31 -- text center position
1 -- dim user text
42 -- actual measured value , read only
Codes 50 (angle of extension line to Y axis) and 71 (attachment point are not needed)

Structure of the attached text file "_DXF Dimensions to skp.txt":

first there is some introduction and links to DXF dimensions
4 examples of dimensions from DXF with codes and values along with a ruby code snippet filling variables with the values
extracted DXF codes with values from the test file with comments on the lines
- Ruby code snippet to fill variables with the DXF values
piece of ruby code creating a dimension based on the variables set beforehand

I would be very glad, if you could implement the Dimension import!

I also have finished analysing what is needed to import the LEADERs (as SketchUp text drawing element).
If we only would want the leader line to be imported without text, as this is already being imported, then the needed DXF Codes are:

0 LEADER
76 -- number of vertices in leader line
10, 20, 30 vertices of leader line. There are 2 or more vertices. Number indicated in Code 76

To also import the mtext into the SketchUp text object, we need in addition:

340 -- hard link to MTEXT or block or INSERT handle. Importing MTEXT is probably enough.
1 -- text from linked MTEXT entity

The structure of the attached file "_DXF Leaders to skp.txt" is same as for Dimensions.

Proposal how to import dimensions from DXF to SKP

Proposal how to import leaders from DXF to SKP

uwesketch

@tig said:

Thanks for your work on this...
I'll look at it as soon as I have some free time and come back to you...

Looking forward to it.
I added the DXF Codes for importing LEADER objects as well in above post, so that I do not loose this work.

uwesketch

@TIG,
in a few weeks I am getting again drawings I need to import into Sketchup.
Do you see a chance to get the import of dimensions and leaders (Text) implemented by then?
It would really make my life easier.
Whatever I can do to help, just let me know.