Expanding Text

[DBMorris]

Is it possible to expand text to fit a given shape. I have an ellipse that needs a company name to fill the area.

[ReMark]

Text has a "Fit" option. Have you tried it?

 

The other option would be to scale it.

 

Can you attach a DWG?

[DBMorris]

I have tried fit. I am trying to have the text fill the ellipse. I have attached the DWG. file

Bouncing Moon.dwg

[ReMark]

When you say "fill the ellipse" do you mean top to bottom as well as side to side?

[SEANT]

Like this, maybe.

Bouncing Moon2.dwg

[SEANT]

Here's a version saved back to 2010. I should point out that the process to create used plugins not available to AutoCAD 2010.

Bouncing Moon_2010.dwg

[DBMorris]

Yes.as shown

[DBMorris]

I have 2013 at home. would that have the plugins ?

[SEANT]

Yes. I used these two plugins:

 

https://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/AMECH/en/Detail/Index?id=appstore.exchange.autodesk.com%3aText-to-Geometry%3aen

 

https://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/ACD/en/Detail/Index?id=appstore.exchange.autodesk.com%3astsc_uvvectormap_windows32and64%3aen

 

The process is a bit complicated. Let me know if modifications are required - I'll do what I can to assist.

[zaphod]

that looks really cool seant, could you explain how you did that?

[SEANT]

I will put together a bit of a tutorial, and post it here tomorrow morning.

[SEANT]

This tutorial addresses a similar endgame as that of the original post but modifies the parameters as not to tread to heavily on a possibly proprietary logo.

 

The new parameters also poke at a potentially proprietary logo (a crude Bat Man logo), but hopefully its part of the public domain, and will not get me into any trouble.

 

The process I’m demonstrating requires a NURBS surface to map the geometry expansion. To get to there we need a polyline cage to assist spline creation. See attached picture.

 

For the spline I used Method = CV, Degree = 3, and then just ‘osnap’ped to the poly vertices. The top and bottom are comparable, and bottom could just as easily have been mirrored. Leave some space between the Start/Endpoints of top and bottom to help create the most user friendly surface.*

 

Eventually, I need to create a loft between the top and bottom spline but first I have to prep the system. By default, AutoCAD would just create a Region when lofting planar curves. A Region does not have the necessary properties to use subsequent techniques. But, if the system variable LOFTPARAM is changed to 3, AutoCAD will create the NURBS surface you see in the attached picture.

[SEANT]

The next part of this tutorial requires a couple of third party plug-ins, specifically the two listed in Post#9 of this thread.

 

I used the XYMap function of the uvVectorMap plugin to create a rectangular canvas (the canvas will show up near the WCS origin). *Notice how the height of the canvas matches the spacing at the two ends of the lofted surface.

 

I then used the TextToGeometry plugin to create the text. Make sure the “As Region” option is unchecked in the Text To Geometry form. The result of using this plugin is a Block Reference. As such, the Scale X, Y, and Z can be modified to adjust the text to fit the canvas. Once fit, I ‘Explode’d the reference.

 

The final task is to use the UVMap portion of the uvVectorMap plugin. That routine may take a couple of seconds, but the text based geometry should get mapped to conform to the surface. The resultant AutoCAD file (DK.dwg) is attached at bottom of post.

DK.dwg

[DBMorris]

Thanks Seant. I have been on site hence the delayed response. The company have decided to go with another option now. As is the way