Getting Set Up

If you don't already have Alibre Design, you can get it here -- either by downloading the a free version of their software called Alibre Design Xpress, or by selecting a version below to purchase from Amazon.com. You must have Alibre Design installed and running for this application to work.

This application was built on the Microsoft .Net 2.0 framework. It requires Windows with .Net 2.0, which can be installed with Microsoft Update or by visiting Microsoft and searching for "Installing .Net 2.0". The .Net 2.0 framework is free, easy to install, and it only needs to be installed once to allow these any many other applications to run. It is installed by default with Windows Vista.

Finally, the application uses a relatively new deployment technology from Microsoft called "Click Once," which makes it easy for you to download and install applications, and make sure you always have the latest version available. If you're using Internet Explorer, simply click on the download link, and then then follow the instructions to install. If you're using Firefox, be sure you have the Firefox Click Once Extension installed before clicking the download link.

Once the application is installed on your computer, it will be available from your Windows Start menu (whether or not you're online) by browsing to All Programs > plans.theFrankes.com (or All Programs > CodeCreations for some recently updated versions).

So to recap:

1. Ensure you're running Windows with the .Net 2.0 Framework.
2. Ensure you have Alibre Design installed.
3. Start up an Alibre Design session.
4. Download the application.
5. Register the application.
6. Use the application

Related Applications and Tutorials

Before we get started, if you're interested in this topic, you will probably also be interested in these other Alibre Design API applications and tutorials:

Related Alibre Design Applications:

• Parameter Wizard for Alibre Design - Drive parameter settings across multiple files in Alibre Design.
• Point Import Wizard for Alibre Design - Import sets of points into a sketch as points, lines or b-splines in just seconds.
• Spline Wizard for Alibre Design - Quickly and easily mark the dividing points on b-splines by equal arc length or equal time.
• Primitive Wizard (Saw Mill) for Alibre Design - Automate the repetitive task of building lots of similar six-sided primitives.
• Dovetail Jig for Alibre Design - Model perfect dovetail joints in just seconds.

How Is It Done?

Even though this is not the topic of this tutorial, I get this question enough to at least comment on it here. Extracting and importing font curve data requires several intermediate to advanced programming skills, as well as familiarity with the Alibre Design API, the Windows API (Win32 API), TrueType and OpenType font specifications, matrices, and computational geometry. Needless to say, a full discussion on this is out of scope for a tutorial on importing text into Alibre Design, but if you want to try to tackle the problem yourself, here are some reference books that might help you.

Getting Started

Start up Alibre Design or Alibre Design Xpress and create a new, empty part. Then from the Windows Start menu, browse to

All Programs > plans.theFrankes.com > Text Import Wizard for Alibre Design

You should see a screen similar to this. (Except if you haven't yet registered, you'll also see a picture or two of the boy who will benefit from your product registration.)

Once you've registered the software, you can resize this window even smaller. It was designed to use very little space on your screen. You'll find the interface straightforward and easy to use.

About The Interface (from left to right)

	Menu Bar: Click on the "?" at the left to get the main menu, including options to configure the application, define and save preferences, and get additional help.
	Text Input Area: Type the text here that you want to import.
	Units: Select the units you will be using to define the size of the text. (This happens in the next step.) These don't have to be the same units as your drawing. The text will be scaled from TrueType font units, through the units you choose here, and into the units you use in your drawing. So, if you select Centimeters with a font size of 2.54, and your drawing uses inches, then the resulting font will be about an inch high.
Transform button	Transform: Choose any number of powerful text transformations, including offset, rotation, translation, mirror and more. This feature is described in detail below.
	Import Button: Once you have selected a sketch or design plane in Alibre Design, click this button to start the import process. You first choose a font, style and size, and then the Text Import Wizard will begin to import the text.
	Progress Bar: This bar will "fill" from left to right while the import is processing. Additionally, if the screen is wide enough, you'll also see a message indicating which glyph (character) of the total number is currently being imported.

Selecting a Sketch or Plane

Text Import Wizard works with your running copy of Alibre Design by checking to see what you currently have selected and then acting upon that object.

Select a sketch of plane by clicking on it in your Alibre Design session. If you select a plane, a sketch based on that plane will be created automatically, and the new sketch will be used for the imported text.

If you have more than one part session open, or if you select a part session with more than one sketch or design plane selected, Text Import Wizard will display a selection window allowing you to target just one of the items you have selected.

When selecting a plane, be sure the plane is selected (highlighted) in the main design area, and not just in the Design Explorer.

Specifying Text & Units

Type the text you want to import into the Text Input Area. Start with just a few characters so you can get accustomed to the speed at which Alibre Design imports curves and polylines. Note that complicated fonts, such as decorative scripts or fonts with "rough" edges (e.g. handwriting simulation), are defined by a large number of lines and splines, and may take considerably longer to import.

Next select the units you wish to use to describe the height of the font when it's imported. Text Import Wizard supports an unusually wide variety of units =). The units you select need not be the units of your drawing. You'll actually specify the font size in the next step.

• Centimeters (cm)
• Decimeters (dm)
• Meters (m)
• Inches (in)
• Feet (ft)
• Yards (yd)
• Links (surveying)
• Chains (ch, surveying)
• Fathoms (nautical)
• Hands (horses)
• Mils (tolerances)
• Points (typography)
• Rod (rd); Pole; Perch

Because of the variety of different ways fonts can be measured, the rendered font will be approximately the size you specify.

Text Transformations

Click on "Transform" to open the Text Transformations dialog box, allows you to apply any number of powerful text transformations on the imported text.

First, set the initial position (in units) at which to start placing the characters. In the example below, you can see that the base of the "R" is positioned +4 units along X axis, and +2 units along the Y. This starting position setting is independent of the other transformations.

Next, select your first transformation from the drop-down box. Some common transformations (such as mirror) can actually be achieved with other transformations, but are included in this list for convenience. Depending upon the type of transformation you select, you may be given the option to add an angle or (X,Y) value. For example, if you choose the Rotate transformation, you'll need to specify how many degrees to rotate.

Now click Add to add the transformation to the list at the bottom of the dialog. You can add as many transformations as you want, and each of the transformations will be applied in order. Note that the order in which the transformations are applied can make a big difference in how the text actually looks when it's imported.

There are several transformation to choose from:

• Mirror Horizontally - Reflect as if the mirror were placed on the horizontal axis.
• Mirror Vertically - Reflect as if the mirror were placed on the vertical axis.
• Rotate - Rotate the text about the starting position.
• Scale - Enlarge or reduce the output.
• Shear Horizontally - Slide the bottom edge horizontally. A value of 1 is the height.
• Shear Vertically - Slide the right edge vertically. A value of 1 is the width.
• Translate - Repositions each new character by the given offset.

When you're finished adding transformations, click "OK" to close the dialog. The transformations will be applied in order after you click Import. Here's an example of the output generated with the setting specified in the dialog box screenshot above.

Importing the Text

Now Click Import. Text Import Wizard will tell you if you have not selected a sketch or plane, or if your selection is ambiguous.

Text Import Wizard will prompt you to select a font, style and size using the screen shown here. Remember that the size you specify here will be imported in the units you specified in the previous step. The Text Import Wizard supports TrueType fonts, and some OpenType fonts, but not all of them. (Unfortunately, this is a limitation of Microsoft's .Net Framework.)

When you click OK, you'll see the progress bar and the status message begin to change as the glyphs (characters) are imported one by one.

The Text Import Wizard also supports extended Unicode character sets, as well. Here's an example. (I have no idea what these characters mean, so I hope they're not offensive. I just thought they looked cool. If you happen to know what this means, please let me know!)

About the Imported Text

Text Import Wizard imports text as a series of b-splines which are derived from the curve data specified in the font files. Alibre Design natively supports these b-spline curves. This means that the font outlines are very accurate, and because they are not described mathematically as large sets of stright lines, they require less memory and processing power to draw and manipulate.

Alibre Design does not see the text as text, but rather as a bunch of curves -- the precise mathematical curves that the font designers used used to describe the font in the first place. This can present a problem from time to time when you work with fonts that were not designed to be extruded. For example, some fonts (script fonts especially) have overlapping lines and characters, which Alibre Design cannot extrude or cut. Some fonts are just designed very sloppily, and even they they don't appear to have any problems, they actually do. You can often fix problem curves by zooming in and editing them by hand, but this task can be a tedius task.

Though some fancy fonts can be imported and extruded with no problems at all, you may need to experiment a bit to find the fonts that produce the best results for you and the characters you're attempting to import.

There also appears to be a bug in Alibre Design that causes an FF_MERGE FAILURE error when attempting to extrude or cut some complex b-spline curves, but only when the sketch the curves are on lies on exactly the same plane as the surface you're trying to extrude from or cut into. There is a simple solution for this if you encounter this error:

User Preferences

Text Import Wizard will store a variety of user preferences. In addition to the preferences indicated in the menu below, when you click "Save Settings As Defaults" (also shown in the menu below), Text Import Wizard will also store the text currently displayed in the Text Input Area, the currently selected Units, and the current dimensions of the Text Import Wizard window.

For registered users, all of the stored preferences will be loaded as defaults when you start the application. For non-registered users, only some of them will.

Registering Text Import Wizard

Registering this software with even a small contribution will help a bright young boy have an even brighter future, and it will allow you to freely use the software with a clear conscience. Registration is easy and secure. It is handled by PayPal, although you do not have to be a PayPal member to register.

After you register, you'll receive a product Serial Number and Registration Key via email. From the Tools menu, select Add Registration Code and enter the information you received. It's usually best to copy and paste these values.

Important: Be sure to include the "REG:" at the begining of the registration key!