Text size difference between CA6 & CA7

Dear Chief,
Before you consider bringing out CA8, give priority to fixing the text size difference bug between CA6 & CA7. If you intend to wait until CA8 comes out with a fix, then I want (2) free versions of CA8 ( I paid for (2) copies of CA7 but do not use it because of this bug.) I have e-mailed prior complaints about this, but nothing has been done except the " install the lastest patch " responce - which I have done and it does not fix the problem. Please address this problem or I want my money back for my (2) copies of CA7!!

Dale

Normally I don't respond to posts on this site as I am very busy trying to make Chief better. Being the one who is responsible for making this change, I thought it would be useful to post some information about why there are text differences between 6 and 7.

The change came about because of numerous complaints about text on screen not looking at all the same as on printouts. This was expensive for users who would at times need to reprint their layouts several times to get the text right. This required numerous adjustments to many text items to get things to line up right on the printer. This was frustrating and costly in time and resources. As you know, large format printing isn't cheap.

In analyzing the way we were sizing text in 6, I discovered some serious errors in the way text sizes and wrapping were calculated. This resulted in very unpredictable behavior when it came to text sizing and printing.

To fix this I put in code that now more accurately calculates text size. The result is predictable results when you print and zoom.

This has one very important caveat.

You must have the font you are using installed on your computer and have your printer setup to use that font without substituting another. The problem with font substitution is that Windows sometimes likes to substitute different fonts at different display sizes. This can really mess up the size calculations as they are currently done.

In addition you need to be using fonts that scale linearly. This is true for the vast majority of fonts. One exception would be older bitmap fonts.

When the above conditions are met, the on screen display of text and the printed text will match very closely. This means that you save time and money by not having to artificially size your text to suit your printer.

I'm not sure how much this affects you when working with existing plans. And I can imagine that if you have a lot of text on a plan that it could take some time to go through and fix it all up. However, once you have it right on screen it will print right as well.

Of the plans that I looked at during my analysis of this problem, usually less than 20% of the text required manual modifications to get it looking good again. This may not be the same in your case.

I can't say for sure that the time savings and cost of bad prints will make up for the time it will take you to convert your old plans. I do know that for working on new plans this is a time and money saver for our customers.

That said, I am willing to look at any plans you have to see if there is anything that can be done for 8 to improve the translation. Forward the 6.0 plans to our support staff and have them forward them to me.

As always it is our desire to make Chief better. Sometimes we run across problems that don't have good solutions. The translation from 6 to 7 of text was one of these. On the one hand we could have left it the same, this would mean that you wouldn't have this translation problem. On the other hand changing it makes things easier for people who are creating new plans.

We gave a lot of thought to the case that you bring up and in the end it was decided that the 6.0 way of doing text was so bad that we needed to dump it entirely and live with the bad press. In the end the majority of our users are better served by making this change.

I hope that you give the new text engine a chance. I really believe that you will be happier working with it than with version 6.

Doug Park
ART Inc.

Doug,


Thank you for the explaination. I really appreciate your taking the time to address our concerns and problems.

DJP

Doug, Thanks for your quick response. I appreciated the explanation but I believe this text size difference should have been stated somewhere in the list of changes for CA7 before release. Backward compatibility should apply to text also. Then, at least, I would have known that this was planned and not a bug. I do over 100 plans a year and quite a few are re-draws of existing plans in CA6 or earlier. Changing existing text in floor plans, elevations and cross-sections is definitely time consuming since all changed text will require being stretched. If you could suggest an easier work-a-around, I would be interested in giving it a try. I did e-mail a set of CA6 plans with my text font to you. Perhaps this will be of some help with CA8 development At this point, I continue to use CA6. CA7 sits unused.

Dale

Dale,

you can have both v6 and v7 installed on the same computer and use v7 for new drawings and v6 for your existing if you don't want to redo your old plans...