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ptc-65106371-Visitor
1-Visitor
October 13, 2014
Solved

Text in CGM not searchable in created PDF

  • October 13, 2014
  • 2 replies
  • 3578 views

We recently went to new machines with Editor 6.1 installed and when we createa PDF from Print, Print Composer, or Publish to PDF, the text in our graphics is no longer searchable in the PDF. We haven't, as far as I know, ever in the last 10 years needed to make any setting changes other than in the paths section. I have tried changing the cgmprofile in the advanced settings to no avail based on other forum posts but doesn't help.

Any ideas?

Best answer by GarethOakes

I doubt they will ever switch back to Larson, ISODRAW is PTC's own codebase...

The PStill component is used to embed EPS into the PDF output, which as Sarah points out requires a set of fonts to be available (it sounds like the ISODRAW CGM is not embedding fonts in the EPS). If you search the PTC knowledge base for "PStill" or "instfonts.exe" then you should find the instructions for adding fonts to PStill.

EDIT: this article seems to have the correct instructions https://support.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?n=CS171860

2 replies

G
GarethOakes16-Pearl
16-Pearl
October 13, 2014

What was the old Arbortext version you were using? From memory, in Arbortext 6.0 they changed from Larson CGM engine to the ISODRAW (IsoView) engine for CGM. This may account for the difference in CGM output.

You will probably need to open a support ticket with PTC to get assistance on this. Ideally you could supply them a PDF from your old system and a matching PDF from the new system so they can see the difference for themselves.

S
SarahPrice10-Marble
10-Marble
October 14, 2014

We had the same issue when we upgraded to Arbortext 6.x. The ISODRAW engine for CGM actually takes the .cgm file and converts it to an .eps file and then generates the PDF. This is very time consuming and not always reliable. The font used to create our .cgm files is Helvetica and because we didn't have the postscript version of this font in our system the .cgm files were not searchable. We had to find the older postscript version of Helvetica and install it. Once we did that the graphics were searchable.

This solution came from a support ticket with PTC. I also put in an enhancement request with PTC to add the Larson CGM engine back in. Since the switch our processing time has tripled because of the .eps generation of each file.

Hope this helps.

Sarah

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GarethOakes16-PearlAnswer
16-Pearl
October 15, 2014

I doubt they will ever switch back to Larson, ISODRAW is PTC's own codebase...

The PStill component is used to embed EPS into the PDF output, which as Sarah points out requires a set of fonts to be available (it sounds like the ISODRAW CGM is not embedding fonts in the EPS). If you search the PTC knowledge base for "PStill" or "instfonts.exe" then you should find the instructions for adding fonts to PStill.

EDIT: this article seems to have the correct instructions https://support.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?n=CS171860

T
TimPhelps12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
October 20, 2014

Elizabeth,

Has any of the responses answered your questions or been helpful?

P
ptc-65106371-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
October 20, 2014

I have had to pass this off to some other team members due to a deadline and have not heard anyhting about their research. I'm sure we will see where we are this week. I am not sure if we have the fonts lying around anywhere though I poked around the various directories. Aren't these a part of a software package rather than individually purchased fonts sets? Are these fonts a part of an Editor 5.4 installation and could we install that version for the fonts? I don't remember us ever buying a font set.

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