TEXT ALONG CURVED PATH

[DSmith2300]

I'd love to have a text-along-path tool in VW.

Below is an example of the clunkiness of graphics without it.

Individual words being manually rotated, and still not looking correct.

 

[Tom W.]

Have you looked at:

 

https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2023/eng/VW2023_Guide/Text/Creating_text_along_a_path.htm?rhsearch=Text along path&rhhlterm=text along path

[DSmith2300]

NO I HAVEN'T!

How exciting!!!

 

Many thanks!

I wish they had flagged this up a little more as an improvement. 

 

EDIT:   Ok I've tried it out and while I appreciate the effort, I think this might be aimed at the 3D crowd rather than simple 2D graphics.

For what I need it's really overcomplicating the process and the end result isn't even true to the font.  It's gone outlined and weird.

Just a SIMPLE text along path, is all I need. 

Keeping it editable as text without having to drill down into 'profiles' etc.

 

My request still stands.

 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2023 by DSmith2300

[Tom W.]

Yes I did wonder if would suit your purposes given it changes the text to polylines... shame...

[Jonathan Pickup]

if you use the curves option, you can fill in the text. 

[Tom W.]

Yes but it ends up chunkier + less smooth than the original text, which I think is a problem for @DSmith2300

[Jonathan Pickup]

Hi Tom, it looks chunkier, but when you zoom in it looks better on the screen, but not in a PDF...

 

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

7 hours ago, DSmith2300 said:

My request still stands.

I have always used this method.  See short video below.  I use Duplicate along a path, a curve and a single letter.  You can control the Kerning in preview mode.  Then click each letter and change the letter.  This can work for the 3D crowd also.

 

 

[jmcewen]

11 hours ago, Tom W. said:

Have you looked at:

 

https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2023/eng/VW2023_Guide/Text/Creating_text_along_a_path.htm?rhsearch=Text along path&rhhlterm=text along path

 

5 hours ago, Jonathan Pickup said:

if you use the curves option, you can fill in the text. 

 

Add this to the list of seeming ly basic tools that could have saved me hours if I had realized it existed, but that I have always used a complicated workaround to achieve the same result. Maintaining that editability is a huge deal!

[DSmith2300]

VIRTUALENVIRONMENTS,

 

I appreciate the idea but really that's such a PITA and teeth-grindingly inefficient.

 

The solution is a simple, 2D text-along-path just like Adobe Illustrator or a dozen other programs have.

Still editable text. Easy peasey.  

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

The other solutions are far better suited to the job you are doing.  But, if you move through Vectorworks into 3D realms, you may find that "work arounds" like this keep you going.😀   

 

 

[Jesse Cogswell]

@DSmith2300 Give this tool a shot.  It is a path-based Plug In Object that will parse a text string (entered in the Object Info Palette) along the path.  There are options to rotate the text to the tangent of the path as well as an "offset angle."  There are options to fill the text (though this might look a bit weird since the fill will be tight to each letter), and to show the path.  The path, which has helpful markers showing the direction, will also show itself if the text string is empty.  The path will be visible anytime the object is selected and can be changed later using the Reshape Tool like you would do with any other polyline or polygon.  The tool will work on any version of Vectorworks newer than 2018.

 

 

One quick note: if your path ends in a curve (as the selected one above), the last letter will be about 45degrees off, so you can put in a blank space at the end of the string to combat this, just draw your path with a little bit of overshoot.

 

To install this, follow the directions below:

1. Download the JNC-Text Along Path.vso file attached to this post.
2. Navigate to your Vectorworks User Folder.  The easiest way to get there is to launch the Vectorworks Preferences dialog, select the User Folder tab, and click on the Explore / Open in Finder button.
3. Open up the Plug-ins folder.
4. Place the downloaded .vso file into the Plug-ins folder.
5. Restart Vectorworks.
6. Go to Tools - Workspaces - Edit Current Workspace
7. Click on the Tools tab.
8. In the box on the left, find the JNC category and expand it.
9. In the box on the right, find a toolset where you want the tool to live and expand it (such as Dims/Notes)
10. Click and drag the JNC-Text Along Path tool from the box on the left to the target toolset in the box on the right.
11. Click OK.
12. High fives all around.

Let me know if this tool fits your needs.

 

SHORT EDIT:  I should mention that the text settings such as font, style, and size are all set by selecting the object and using the Text menu bar.

JNC-Text Along Path.vso

Edited September 4, 2023 by Jesse Cogswell

[DSmith2300]

32 minutes ago, Jesse Cogswell said:

Let me know if this tool fits your needs.

 

THANK YOU!!! 

 

Is there a plugin library for this sort of thing? 

 

 

[Jesse Cogswell]

Because I can't leave well enough alone, I added a button to the Object Info Palette that lets you select a polyline, polygon, rectangle, oval, line, arc, or freehand object to serve as the path.  There is a bit of weirdness when you use closed shapes like rectangles and ovals in that it doesn't treat itself as closed, since you would overlap the first and last letter that way.  Just something to keep in mind.

 

No real library, just standard Vectorscript.  The code itself is relatively simple, the original plug-in was just 100 lines of code (including function descriptions and my standard comment header).  The newer one with the button is 170 lines because of the added code for the event handling of the OIP button (event-based plug-ins add a lot of complexity even for relatively straightforward things).

JNC-Text Along Path.vso

[mjm]

@Jesse Cogswell—super cool, ran into this issue just a couple weeks ago, thanks!