Fraction Text Display

[Bruce Kieffer 88]

I don't understand why this has not been fixed. Such a basic need, but I can't use it because my customers will not accept the poor look.

[PVA - Jim 2,292]

It looks like this had been broken and then subsequently fixed over 8 times since 2008... I'll have a talk with engineering and see if there is a reason this keeps popping back up.

[Bruce Kieffer 88]

Jim,

Am I doing something wrong? I assumed fraction display would be fixed so they look right in 2017, but it appears they are not fixed. Look at my screen shots. I tried different fonts to no avail. The "stacked" fraction does display better, but the slash is too short. Just looks unprofessional for presentation purposes.

Edited September 17, 2016 by Bruce Kieffer

[PVA - Jim 2,292]

Adding this to the previous case from:

https://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=211280

[Kevin McAllister 954]

I agree. Why can't this get fixed?

KM

[Kevin McAllister 954]

Thanks Jim.

In the current cycle I think its been broken for a year or more....

I wonder why it breaks so easily.

Kevin

[PVA - Jim 2,292]

Apparently it has to do with our lack of unicode support, which also limits our use of fonts as well as contributes to problems with special characters in filenames and in non-English language OSes. Looks like Unicode support in general is in the pipe to resolve a lot of these issues all at once, but it will be slow in coming because of how many things tie directly into it.

[zoomer 616]

Beside that I wonder that any serious software isn't full UTF8 in the year 2016,

why do these problems happen now in VW 2016 for the first time or at that amount ?

All German users are currently occupied changing names of Layers, Classes and Symbols.

[PVA - Jim 2,292]

Mostly because of how much work it takes to switch it over, Vectorworks is one of the most complex set of software tools available on Earth. It isn't as simple as it is with something like a Facebook app or video game to dump everything and rewrite from scratch it as time passes as most developers are able to do when they need to do a major upgrade. We have to keep existing tools and commands in place and upgrade them while maintaining functionality over the course of many versions.

[zoomer 616]

:confused:

[Bruce Kieffer 88]

Am I the only person who uses fractions in drawings? Vectorworks does a horrible job displaying fractions. I really want to be able to create my technical illustrations in Vectorworks, but the fractions display is not good enough to look professional. When the Vectorworks units pref is set to display fractions diagonally stacked, the numerator almost always overlays the slash, and the leading is always too tight in front of the integer, and too wide after the fraction. I could save a lot of time if this worked better.

[Kevin McAllister 954]

You're not the only one Bruce. I hate this and am very frustrated that its never been fixed. Fractional display is one of those trumpeted features that has just never worked properly. I suspect there's a full replacement of the text engine going on behind the scenes and this is why it hasn't received any attention.

Kevin

[Bruce Kieffer 88]

I know we have discussed this here before. I have spoken with support, and they assure me that it will eventually be fixed, I'm just greasing the wheel. The sooner it's fix the better. It's truly a shame that Vectorworks, which is touted as a presentation tool, can't do this and look professional. Instead I have to use another app to set my callouts. That's crazy!

[PVA - Jim 2,292]

The reasons it hasn't yet been fixed are irritating, but legitimate. No worries, there are plenty of internal pushes to make this happen as soon as possible. It annoys our own industry people (and me) to no end as well.

[PVA - Jim 2,292]

Refreshed this bug listing today.

[Kevin McAllister 954]

Yeah, they still look terrible.... I suspect fixing it must be linked to upgrading something else first.

Kevin

[PVA - Jim 2,292]

This is not yet listed as being fixed, no. As Kevin suspects, I think the Unicode support upgrade has to happen first and only phase 1 of that made it into 2018.

[Kevin McAllister 954]

@JimWyou're living in the future again 

[Bruce Kieffer 88]

On November 24, 2015 at 8:04 AM, JimW said:

It looks like this had been broken and then subsequently fixed over 8 times since 2008

Jim, Sorry, but I do not recall it ever working correctly. I look forward to the time when it does display correctly and looks professional.

[Alan Woodwell 441]

Hi, I haven't had to use imperial since 1971 but this representation I thought looked pretty good except for the large " . Maybe its the font you are using>???

[Kevin McAllister 954]

@Alan WoodwellI think it may be a Mac only bug.....

KM

[PVA - Jim 2,292]

7 hours ago, Kevin McAllister said:

@Alan WoodwellI think it may be a Mac only bug.....

KM

I think so too, they use very different systems for text handling and upgrading the Mac one is apparently far more problematic. I am pretty sure some fonts on the Mac side do not have the problem, but many, many fonts including the default ones do.

[Bruce Kieffer 88]

On September 17, 2016 at 5:16 PM, JimW said:

This is not yet listed as being fixed, no. As Kevin suspects, I think the Unicode support upgrade has to happen first and only phase 1 of that made it into 2018.

Jim,

I hope you're not saying this won't be fixed for another year or longer. That would be very sad.

[Bruce Kieffer 88]

My client specifies I use Tekton font for callouts. This is what 3/4" looks like in Vectorworks. Do you see my problem? Am I supposed to tell my client they have to choose another font because Vectorworks can't display Tekton (or for that matter any other font) correctly as a fraction? Sad. Obviously these are rhetorical questions. Fix this problem.

[Kevin McAllister 954]

Its still an ongoing issue for me too.

 

Kevin

[rDesign 282]

I completely agree that there is no excuse this MacOS-only bug still hasn't been fixed - but in the meantime @Bruce Kieffer- can you use Tekton without stacked fractions ? I would think that would be more acceptable to your client than having to choose another font.