Does Sketchup have a braille font in 3d text?
It is my understanding that SketchUp 3D text uses the fonts that are installed on Windows.
So if you install a braille font, it should work.
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What version of SketchUp are you using? Your profile says 2020 Make which cannot be. There has never been a SketchUp 2020 Make. If you are using SketchUp 2020 Pro on Windows, it uses the installed system fonts so if you have a braille font installed, you should be able to use it for 3D Text. If, on the other hand you are using SketchUp Free (web), the fonts are limited to a few web fonts.
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This is an interesting font question.
If this request is leaning towards the production of a product… such as a 3D printed row of braille text. I’m not sure the font is all that useful to begin with.
Most braille should follow the raised dome standards… and the best that SketchUp can do with it’s default 3D text tool is to extruded the text into a Cylinder which would include a flat top. (which technically should be avoided)
So, the trick then is what is the fastest way to convert the flat top cylinder into a standard braille dot (/dome).
Might it be easier to make a component library and input off of that?
…or does the overall planing and construction of a component library equal the trouble of swapping out domes for cylinders—one-by-one—when using the default 3d text tool.
I guess the Ideal solution is found in the Plug-in world.
But it would be very nice if SketchUp was able to offer an extruded Dome, as a direct output from the extruded 3d text tool.
If by chance someone is able to develop this… and is in need of a braille font that foregoes traditional outlines, in exchange for a set of coordinate points that they can use in placing or aligning a proper SU generated braille dot to. I would be happy to generate that type of font if it would be seen as helpful or useful. ( … and I would like to know about where you’d prefer the attachment point (/s) to be.)
http://www.brailleauthority.org/sizespacingofbraille/sizespacingofbraille.pdf
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Thanks JimD for all the useful information definitely answer all my doubts.
And if you can develop that font it will help me a lot.
Hi Miriam,
The font I’m talking about isn’t useful until someone is able to figure out how to get the geometry part right… and I’m not sure what’s involved with that.
So, we’re left with two things right now…
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I haven’t earned a Solution badge… And such things should probably go towards the person who can figure out how the actual 3D geometry works. That is the better approach because it’s easily the hardest part of the problem.
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I don’t know what your end goal is here. Can you outline what your project is… and what it is you are trying to make.
Are you actually going to 3D print something. or is it some other method that you had in mind.
What should some sample text say?
If the Dots are meant to be regularly shaped domes it shouldn’t be too hard to do. You could certainly do it manually with a couple of extensions, so it should be fairly straight forward to combine what those plugins do into one.
In theory, create the ‘text’ as cylinders, convert the cylinders into individual components, (loose to groups then convert group to component), then replace the cylinder components with a dome component.
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I also remembered a discussion from a few years back about printing the dots on curved faces rather than just flat.
https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=54535&p=494445&hilit=braille#p494445
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In researching this and trying to get my feet wet with how one should best map this out in the font software.
I’m seeing some ‘new’ standards for braille that I don’t see in my limited experience with it.
and as such questions arise…
For example:
– unicode has already accounted for the inclusion of a 4th row of dots. Yet 3 rows seems to represent what the traditional standard is… and I’m wondering when and where these characters might be presented if they were to showcase their 4th row format. (…is this reserved for printed book form literature (/novels) mainly ?.. but best avoided in most other cases?).
(in a similar fashion…)
– there is also some support for formatting options… Like how an upper case (capital letter), can be created by including a ‘format dot’ in front of the lower case character. To this extent… one could include this ‘format dot’ directly into the upper-case character glyph of the font.
But, In checking this against other existing fonts… I’m not finding any that have adopted them.
So I guess my question is:
Are these (?.. ‘NEW’) features worth including into the font?
Is the 4th row of dots commonly used? … And would the formatting features be seen as a desirable option?, or one that adds in unwanted complications?
I hesitate to say this last bit, but then I can’t think of any compelling reason that other font designers would have chosen to avoid including them. I’m assuming that I know a lot less about braille that the others who wave already made these fonts. And that there is wisdom to be found by looking at their actions, hopefully.