2. You may translate this text file using the CAT tool of your preference, taking advantage of all its features like Translation Memory databases, Glossaries, Fuzzy Match, etc.

3. Once your target unilingual text file is complete, TranslateCAD® re-creates a target DXF that can be opened and edited in AutoCAD® again.

Main Screen Elements

The following screenshot shows the elements in the TranslateCAD® main screen. They will be referenced using brackets [ ] in this documentation.  

Translation Process – Quick Guide

 It is advisable to make a quick test-run with one or more sample drawings first. You may want to use some of your previous projects as samples. Please follow these steps to familiarize yourself with the software.

Step 1: Extract Translatable Text from source DXF file

 - First, be sure to create a backup of all source DXF files to be processed. (Although TranslateCAD® has read-only access to them, it is advisable to backup your files).

- If your files are in DWG format (Native AutoCAD® format) you would need to convert them to DXF format. This can be easily done selecting the File->Save-As menu in AutoCAD®. Also, there are a number of third-party shareware utilities that do this task, but I recommend to use your original AutoCAD® software to avoid incompatibilities between formats.

- Run TranslateCAD® and exit the first welcome screen.

- Navigate through the folder where your Source DXF files are located using the left-hand folder list. First, select the Drive (i.e. C: D:) using [1], then choose the desired folder with [2].

- Select the DXF files that you want to translate [3]. You may select multiple files at once by holding down the CTRL key to select non-contiguous files in the list or by holding down the SHIFT key to select contiguous files.

- Click the "Extract Text" Button. [6]

- If one of the target files to be created already exists, you will be prompted to decide whether to overwrite them or not.

WARNING: if you have already translated this file you may accidentally lose your work! Please be careful when using the "Yes" button, and make backups of your work files before processing.

- The status Window will appear showing the progress of your request.

Step 2: Translate With Your CAT Software

- Open the text file with your CAT software or your Word Processing software (i.e. MS Word or similar)

- Make sure to select the "Unicode" encoding option if selected

- If you are using MS Word, you need to change the file type (see screenshot below)

- Translate the text. (Our suggestion is to save your working bilingual file with a different name.)

- IMPORTANT - NEVER touch the ## characters and the numbers within them (i.e. ##000001##). These are the markers used by the software to re-create the target DXF file. Most CAT tools will ignore or skip these markers, but you need to make sure that you don't accidentally change them while translating.

- When your translation is ready and reviewed, perform a clean-up with your CAT software to create a final unilingual target file, and save it by overwriting the original file, which ends with "-Trans1.txt"

IMPORTANT: Always save your "-Trans1.txt" file using the Unicode encoding option. If you are using MS Word, you will see the following window when you save your file as text:

WARNING - Please do NOT modify the file that ends with "-Trans2.txt" or it will corrupt your target DXF file.

- Note: if you just want to run a quick test, you may leave some text untranslated.

Step 3: Re-Create Target DXF

 - Run TranslateCAD®

- Navigate through the same folder of your Source DXF file using [9] and [10], or click on the "< Same Path" button [17] on the right-bottom side of the screen.

- Select the file(s) that end(s) with "-Trans1.txt" (for instance "Sample-Trans1.txt") within [11].

- Click on "Re-Construct DXF" [16].

- If the target file already exists you will be prompted whether to replace it or not.

- WARNING: if you have already translated this file you may accidentally lose your work! Please be careful when using the "Yes" button, and make backups of your work files before processing.

- The target file will have the same name as the original DXF file but ending with "-Trans.DXF"

- Open the target DXF file with AutoCAD® or other compatible software.

Main Screen Options:

Left-side:

Wildcard [4]

Specifies the type of files to show/select. You won't normally use this option, since the default file type is DXF. However, it is left editable in case you need to translate a renamed file, for example DRAWING.TXT.

Extract Text [6]

As described in the Quick Guide, this button starts the process of extracting the translatable text from any DXF file. It creates two files, one with the "-trans1.txt" ending and a second one with "-trans2.txt", in the same folder where the original DXF file is located. The text file ending with "-trans1.txt" contains the translatable text that you may open with your CAT software or MS Word if you are using tools like WordFast. The file ending with "-trans2.txt" is needed to re-construct the final DXF file and you should not change it in any way to prevent corruption of the target DXF file.

Include Coordinates (X,Y,Z) [8]

This option will include the coordinates from the source DXF file into your "-trans1.txt" translatable text file. This may help you to visualize where your text appears in the drawing, or see if one text phrase is above or below another one. Sometimes the source drawings use several text lines for one single phrase, and this is difficult to realize if you don't have the reference coordinates.

Count Words Button [7]

This function allows you to count the words within any AutoCAD drawing. Please note that some drawings have hidden text that may be counted but not actually shown.

Refresh List [5]

Press this button when you know that the contents in the specified left-side folder have changed.

Right-side:

Wildcard: [12]

This specifies the type of files to show/select. You won't normally change this option, since all the working files end with "-trans1.txt", and the default file type is DXF. However, it is left editable in case you need to translate a renamed file, for instance DRAWING.TXT.

Re-Construct DXF: [16]

As described in the Quick Guide, this button starts the re-joining of the two files to create the target translated DXF file. It is advisable to open the DXF file with AutoCAD® again to check formatting, font sizes and styles, etc. Please note that for Unicode-based languages such as Asian or Arabic  you need to change the font or style manually in order to read the text correctly.

Replace Target Unicode Font: [13] and [14]

When the target language uses Unicode-encoded fonts, but the source language uses a non-unicode font, normally you need to change the font so that the text is readable in AutoCAD®. Selecting this option allows you to replace all specified fonts within a MTEXT object with a new font. For example, you may want to change "Arial" from your Source English text to "SimSun" if you are using Chinese or Japanese as the target language. In this case you just need to write SimSun into the [14] text box..

Refresh List [15]

Press this button when you know that the contents in the specified right-side folder have changed.

Unlock Software [18]

This button allows you to buy your license and unlock the software to remove the 50-word limit per drawing found in the unregistered version. You may pay securely on-line via PayPal.com secure server. A window will show your installation number and a link to our website where you will obtain your license number.

Same Path [17]

This makes the Right-side path for the open folder the same as the left-side path.

Main Screen Menus:

File->Extract Text from DXF

Same as "Extract Text" Button (Left-Side)

File->Re-Construct DXF

Same as "Re-Construct DXF" Button (Right-Side)

File->Count Words

Same as "Count Words" Button (Left-Side)

File ->Exit

Safely ends the application and saves all unsaved options for future use.

Setup->Options

Allows you to modify the general settings for TranslateCAD®. These are the options that you may change:  

Ignore Words with Numbers in the Word Count: It excludes words like 803AC-5 or WIN98 from the word count.

MTEXT: If turned ON, the software extracts text from AutoCAD® MTEXT.. Normally this checkbox is to be turned ON.

DTEXT: If turned ON, the software extracts text from AutoCAD® DTEXT . Normally this checkbox is to be turned ON.

All other objects: Although not always visible, other objects may contain text data. Turning on this checkbox tells the software to extract this text. By default this checkbox is turned OFF.

Apply Changes Button: Don't forget to press this button to apply what you have changed.

Setup->Register

Same as "Unlock Software" button.

 Help->Documentation

Opens this MS Word document.

Help->FAQ & Support

Opens a browser instance to go to our Website's FAQ & Support section, where you will also find contact information and technical support.