signlab 4.95 designer

[Dave Stacey]

Hi everyone
I just found this site,its looks great.Maybe someone could help me with this.
We've reinstalled our Signlab 4.95 Designer on a windows 98 computer that we've done many times.We been having trouble reading other computers on our network,so we decided to clean everything off & reinstall windows.
The problem now is when I open a file from the expert through the network it reads" font not found",and we have to browse the font on the CD to get it to open.Everything works fine then. We never had this problem before.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Bill Preston]

Only thing I can think of is maybe your fonts didn't reinstall when you re- loaded 4.95. Had a similar problem a while back with Win 98 and Signlab 5. Backed up signlab files to a CD, had a 'puter guru reinstall Win98, then reinstalled SL5. Nowadays when I import one of the old files off the CD backup, I get a message that such and such font does not exist on this system. So, I head over to the SL font chart and look for their font with a similar name and appearance and substitute.

As best that I recall---remember I am old, and the memory aint what it use to was---The first time that SL5 was installed , I really didn't know I shouldn't install their fonts into the Win fonts folder, rather they should go into SL's own font folder. It never caused a problem ie slowing the 'puter down, and there were over 1000 fonts in that Win folder.

At any rate, when importing files off the CD, the program evidently only looks for TTF in Windows, and after the reinstall, there are only something like 39 TTFs residing in the Win font folder. Signlab fonts are apparently not TTF, but some proprietary dealie.


Try going into my computer, then program files then Signlab and open SL's font folder and see what is there. It mabe such a thing as "nobody's home."


Hope this helps, and let us know what you find.

 

[geb]

Good points Bill. I never worked with 4.95, just 5 and e6, but have to assume they're similar. While in signlab, go to file/install/fonts. Here you should be able to click a box next to locate true type fonts, locate corel wfn files, and cadlink vef files. I would try to click the box next to cadlink vef files, then press the box search now. It should list all your signlab fonts installed. This is probably very similar to what Bill was suggesting, and this area allows you to install certain types of fonts into signlab, such as true type, adobe type, and corel wfn files.

George

 

[Bill Preston]

GEB, I am not sure that what you suggest will tell you where on the 'puter the fonts are located. They may be found, but the frustration factor plays big when YOU know they are in there somewhere, but the proggy plays stupid and can't find 'em.

My only experience with SL 4.95 was with the Shortcut bridge program that worked in conjunction with Corel draw, and that was a long time back. Even with that, one had to be careful how the file was exported from Corel to SL--- A dot CMF extension was about all SL would accept without getting into an electronic snit and putting extra cut lines into the closed letters--"O" "P" "D" and so on. I'm sure other exporting file extensions would work, but CMF seemed the most reliable.

bill preston

 

[geb]

I probably misunderstood the question. I was just showing where he could locate what vef(signlab) fonts were installed in signlab at the present time, seeing he was getting a font not found message.

The way I suggested would not show where on the computer the fonts were located, but locates fonts in the computer that can be installed into signlab.

George

 

[Dave Stacey]

Thanks for you help .
The problem I have is we never have had to install the signlab VEF fonts. The program has always automaticly looked to the CD drive for the fonts.Even our Expert version does not have many VEF fonts on the C drive,we just have to make sure the CD is in the drive before we use any fonts. We could install the fonts in windows but I didn't think this was nescessary.We re-installed Signlab 3 times.
Thanks for all your suggestions.

Dave

 

[Bill Preston]

Dave, I sorta overlooked the business about networked computers, and I am not sure if the problem doesn't lie somewhere in the networking setup. It sounds as though at least part of the time you are bringing files across to the Win 98 'puter from another one which may or may not be Win 98. If the second one is a later version of Windows, backwards compatibility may be the issue. If the second one is Win 98, then that shouldn't be the problem.

As far as installing fonts to Windows font folder---I wouldn't, just because of the hit in performance the 'puter may take. I went into my own computer's "my computer" and from there to the windows folder, from there to the fonts folder. There are only 39 resident fonts at present. Okay, backtrack to my computer, then click on C drive. As it turns out Cadlink (signlab) is not in the Win program files, but pops up as a separate item under Cadlink. Click or double click on that and two folders appear. One is Photoscript, and the other is Signlab. Open the SL folder, and there is where the font folder lives. Open that one and you will see what is there and get a font count as well. Mine has 1214 fonts in residence so to speak. No performance hit, and no having to import fonts off a CD disc---well---except when opening old files from a CD backup, as mentioned in the earler post. And this 'puter is an old P2 450 Chip with only 32 of RAM, and a 15 gig hard drive---so it isn't the hottest rod in the garage.

Backwards compatibility is also an issue (or at least it was at one time) in Signlab in that files created in e6 will not work in SL5. e6 will accept files from SL5, so it is a one-way deal. It may be such a thing as files created in 5 or e6 are not compatible with 4.95.
That's an FYI, for whatever it may be worth.

bill preston

 

[Dave Stacey]

Thanks Bill
I've tried what you discribed but I can't get the results you mention.I've learned alot but not nearly enough.Heres a confusing way of discribing my situation.
The 2 computers that have the Expert & Designer stations are both windows 98.A third one is XP witch we have Omega on.The three computers ran together great for about a year or more.Then we had a series of problems all in a short time.We put a new hard on the XP that fried the mother board by downloading somthing that wasn't right.Then a few days later we couldn't access each computer so we replaced the D-link router. Then the XP could read the 2 "98's",the 98's each other,but was asked for a password to access the XP.( this has anyone we've asked stumped).Then the Designer & Expert stopped working together but we could still read both from the XP so the router still worked.So we cleaned the Designer completely off & re-install windows again & the network works again except for accessing the XP still.
So after this long story somewhere probably lies my problem.

Thanks again

Dave

 

[Bill Preston]

Win XP on one of the 'puters---does that by any chance have Service Pack 2 installed? This service pack has been indicted big time as a cause of major problems especially with dongled programs. As I understand it SP2 cannot be uninstalled, at least not in the usual sense that most programs can be uninstalled. It may be that a backup fo your files to CD or DVD will be needed, then a total cleaning off of the hard drive, reinstall Win XP, and maybe SP1, then reinstall Signlab.

On the downloaded something that as you put it "fried the motherboard"-- it's hard for me to imagine something in the way of electronic data doing this. A power surge, yes. Most anything else, no. Also, if the motherboard was fried, why replace the hard drive? You did replace the motherboard as well?

I would also check for something in the way of a virus, worm or other internet miscreant---some of them can do some real strange things.

It really sounds from your description that you had some sort of "domino effect" series of events, and it's going take some doing to get all those dominoes standing back up on end, and it will probably have to be done in some specific sequence. I have no more ideas that might help---and I 'm sorry. It may be time to get a real 'puter guru on the scene--literally--- because I think all these machines are going to need work in order to get the network working right.

bill preston

Just one other thought---back up the files on ALL the machines.

 

[Dave Stacey]

Bill
Thanks kindly for all the information you've given me.I'll take all the info & have the fellow that works on our computers look into it.I don't know about the service packs,& yes we have had virus problems that we thought were fixed.
As for the hard drive,we just decided to put a bigger one on the XP & used it as a second drive that is currently just used to backup files.The computer place said we downloaded the wrong software from microsoft that fried the motherboard.They said we were lucky that we didn't lose anything from our original C drive.Omega was re-installed and seems to work well although I questioned whether all the upgrades were aslo installed?
Thanks again

Dave

 

[Bill Preston]

Just found out I was wrong on the installing fonts method, or at least it seems that way. Have had a disc with assorted fonts sitting around for quite a while, and couldn't get them to load to my cutting program. It turned out that any one or more fonts does have to be loaded into the Win font folder first, then open the cutting program and go to file, then install option, then install from Windows. Also found out that it doesn't work to uninstall those fonts from Windows afterwards in order to keep the count down. The program says they are available in Signlab's font folder, but, select one, and nothing happens.


FWIW

bill preston

 

[Dave Stacey]

Thanks
We still havn't fix this yet,we're just working around it.

thanks Dave