Text3D Transform

Turns a given text string into a three-dimensional (3-D) model. This transform takes no inputs and produces a 3-D mesh output that is an extruded version of the two-dimensional (2-D) font.

All the information needed to produce the output, such as the text string, font face, and letter spacing, is selected by setting the transform properties listed below.

Note To use this transform, you need to have Microsoft Windows® 98 Second Edition or Windows 2000 installed.

Transform Specifications

The following table contains the information you need to use this transform in C++ and script.

Class identifier (CLSID)	CLSID_Text3D
Globally unique identifier (GUID)	D56F34F2-7E89-11d2-9B4E-00A0C9697CD0
Programmatic identifier (ProgId)	DX3DTransform.Microsoft.Text3D
Category identifier (CATID)	CATID_DX3DTransform
Custom interfaces	IDXTText3D
Supported interfaces	None
Inputs	None
Output	Direct3DRMMeshBuilder3

Custom Properties

The following table lists the custom properties that control the transform output.

Property	Type	Default	Description
String	BSTR	3D	The string that will be converted to a 3-D mesh.
FontFace	BSTR	Arial	A list adapted from the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) font-family attribute. The list is comma-separated and each item is the name of either a specific TrueType font (for example, Times New Roman) or a generic font family. The first font that is available on the system is chosen. The recognized generic families are Cursive, Fantasy, Monospace, Sans-serif, and Serif.
FontWeight	BSTR	normal	The weight to use in rendering the font. Valid values are normal, bold, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900. The value normal is the same as 400, and the value bold is the same as 700. Depending on the font, a certain range of weights might be mapped to a single weight, so this property should be viewed only as a guideline.
FontStyle	BSTR	normal	The style of the font. Valid values are normal, italic, and oblique. Currently oblique is identical to italic.
ExtrusionType	BSTR	Simple	The type of extrusion. Valid values are Simple for simple extrusion or FlatBevel for flat beveled extrusion.
Vertical	Boolean	FALSE	The direction in which the letters of the string are created. If TRUE, the string is written vertically; otherwise, it is written horizontally.
LetterSpacing	VARIANT	0.0	The amount of spacing between each character that is added to the usual spacing.
XAlign	BSTR	center	The point in the output that lies at x = 0. Valid values are left (for the left edge), center (the center point), and right (the right edge).
YAlign	BSTR	baseline	The point in the output that lies at y = 0. Valid values are top, center, bottom, ascent, baseline, and descent. For the last three values, if Vertical is TRUE, the transform uses the ascent, baseline, or descent of the first character.
ZAlign	BSTR	center	The point in the output that lies at z = 0. Valid values are front, center, and back.
Quality	float	0.125	A value that controls the tessellation of the curved parts of the font, and hence the number of triangles in the generated 3-D mesh.

Remarks

Many programs support concatenating the FontFace, FontWeight, and FontStyle properties into one string, such as Arial Bold Italic, applied to the FontFace property. However, the preferred method for this transform is to set each property explicitly, as shown in the following example.
t.FontFace = "Arial"; 
t.fontWeight = "Bold"; 
t.FontStyle = "Italic";
All consecutive white space in the list is treated as a single space. Initial and terminal white space is ignored. If you want to protect literal white space and commas in a font name, you can use apostrophes around the name.

If none of the fonts specified in the list exists on the client's system, the transform arbitrarily chooses one of the TrueType fonts installed on the system. If a character has no representation in the given font, a space, question mark, or box will appear in its place. To make certain that all users will be able to view the transform output properly, it is best to select one of the standard TrueType fonts included with Windows, such as Arial, Verdana, or Times New Roman.

The following table lists examples values for the FontFace property, along with the font selection that results from the string.

FontFace Result

"Courier New" A specific type face.

"fantasy" A generic font family.

"Garamond, Times New Roman, serif" A prioritized list.

"No Font, nevermind" A presumably unrecognized value. The transform will use the system's default TrueType face.

"" An empty string. The font continues to be the current value.

" Courier New , Times New Roman " Same as "Courier New, Times New Roman"

" 'Nine , light years'" The comma and spaces between words are taken literally.

This transform relies on support from the operating system for interpreting the input string. Thus, Japanese fonts will display correctly for computers with the Japanese version of Windows 98, Arabic fonts will display correctly for computers with the Arabic version of Windows 98, and so on. A U.S. computer with a Japanese language pack might render many Japanese inputs correctly, but composite characters and other special language features will not work.

FontFace	Result
"Courier New"	A specific type face.
"fantasy"	A generic font family.
"Garamond, Times New Roman, serif"	A prioritized list.
"No Font, nevermind"	A presumably unrecognized value. The transform will use the system's default TrueType face.
""	An empty string. The font continues to be the current value.
" Courier New , Times New Roman "	Same as "Courier New, Times New Roman"
" 'Nine , light years'"	The comma and spaces between words are taken literally.