Overview of Unicode

All characters are processed numerically by the computer operating system, which assigns a number to each character. Various numeric encoding systems have been used in the past, however these encoding systems often conflicted. As a result, operating systems and applications relied on code pages with specific character sets and numbering assigned to countries or regions.

To facilitate international compatibility, the Unicode standard was adopted by major industry leaders and is being maintained by the Unicode Consortium.

Drawing File Impact

Language-specific characters can be used in file names and text within drawing files, or files associated with drawing files. The following are common examples:

• Drawing file names
• Folder path names
• Sheet set data files
• Named objects such as layers and blocks within a drawing
• Linetype and hatch pattern file names and their contents
• Text used in notes and dimensions within a drawing
• DWF or DWFx markup files

This means that drawings can be opened, worked on, and saved worldwide regardless of language-specific characters. The only requirement is that the appropriate language pack must be installed first.

When you save text files such as linetype (LIN), hatch pattern (PAT), and script (SCR) files using an application such as Notepad, it is recommended that you specify Unicode encoding at the bottom of the Save As dialog box to ensure compatibility.

Limitations

Most international drawing projects can be completed within the current product environment. However, there are several file types and features that are not supported yet between countries and regions that use different Windows code pages. These features include the following:

• eTransmit
• Round trip file and data compatibility with non-Unicode products
• Block attributes
• Visual LISP files