TRANS.VLX - Translation of drawing texts
(C)2025, Arkance Systems, www.arkance.world
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The TRANS tool assists in machine translation of AutoCAD
drawing texts. You can use it with any translation tool
which translates plain text files, use automatic or
database-driven translation.

1. External translation
TRANS tool offers a pair of commands: TR_WRITE and TR_READ.
First use TR_WRITE to export the selected texts (TEXT, MTEXT,
DIMENSION, MULTILEADER, block attribute, table cell) to a
text file.
Now translate this text file using your favorite
translation tool (or just manually). Read back the
translated file (changing the text in your drawing but
not its properties - position, layer, height, color, etc.)
using the TR_READ command.
To use Trans in scripts, set FILEDIA to 0.

During translation, do not touch the text IDs in {}.
Do not add or change the order of lines in the text file.
The text file looks like:

{2D}
Flange 11
{2E}
Weld here
{2F}
Drawn by John Doe
{238*1}
{\f c238|p32;First line and\PSecond line}

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2. Automatic translation
The second method included in TRANS (since V1.2) is the
gTRANS and bTRANS command. In version 1.12, the dTRANS was added.
These commands uses the online translation tools Google Translate,
Microsoft Bing Translator or DeepL Translator to automatically
translate selected text objects into another language. The usage terms
are subject to the Google's, Microsoft's and DeepL's license policies
and their possible future changes (as of 2/2024 these API services
has been limited by their vendors).
First select the translation pair (e.g. EN-DE) and then select
the text objects to translate. Some formatting codes may be lost
during this online translation. Double-byte languages are not
supported.
You can also use gTRANS/bTRANS/dTRANS to "pre-translate" your drawing
texts for later manual TR_Write translation.
Please note that not all language pairs are supported by Google/Bing/DeepL.

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3. Database translation
The third translation method (since V1.11) is a database-driven
translation controlled by a text file (translation database) you
create and maintain for all requested translation pairs.
The databases are tab-delimited text files named DTRANS-from-to.TXT
- e.g. DTRANS-EN-DE.TXT. You can edit them in Notepad or export them
from MS Excel. Place the file in any folder in the AutoCAD search path.
Start the translation using the DBTRANS command.


History:
Version 1.2 (8/2009) adds support for long MTexts in 
AutoCAD 2009-2012, and the gTRANS autotranslation command.
TRANS is now a shareware utility. The trial version is
limited (no long-text support, no multileader support,
gTRANS only for texts up o 180 characters, trial notice added
to MTexts).
Version 1.3 adds Undo and CMDDIA support for gTRANS (1/2023: fixed lang-pair entry)
Version 1.4 - CADSTUDIO branding
Version 1.5 - fix for web translations
Version 1.6 - added Tables, fixed Attributes, attributes in gTrans
Version 1.7 - fix for accented characters (CZ/SK/DE)
Version 1.8 - Google API limit error message fix
Version 1.9 - added support for Microsoft Bing Translator
Version 1.10 - small fixes
Version 1.11 - translation of table texts, database translation
with the DTRANS command added
Version 1.12 - DTRANS renamed to DBTRANS and DTRANS added using DeepL
Version 1.13 - the command TRANS_OPTIONS can preset option for
processing block-texts and constant attributes in TR_WRITE

Note:
for double-byte languages you have to use the \U+nnnn notation

Note:
to adjust the list of translation pairs for gTRANS/bTRANS/dTRANS, you can set
a LISP variable "gTrans_langlist" (resp. dbTrans_langlist) before you run the
gTRANS/bTRANS/dTRANS commands - e.g.:

(setq gTrans_langlist '(("en" . "English")("nl" . "Nederlands")("no" . "Norsk") ))

Note:
Use (setq _TRANS_BlkDefs T) to export also texts from block definitions.
Not reimportable.


For TRADOS translation tool:
Type the TR_WRITE command in the command line and press Enter.
Select the TXT filename for output. Select the complete drawing
or just the parts of the drawing you want to translate and
press Enter (make sure all text layers are on and unlocked).
Open the exported TXT file in Word and save it as RTF.
Translate the RTF file with Trados - do not change the text in
parenthesis {}. Clean the translated RTF file. Open the cleaned
RTF file and save it as TXT (text only). Return back to AutoCAD
and enter the command TR_READ. Locate the translated TXT file -
the texts in your drawing will be replaced with the translated text.  

License:
TRANS tool is a tool by CAD Studio, with a free trial mode.
Please do not touch the header text and this readme.
|| CZ: uivatel z esk republiky mohou licenci TRANS zskat
|| zdarma v rmci VIP slueb nebo z shop.cadstudio.cz

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Use the CADSTUDIOREG (or XANADUREG) command to authorize (unlock) +
+ your trial version.                                               +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You can buy the full version of TRANS at
www.cadstudio.cz/en/apps/trans

See also our other CAD tools available at
www.cadstudio.cz/en/develop.asp
See our database with over 3.500 CAD Tips & Tricks at
www.cadforum.cz

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ARKANCE CZ (CAD Studio)
Libalova 2348/1
149 00 Praha
Czech Republic
www.arkance.world
info.cz@arkance.world
