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Trans - AutoCAD text translation

Translate drawing texts to another language - manually or automatically

TRANS utility

You can use the TRANS add-on utility to translate drawing texts to another language - either manually, or CAT-assisted (e.g. with Trados or other CAT tool), or automatically (via Google Translate).

TRANS extracts (exports) Text and Mtext entities from AutoCAD drawings into a text file (you can then translate it using any automated text translation tool or by human translator) and then puts the translated texts back into your DWG drawing (to the original places/positions and with the original properties). The automatic mode employs the API of the online tool "Google Translate" to perform language translation between the specified language pair.

Usage

Drag the trans.vlx file into your AutoCAD session or use the APPLOAD command to load it. Use the TR_WRITE and TR_READ commands to export and then re-import your drawing texts. TR_WRITE works with the object types TEXT, MTEXT, DIMENSION, MULTILEADER, and block attributes.

The export text file looks like this:

{ID1}
text of the text entity number ID1
{ID2}
text of the text entity number ID2

Just translate this text and re-import it back to AutoCAD.

For batch processing of multiple drawings (using script) set the FILEDIA variable to 0.

Using with TRADOS

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.

Automatic translation

gTrans - translation pairs The second command included in TRANS (since V1.2) is the gTRANS command. This command uses the online translation tool Google Translate to automatically translate selected text objects into another language.

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 to "pre-translate" your drawing texts for manual TR_Write translation.

Sample video

Using automatic translation via Google Translate
(click to start animation)

History

Version 1.2 (8/2009) adds support for long MTexts in AutoCAD 2009+2010, and the gTRANS autotranslation command. TRANS is now a shareware utility (with limited trial version).
Version 1.3 (8/2009) adds Undo and CMDDIA support for gTRANS.

Problems

This tool does not support double-byte languages nor Unicode (UTF-8). You have to use the appropriate 8-bit codepage (ASCII-based) for the accented characters. Not all language pairs are supported by Google.

Please send possible questions and problems to support@xanadu.cz or use our discussion forum.

Please send inquiries about custom application development to: develop@xanadu.cz.

TRANS Trial + Buy/Order

The limited trial version is free for download. The trial version has no long-text support, no multileader support, and gTRANS works only for texts up to 180 characters and a trial notice is added to MTexts.

If you are interested in the full unlimited commercial version, use the Order below or contact XANADU.

Price of the commercial version of TRANS is 39,-EUR (for AutoCAD)
Czech users (pro Česko a Slovensko): CAD eShop - TRANS