How to Add Missing Fonts to SOLIDWORKS

Do you ever get this SOLIDWORKS Missing Font warning when trying to open a part that came from someone else? “Use a temporary replacement font.”

SOLIDWORKS Font Message

Basically this means you don’t have the font the other person used, which means SOLIDWORKS will pick a font of its choosing to fill in the blanks. The good news is that fonts can be added into your computer/SOLIDWORKS and it’s fairly easy to do.

Types of Fonts

Let’s first discuss types of fonts and the fonts that can and can’t be used for SOLIDWORKS. There are two main font types: True Type Font and Open Type Font. SOLIDWORKS will only accept True Type Font and you will know it’s a True Type Font by the file extension of ‘.TTF’.

This is SOLIDWORKS choosing the font it thinks is close.

Adding New Fonts

So where do you get these fonts? There are many websites that offer free and paid font types. Please use your discretion when blindly downloading files, though. If you require a specific one for your part and are having problems locating it, you could always ask your supplier to send it along as a zipped file. To view what fonts you have, you can go into the Fonts folder via Control Panel.

Windows Fonts

Now for the process of adding the font into your computer and SOLIDWORKS. Make sure your newly downloaded font is unzipped then double click on the .TTF file as shown in the example below.

Font file selected

This will open it up, allowing you to preview various sizes of the font. In the top left there will be a Print and Install button. All you have to do is click on the install button.

Install the missing Font

Verify the font installed by going into your Fonts folder again. I would then also verify that SOLIDWORKS picked it up by doing a test sketch.

This is the sketch with the correct font. Notice how its available now from the list.

Here is a Microsoft Link for more information.