Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 June 16

= June 16 =

Webbrowser displays everything in bold
All my webbrowsers are displaying only bold and looking weird. Except for Google Chrome which seems to be displaying in italics. I was uninstalling a lot of stuff today, and I'm pretty sure that did it, but I don't know what I uninstalled that caused this. I tried reinstalling specific fonts from this website, http://web.nickshanks.com/fonts/microsoft-core-web-fonts but nothing changed. Any help would be appreciated. ScienceApe (talk) 03:32, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

I know I uninstalled microsoft silverlight. I had no idea what that stupid thing did so I got rid of it. ScienceApe (talk) 03:34, 16 June 2012 (UTC)


 * That's for viewing streaming video (or at least it was, apparently Microsoft Silverlight is their latest bloatware target), and seems unlikely to be related, but you never know. It definitely sounds like some fonts are missing. StuRat (talk) 04:05, 16 June 2012 (UTC)


 * One thing you could try, apart from reinstalling web browsers, would be to try to change around the default font that your browser displays to others. Chrome for starters, other webbrowsers would have their own methods.  From there, we could figure out the size of the issue.  Sazea (talk) 04:37, 16 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Everything is still in italics, but interestingly enough, when I'm typing stuff like I am now, the font type has indeed changed. But all the text that is displayed is still in italics (for Chrome). Firefox is still in bold even after changing font, which didn't seem to do anything. ScienceApe (talk) 05:18, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Ok in firefox when I uncheck "Allow webpages to choose their own font", the font displayed does indeed change. But when it's checked, everything is stuck in bold. ScienceApe (talk) 05:20, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Do you have a Windows 7 computer, XP, or a Mac (or other)? The fonts on the page above appear to only support windows XP and some versions of macs.  As well, there may be some additional recovery options available in Windows 7. Sazea (talk) 06:36, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I have Windows 7. ScienceApe (talk) 14:53, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * According to this thread on Tom's Hardware, these symptoms indicate that you have deleted the Arial font. Solution: reinstall the font (or just copy a Arial.ttf file back into the font directory). --NorwegianBluetalk 08:00, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * But in the font directory, I see Arial and Arial Rounded MT Bold. ScienceApe (talk) 14:53, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * So given that you have windows 7, here's something you can try. Navigate to C:\Windows\, and click on the font folder.  Then right click, and there should be an option to restore to previous versions (probably under properties).  Restore the folder to a time before you started uninstalling everything.  If that doesn't fix the problem, there are still a few other options to try (short of reinstalling the web browsers).


 * One reason why the first link you tried didn't work was that it was a 32 bit installer. I'm not entirely certain, but I know that there are a few discrepancies between XP and windows 7.Sazea (talk) 17:24, 16 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Thinking about it now, it might be better to try simpler solutions before messing around in the windows folder. First, try downloading this font pack.  It appears to have worked for a number of windows 7 users.  Sazea (talk) 20:48, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * That did it, thanks! ScienceApe (talk) 22:11, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Can Blender open .sldasm files?
69.243.220.115 (talk) 16:49, 16 June 2012 (UTC)


 * From a quick search online it appears that the answer is no. However, try it anyway as support may be undocumented. There is a guide here detailing how to export models from SolidWorks to Blender which may be helpful to you. AvrillirvA (talk) 17:09, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Remember that SolidWorks is based around a constructive solid geometry engine, and Blender is based on a (more conventional graphics-oriented) boundary representation engine. One can export from CSG to any of a variety of standard mesh formats.  Blender can interpret STL files, which are easy to work with.  However, the rendering process will lose information: the model is not identical to the SolidWorks' internal model; it is a 3D rasterization or vectorization of the model's surface only, suitable for many graphical purposes, but unsuitable for many CAD purposes.  I have found STL to be a convenient interchange format, as a hobbyist, because it can be written and read in plaintext. Blender can interpret them, and it is easy to write custom software to work with the simplistic representation of polygon mesh data. However, I have found that SolidWorks exports to STL tend to provide low resolution, especially on complex curved surfaces. At the very least, it's worth playing with other vectorizations (including non-mesh vector representations) to see what works well.  Nimur (talk) 17:28, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I just want to follow along the information at this MIT OCW course, but I have zero dollars to spend on modeling software. 69.243.220.115 (talk) 22:37, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The authors of SolidWorks offer some software free of charge: http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/free-cad-software/. I don't know if it does what you want, though. --80.112.182.54 (talk) 08:08, 17 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Oh! Well!  This information clarifies the question significantly.  Blender, while it is an excellent piece of graphical software, and an amazing testament to the power of free and free software, is categorically not a CSG CAD tool, and so if you plan to follow that MIT OCW course, Blender is totally unsuitable for your needs.  (According to its syllabus, that is a course to teach you to think like a mechanical engineer... so you should not be starting off by equating "any 3D model" with "a model suitable for engineering CAD and design for manufacturing" - or else you'll be designing some beautifully unrealistic and unsafe bridges, cars, and airplanes)..  Consider trying BRL-CAD as an alternative.  BRL-CAD is a free and open-source software CSG toolkit, though it's a bit clunky, I have seen it used by real engineers at real companies.  Ultimately, SolidWorks is "the best" tool for following a course on CSG using SolidWorks.  It is not free, and if your budget is exactly zero dollars, you're in a bit of a bind; but, you may be able to find a university, local machine-shop, or other resources that will allow you to use their shared site license.  Nimur (talk) 12:53, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

SUPER (software)
I really liked using this program to convert to .ogg for commons. The last time I went to use it my AVG vaulted it. The article was edited on April 14 to reflect the issues (malware etc?), and then reverted. I don't know enough about computers to figure out a way to make it work. It is listed on commons as a method of converting for upload. Is there a way to find a pre-April version that works? It seems to have a 'phone home' thingy so when I tried to re-install from my HD it failed. Some sites say that a restore will fix it, so I may install, convert, restore type thing. Thoughts?--Canoe1967 (talk) 20:12, 16 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Not the question you asked, I know, but I'd recommend Audacity as a good alternative. FiggyBee (talk) 21:17, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

You can download older versions of the program from here. AvrillirvA (talk) 21:58, 16 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Or here: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/SUPER ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:03, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

A better solution (being a native build, as opposed to relying on Cygwin as SUPER does; and being open source, unlike SUPER; but still using FFmpeg as a backend, just like SUPER) would be WinFF. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:03, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you all for your advice. Does Audacity output .ogg video? I installed WinFF and .ogg isn't on the list. I also found a copy of Super I will try. I have created a restore point and now it wants re-boot to work. Wish me luck?--Canoe1967 (talk) 22:17, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The .ogg suffix is supposed to be for audio-only files. Is ogv on this list you speak of? 98.226.12.79 (talk) 23:08, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Super outputs as .ogg for video. All my .ogg uploads were from Super I think, and commons seems to play them fine that way. I did get it to work after re-boot. It stuffed some reg cleaner thing on my desktop. I traced that to the folder, found the un-install.exe and I think that removed it. The install from the site listed above did have 3 checkboxes for browser add-ons, homepage, etc. I unchecked from default checked. It did run, but the output file is corrupt. The input was .mp4 H.264 with 6 keyframes. I am going to try again tomorrow, my brain hurts too much to play with it again today.--Canoe1967 (talk) 23:37, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The .ogg file is indeed used for video files as well as audio; the .ogg files are only containers that Vorbis audio and Theora video codecs can be contained in. Commons has a page on it as well as other video convertors options.


 * From the sound of things, SUPER may be showing up as a false positive with AVG based on it's heuristic analysis. More information is available on the wiki page, but it essentially means that AVG evaluates the functions of the program to determine if any/enough of them meet its definition of a virus.  One option would be to scan the main exe file (and possibly other files) in the install folder at either the Jotti or VirusTotal online scanners to see if some of scanners are getting a false positive.  If that is the case, there may be options for using the new version of the program.  Sazea (talk) 04:01, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

I got one converted and uploaded. I used a command line program, ffmpeg2theora. When did they do that drag and drop feature with dos windows? I had stuffed a copy of cmd.exe, the mp4 video and ffmpeg2theora all into one folder before I realized the easier way. The newest version of Super kept making files that pixelated in sections. This one works except VLC crashes when I try to play it. File:Andromeda and Milky Way collision.ogg. Someone may wish to try playing with the original from the source site and see if they can get a better version out of it. Most of the converters listed above didn't seem to have any .og* output.--Canoe1967 (talk) 15:04, 17 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Sorry about that, I can only assume the WinFF author omitted it because they’re ignorant. If you want a decent, complete (commandline) FFmpeg for Windows, you can get one from Cygwin Ports. ¦ Reisio (talk) 21:18, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

No need to apologize. I can see how gurus can get frustrated by many of the posts here. I have a working converter and video now, but I sure wish I had known how easy command line programs were to use now (the drag/drop I mentioned above). I may try your suggestion as well. The video I finally got to work still crashes my VLC, but that may be just my sys. Thank you again for all your very helpful input.--Canoe1967 (talk) 21:47, 18 June 2012 (UTC)