Missing numbers and letters after importing a document

[Tom Hartmann]

Hello everyone,

I have the following problem. I am an architecture student and use Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher to edit my plans or create posters, but recently I have often noticed that parts are missing when importing Archicad files both as PDF and DWG.

Sometimes it's dimensions, sometimes letters, numbers, but sometimes even whole words. I have already tried all the settings when importing in Affinity and made sure that the font type is installed on my computer.

What particularly surprises me is that numbers and letters are deleted completely at random. For example an axis, on the left side the number is there, on the right side it is deleted, but then not for all axes, only some. Before I import the file, I can still see all the texts and numbers complete in the preview. After the file has loaded, it is gone.

In Affinity, however, no missing fonts or similar are displayed, I can also rule out that the text is white or has a different size, I have already tried everything.

I have not found any help online. I was wondering what the problem could be.

I hope you can help me.

Tom Hartmann

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[Hangman]

Hi @Tom Hartmann and welcome to the forums,

Could you upload a sample DWG and PDF file exported from Archicad so we can take a look at what is going on when the files are opened in the Affinity apps?

[Tom Hartmann]

Yes, of course! Thank you for the quick reply, I have just created a test file, once as pdf and once as dwg. in the pdf there is text in the lower left area that disappears, “is variant 1” and in the dwg file the axis numbers on the upper side disappear, they are cut off, but in Archicad the half numbers are still visible. I hope this helps.

P1[1] - Beispiel PDF.pdf A-12.3 V1.dwg

[Hangman]

Hallo @Tom Hartmann,

Vielen Dank für die Dateien...

Der Text „ist Variante 1“ erscheint zwar im PDF, wird aber beim Öffnen in Affinity-Apps maskiert. Ob das daran liegt, dass er den vertikalen Text „Architektonisch“ überlappt, weiß ich nicht genau. Wenn Sie die Maskenebene deaktivieren, sehen Sie den Text, der eigentlich „Joris Variante 1“ lautet...

____________________________

Many thanks for the files...

The 'is variant 1' text does appear in the PDF, however, it's masked when opened in Affinity apps, whether that's because it overlaps the vertical text, 'Architektonisch', I'm slightly unsure. If you toggle the mask layer off, you'll see the text which actually says 'Joris Variante 1'...

Wenn Sie den Text so trennen, dass er sich nicht überlappt, und ihn anschließend erneut als PDF exportieren, tritt das Problem dann immer noch auf?

In der DWG-Datei (und im PDF-Format) scheinen die Zahlen etwas überlappend zu sein. Wenn Sie die Zeichnungen erneut trennen, sodass vertikal deutlicher Abstand besteht und sich keine Überlappungen ergeben, und sie anschließend erneut als DWG exportieren, werden die Achsenzahlen dann beim Öffnen der DWG-Datei in der Affinity-App angezeigt?

____________________________

 If you separate the text so it doesn't overlap and re-export to PDF, do you still see the same issue?

As for the DWG file (and PDF), there appears to be a certain amount of overlap with the numbers. If again, you separate the drawings so there is obvious space between them vertically and no overlap and then re-export to DWG, do the axis numbers then show when opening the DWG file in the Affinity app?
 

[Tom Hartmann]

I have now tried it again as you described. It worked partially. To create the layout I placed drawings on the layout and cropped them, this is probably the crucial point. As soon as text is cut off, it is masked. However, I can't always prevent this. Do you know a method with which it still only makes the "desired" text visible, even if it is only half visible? Or if this is not possible, is there any way to turn off this automatic masking? 
Thanks for your efforts, I have been desperately searching for the error for so long.

[Hangman]

Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob das Problem daran liegt, wie Archicad die Zeichnungen beschneidet oder wie Affinity sie interpretiert.

Könnten Sie die Originaldatei von Archicad oder einen Screenshot davon hochladen? Sowohl in der PDF- als auch in der DWG-Datei scheinen sich die Zeichnungen zu überlappen. Ich vermute, das ist die Ursache des Problems. Ohne die Originaldatei ist das aber schwer zu sagen.

____________________________

I'm unsure whether the issue is with how Archicad is cropping the drawings or how Affinity is interpreting them...

Could you upload the original Archicad file or a screenshot showing the original file? Both the PDF and DWG files seem to show that the drawings are all overlapped, which I think is the cause of the issue, but it's difficult to know without seeing the original file...

[Komatös]

15 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Affinity is interpreting them...

Definitely the Affinity programmes. Both the MacOS preview app and two other PDF editors (PDFgear and StirlingPDF) display the clipped text.

[Tom Hartmann]

I'm sorry, I can't send the original file, I've attached a photo, I hope that's what you meant. You see a green square there, that is the placed drawing that was cut in the program. The others were cut in exactly the same way. Actually, nothing should overlap because the cut-outs were placed at a distance. I have increased the spacing again, but cropped text is still not displayed in the dwg and pdf.

[Hangman]

You will get the original drawings if you remove all the masks that Affinity has applied. I'm unsure why the overlapping layers are masked when opened but I've attached updated versions with the mask layers toggled off...

P1[1] - Beispiel v2.pdfA-12.3 V2.dwg.afpub

[Tom Hartmann]

Thank you very much for your fast and helpful response!😀

[steveragon]

Sorry i don't speak englishplan de masse distribution électrique marché de noel version 21 06 2025.pdfplan de masse distribution électrique marché de noel version 21 06 2025.pdf

Bonjour,

J'ai un problème similaire avec l'importation de pdf. j'ai du texte sur un calque qui n'est pas interprété correctement dans affinity designer. le texte n'apparait pas, il est représenté par des sélections vides. quand je fais l'importation dans illustrator, l'ensemble des textes et calques sont visibles. pas dans affinity designer ?

je joins le pdf pour exemple.

Merci pour votre réponse

plan de masse distribution électrique marché de noel version 21 06 2025.pdf

[Ali]

C'est un forum anglophone, donc veuillez utiliser GoogleTranslate pour préparer votre message.

[Alfred]

2 minutes ago, Ali said:

C'est un forum anglophone, donc veuillez utiliser GoogleTranslate pour préparer votre message.

Google Translate says:

Quote

This is an English-language forum, so please use GoogleTranslate to prepare your message.

Google Translate is much better than it used to be — think of your “diving under navy” example from years ago! — but I still like to see the post in the user’s native language so that I can have a “second bite at the cherry” when a machine translation mangles things.

[Hangman]

Bonjour @steveragon et bienvenue sur les forums.

Le texte est présent, mais une partie est masquée dans les applications Affinity, et une autre partie est légèrement décalée par rapport à l'original. Je ne comprends pas pourquoi cela se produit.

Si vous utilisez également Affinity Publisher, vous pouvez utiliser « Rechercher » pour localiser le texte masqué dans le panneau Calques, puis désactiver le calque « Masque » pour révéler le texte.

Si vous n'avez que Designer, le localiser dans le panneau Calques est un peu plus manuel.

Vous pouvez également localiser et sélectionner un texte artistique dans le panneau Calques, puis utiliser Sélectionner → Sélectionner un objet → Texte artistique pour sélectionner tout le texte artistique dans le panneau Calques, puis parcourir les calques concernés et désactiver les calques de masque qui masquent le texte.

Ce n'est pas idéal, mais c'est la seule option qui me vient à l'esprit pour le moment.

___________________________________

The text is present, but some of it is masked when viewed in the Affinity apps, and some of it is slightly offset from where it appears in the original. I'm unsure why this happens.

If you happen to have Affinity Publisher as well, you can use Find to locate the masked text in the Layers panel and then toggle the Mask layer off to reveal the text.

If you only have Designer, then it's a bit more of a manual exercise to locate it in the Layers panel.

Alternatively, you can locate and select one piece of Artistic Text in the Layers panel and then use Select → Select Object → Art Text to select all the Artistic text in the Layers panel and then go through the relevant layers and toggle the mask layers off where it's masking the text.

Not ideal, but the only options I can think of at the moment.

[Ali]

16 minutes ago, Alfred said:

but I still like to see the post in the user’s native language

So do I, but the OP should provide a translation into English for those who do not read French because, as I said, it's an Anglophone forum.

[Komatös]

Off Toppic

Please stick to the actual topic and do not turn this thread into a private conversation! 

Everyone is allowed to write in their native language here. Period.

 

[steveragon]

Merci à vous pour votre bienveillance et vos réponses
Thank you for your kindness and your answers.

[steveragon]

for information

Estelle (Affinity)

Jun 26, 2025, 7:04 PM GMT+8

Hello Steve,

Thank you for your message and the attached file, it's very helpful.

You're absolutely right: Affinity Designer currently has some limitations when importing PDF files containing slanted or transformed text (e.g., text on a path, rotated, or distorted). Horizontal and vertical text generally imports correctly, but slanted text can be misinterpreted or mispositioned.

This is a known issue, and our development team is aware of it. Illustrator uses a different PDF interpretation engine, which often better preserves text transformations.

Convert text to curves in the source software (such as Illustrator) before exporting to PDF. This will preserve the visual appearance, but the text will no longer be editable in Affinity Designer. Recreate text effects manually in Affinity Designer after importing if you need to keep editable text.

Thank you for this very helpful feedback, and we will pass it on to our team. Please feel free to send us additional files or examples if you'd like to explore this further.

Best regards,
Estelle @ Affinity Support

[David in Яuislip]

The main problems I noticed  using Publisher V1 were:
 additional spaces between letters
 font sizes are negative
 cannot selecr text

I used ghostscript on the file
gswin64 -dSAFER -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -o PlanDeMasseDistributionElectriqueGS.pdf PlanDeMasseDistributionElectrique.pdf
which seems to have improved matters although there could be some gotchas that I've missed. I also replaced the bell bitmaps with svgs

Probably a good thing that steveragon has Illustrator

PlanDeMasseDistributionElectriqueGS-Pub.zip

[Hangman]

5 minutes ago, David in Яuislip said:

The main problems I noticed  using Publisher V1 were:
 additional spaces between letters
 font sizes are negative
 cannot selecr text

I didn't have any of those issues in V2... This is how the file opens for me, including when the masks are hidden on the green and red circles...

[David in Яuislip]

Aha, you started from a better place than me then. To be honest, it's not that bad a job once you get into the swing of what to look for.
I tried using Inkscape but it found about 4 million clipping paths and wouldn't respond
I'm glad I don't do this for a living