Introduction: A File Extension You Might Have Overlooked If you have ever opened an AutoCAD drawing sent by a Middle Eastern engineering firm, a heritage site restoration project, or a bilingual architectural plan, you have likely encountered a cryptic warning: “Naskhd.shx not found – substituting [xxxx].shx.”
Note : To test Arabic, use the editor with an RTL paragraph direction. If you only see boxes, change the font again—something is wrong. Part 4: Common Problems & Solutions Problem 1: "Naskhd.shx is an Unrecognized Font Format" Cause : The file is corrupted or was downloaded from an untrustworthy source. Also, pre-2002 versions of AutoCAD used a different SHX binary structure. Font Naskhd.shx
: Use a dedicated SHX-only text style for Arabic. Never mix SHX and TTF in the same style when working with bidirectional scripts. Problem 4: Plotting to PDF Reverses the Character Order Cause : Third-party PDF drivers (especially older ones like PDF Creator) do not respect AutoCAD’s internal SHX shaping. Characters are exported in logical order but rendered incorrectly by the PDF viewer. Introduction: A File Extension You Might Have Overlooked