If the drawing is critical and you don't care about the Arabic text (you just want the geometry):
The most frequent complaint among CAD managers is: “I received a drawing that uses ‘Xarab.shx,’ but I don’t have it, and I cannot find it for download.”
Here is the hard truth: Xarab.shx is not a default font included with standard AutoCAD installations. It is a third-party or custom font developed by specific engineering firms or localized distributors (particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region). Xarab.shx Autocad Font
When AutoCAD cannot find Xarab.shx, it initiates the Font Substitution Mechanism:
Because Simplex.shx does not contain Arabic character mappings (Unicode range 0600–06FF), all Arabic text becomes gibberish—usually a series of upside-down question marks (¿¿¿) or empty rectangles. If the drawing is critical and you don't
The short answer is Yes. Autodesk has been moving away from SHX for linguistic text. With the introduction of DirectWrite text rendering in AutoCAD 2024, TrueType fonts now render faster and support complex scripts (Arabic, Hebrew, Devanagari) natively.
However, the legacy of Xarab.shx persists for three reasons: The most frequent complaint among CAD managers is:
Recommendation for 2025+: Do not create new drawings with Xarab.shx. Migrate your templates to Arial (TTF) or Simplified Arabic. Keep Xarab.shx only in your font folder as a "legacy viewer."