Sunday, June 21, 2009

AutoCad - Text

Single text : DTEXT : It is designed for creating single lines . Although we can press Enter to create more than one line of text each line becomes a separate text object.

These texts are independent object which can be relocated, reformatted or modified. When we create a single-line text we can assign the text style and set the alignment. We can use TEXT command besides DTEXT to enter the text-in-place or enter –text on the command line to enter the text on the command line.

During the execution we have to specify the start point of text, the text height and the rotation angle of text. As we creating the text we can align the text by justifying it with one of these options : TL(Top Left), ML(Middle Left), TC(Top Center), TR(Top Right), MR(Middle Right), BR(Bottom Right), MC(Middle Center), BC(Bottom Center), BL(Bottom Left) and etc.....


Text Using Character Codes

In addition to Unicode characters for entering special characters , we can also overscore text , underscore text or insert a special character by including control information in the text string. We have to use a pair of percent signs to introduce each control sequence.

%%nnn -> Draws character number nnn.

%%o -> Overscore the character

%%u -> Underscore the character

%%d -> Draws degrees symbol (°)

%%p -> Draws plus/minus tolerance symbol (±)

%%c -> Draws circles diameter dimensioning symbol. (Ø)


Entering Multiline text using MTEXT.

Paragraph text : MTEXT : It is designed for multiple lines with word-wrapping. AutoCad keeps the multiple lines together as a single object. Other special formatting such as numbered and bulleted list is possible.

We can create one or more paragraphs of multiline text in the In-Place Text Editor (or an alternative text editor) or use prompts on the command line. We have to specify the opposite corners of a text bounding box before entering or importing text. This text bounding box defines the width of the paragraphs in the multiline text object. The length of the multiline text object depends on the amount of text, not the length of the bounding box. We can use grips to move or rotate a multiline text object.

The characteristics of the text are controlled by the style of text which sets the default font and other options such as line spacing, justification, and color. Within the multiline text object we can override the current text style by applying formatting such as underlining, boldface and different fonts to individual characters.

We can view and change the object properties at the properties palette including properties that apply specifically to the text.


Editing text Using DEDIT

To edit a single-line text or dimension text from the toolbar we can just click the icon or we have to go to menu Modify->Object->Text->Edit... We can also type DDEDIT at the command entry.