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Text Tips

NEW 2009 COMMAND -ANNOALLVISIBLE
This command allows you to see all annotative objects regardless of the current annotation scale. Keep in mind that each annotative scale is assigned a layer, so you can freeze the layers for the annotation objects you don't want to see. This might be useful if you use the annotative option and you want to see how cluttered your drawing really is.

Getting your Fonts to Appear Properly in AutoCAD

If you are using a non-standard font, it may or may not appear properly in AutoCAD. You have a couple of choices to make sure AutoCAD recognizes your font.

1) Copy the font to the /AutoCAD <ver>/Fonts directory

2) Add the file path where the font is located to the search path using the Options dialog. Select the Files tab and add the path under Support.

MTEXT Hidden Options

The Mtext window offers three options. In the Mtext window, select the text you've entered and right click inside the text area. You will see a pop-up menu with the following options:

Change Case to change the text to all uppercase or all lowercase.

Remove Formatting to return all text to Txt font, and remove bold, italic, and other formatting.

Combine Paragraphs to combine multiple paragraphs into one.

Creating text with multiple leaders

To create a single Mtext that has leaders pointing to multiple locations, make your first leader with text, then highlight the leader. Heat up the end of the arrow and begin to stretch the leader, then select the C option from the "Specify stretch point or..." prompt. You can now click on many points; each point will create a new leader while keeping the base point at the text.

Make attribute prompts and text appear in the desired sequence

If attribute prompts or attribute text appear in the wrong sequence after inserting a block, it is because AutoCADdisplays them in the reverse order from which they were originally created. To define attributes so that their insertion is prompted in a specific order, individually pick the attributes in the reverse order of how you want the prompts to appear. Then select all objects with a window or crossing box to complete the block definition.

Drawing a Box Around Dimension Text

If you set DIMGAP to a negative number (i.e. -.090) it will draw a box around the dimension text.

Dimensions to mm/in Instead of in/mm

A little trick to make the mechanical types happy when sending drawings to another country where they want mm/in instead of the AutoCAD's in/mm, i.e. the rest of the world:

Firstly, the dimensions must be associative (DIMASO = 1) if you're converting an existing drawing.

To have AutoCAD put mm over inches in a drawing do the following:

Go to Dimensions>Style>Modify
In Primary Units, change the precision to 0.00 (for mm), the Decimal separator
to "," comma (this affects both but the comma is used in most countries), Round off as required, Suffix to \P, and the Scale factor from 1.0000 to 25.4.
In Alternate Units, change the Precision to 0.000 (for inches), Round off as required, and Scale factor from 25.4 to 0.03937.
You'll still be drawing in inches. For details that are scaled up, you'll have to change DIMLFAC to 12.7 for 2X scale, etc. before updating them.
Angles are not altered, of course, but the placement will change slightly
because of the blank space below the existing number.

Mtext Color in MDT

To control the color of Mtext in MDT use the system variable CECOLOR.

Use RTEXT to Make Date/Time Stamp

You can use the Rtext command to create a date and time stamp.

At the command prompt, enter Rtext.
Enter D for Diesel.
In the Edit Rtext dialog box, enter the following lines:
$(edtime, 0, MON DD"," YYYY - H:MMam/pm)
$(getvar, "dwgprefix")$(getvar, "dwg name")
Select OK.
Select a point in the drawing to place the stamp
Press <Enter> to accept the settings

Each time you plot the drawing, the plot date, time, drawing path,
and filename appear on the plot.

Replacing Non-Associative Dimensions

Occasionally, you may get a drawing from a drafter who did not draw entities to their correct dimensions.

To make it more interesting, instead of accepting AutoCAD's default dimensions, the drafter entered the desired dimension rather than the actual dimension of the entity. To restore the dimension to the correct value and bring back associativity,

Use DDEDIT and replace the dimension text with <>. Associativity will be restored and you will see the true dimensions of all entities.

Changing text color

Try this procedure if you want any word or part of your text to stand out. With the mouse, select the text you wish to modify, then type MTEXT at the command line to open the text editor. Highlight the word or words you wish to change. Now select a layer color from the layer drop-down menu. The highlighted text is now colored. Use this method to add multiple colors to your text for those critical callouts that must be noticed.

Quickly Moving Attributes

You can quickly change the location of an attribute to clear other objects in a crowded drawing without resorting to the cumbersome ATTEDIT command.

Pick any entity of the block to bring up the grips and then grab the attribute's insertion grip. With the STRETCH option active, drag the grip and the attribute will move.
Any of the other grip options will affect the entire block so you can't use this technique to rotate attributes.

Automatic Dimensioning

Instead of manually selecting the end points of each line to dimenson, use dimlinear to auto-dimension.

Command: DIMLINEAR
First extension line origin or hit Enter to select: (hit enter)

Select object to dimension:

After hitting [ENTER], a pickbox appears and select the part you want to dimension. AutoCAD will automatically locate the endpoints for you.

Changing DText to MText

I have found MText to be my Standard, but many on going jobs have DText. The only way I have found to change it is Copy Clip and then with MText editor open to Paste. Repeating this until the end of my text string.

Note: You can also use the txt2mt Express Tool available in R14 and A2K.

ASCII Codes for Text

For the newbies who didn't start using AutoCAD in the Days of DOS.
You can use these codes in the text or dtext commands:
These codes work only with AutoCAD's standard text fonts:

%%d = degree

%%c = circle diameter

%%p = plus/minus tolerance

%%u = begin underline of text. Repeat to end underline.

%%o = begin overline of text. Repeat to end.

%%124 = vertical line, or pipe

%%123 = {

%%125 = }

%%126 = ~ (tilde)

You can also use ASCII characters, which you enter by pressing the
Alt key while you key in the ASCII number on the numeric keypad, with
number lock enabled.
Alt+0176 = degree
Alt+0216 = diameter

The Lost Single Line MText Editor

Most of us are use the dialog box for creating MText, but there are still some users that look for a simple interface for this command. Well there is such a dialog box right under our noses, and has been since R13. It is a single line dialog box with the ability to bring up the full editor if needed. To do this follow the Command Line Sequence provided below. The new value that you should enter for the system variable MTEXTED is :lisped.

Command Line Sequence:

Command: MTEXTED

New value for MTEXTED, or . for none <"Internal">: :lisped

Using True Type Fonts

When you open a drawing from an outside source which uses an unregistered TrueType font, the alternate font defined by the FONTALT setting is displayed instead. Sometimes in this situation, the Autodesk software shuts down unexpectedly and no error message is displayed. This problem occurs if the drawing file is currently open and the unregistered TrueType fonts are located in the same folder. Or maybe you want to use a TrueType Font that is not available.

You must register the unregistered TrueType font in the Windows operating system to display the font that is specified in the drawing. The Windows operating system has a Fonts item in Control Panel that you can use for registering TrueType fonts. After the TrueType font is registered with the operating system, the font is displayed when the drawing is opened.

To register a TrueType font:

On the Start menu (Windows), click Settings > Control Panel.
In Control Panel, double-click the Fonts item to open the Fonts window.
On the File menu, click Install New Font and navigate to the location of the font.
Select the fonts to load and click OK.
For help on registering TrueType fonts in Windows, refer to Help in Windows Explorer.

Customize MTEXT Dialog

Do you want to customize the sample text string that displays when you first enter AutoCAD 2004's updated Mtext command?

You can set the MTJIGSTRING system variable to display your favorite football team, pet, whatever!

Bringing in a TXT file

You can Drag 'n' Drop a TXT file into your drawing from either a Folder Window or the Windows Explorer. This could be a fast way of dropping in specification notes.

Bringing in Large Documents

You can bring large documents into AutoCAD using the Generic Printer option.

Your first step is to Add a Printer using your Windows Control Panel. Select the Generic/Text Only Printer to add.

Open the document you want to insert into AutoCAD. Select Print. Set the printer to the Generic/Text printer. Enable Print to File.

Save the file as a *.txt file in the location of your choice. The default is to save as a *.prn file. Change the file type setting to *.* (all files) and you will be able to save as a *.txt file.

Now go to AutoCAD. Start the MTEXT command. Right click in the edit window. Select the Import Text option. Browse to the txt file you just created and select it. Your file will be imported, complete with formatting, headers, and footers.

Setting Line Spacing in MTEXT

You can change your MTEXT line spacing using the following method:

Select the MTEXT object.

Right click and select Properties.

Select the Line Space Style Option under Text.

Click on At Least to change it to Exactly.

This makes the distance between all the lines equal.

Close the MTEXT dialog with a Click

You can close the MTEXT Edit box by clicking anywhere outside the box.

MTEXT v. TEXT

If you use MTEXT (Multi-line text) which is an extremely useful facility, you will use TrueType fonts whether you like it or not! MTEXT only works with TrueType. If you specify an SHX font in MTEXT, it substitutes the TrueType font that Autodesk provide to mimic that SHX font. Those mimic fonts are actually very poorly defined. TrueType is intended to always be defined as open outlines, so that the character weight is defined. AutoCAD's SHX-like TrueType fonts (ROMANS.TTF etc) were created by an automatic font generator that faithfully copied the SHX single-stroke form, including the clunky way of using short straight line segments to create curves. This type of definition prevents those TrueType fonts from ever having anything but the minimum stroke-width regardless of character size. The remedy is: Don't use SHX fonts in MTEXT. If you find the MTEXT in your MTEXT dialog box difficult to read because of the font you are using: Right click on desktop-->properties--settings-- >appearance-->effects-->uncheck "use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts".

MTEXTFIXED - Stop the Floating MTEXT!

If you don't like the way the MTEXT dialog moves around on you, use MTEXTFIXED. Autodesk touted the way the dialog places where you click as an improvement, but a lot of users prefer the old way.