Engg Drawing and CAD

Text Commands

Text

Creates a single-line text object

1. Type TEXT at the command prompt

Command: TEXT

or

2. Pick the Single Line Text icon from the Text Toolbar.

3. Pick A start point

Justify/Style/<Start Point>: (point)

or

4. Type J to change the justification or S to change the text

style.

5. Type A text height

Height <default>: (type value or pick two points)

6. Type A rotation angle

Rotation angle <default>: (angle or point)

7. Type A text string

Text: (type text string)

1.      Press enter to exit the Text: prompt.

DTEXT (Dynamic Text)

Creates a single-line text object, showing the text dynamically on the

screen as it is entered.

1. Choose Draw, Text, Single Line Text.

or

2.      Type DTEXT at the command prompt

Command : DTEXT

3. Follow the steps 3-8 from above.

Formatting Text Styles

Most template drawings will have your text styles defined. Generally you won't change these. Occasionally you may need to create a new text style (definition of the way the text will look). For example, the font that is used is defined by the Text Style.

To format text in AutoCAD, you have to create a new text style for each different font and style of text.

By default in the acad.dwt file, AutoCAD loads the txt.shx font because it is simple to display on the screen. Unfortunately, it is a very basic and 'ugly' font. Here is an example of the default TXT font compared to the 'standard' ROMANS font. Look at the O's in particular. The TXT font has no curves.

Text Justifications

A Aligns text between two designated endpoints (height and angle are not

requested in this case).

C Centers the text around a specified point.

F Aligns the text between two designated endpoints with a specified height

that varies only in its X scale factor.

M Centers the text both horizontally and vertically around a specified point.

R Right justifies the text at a designated endpoint.

S Selects a different text style.

TL Starts the top left portion of text at a given point.

TC Centers the top center of the text at a given point.

TR Ends the top of text at a given point.

ML Starts the middle left portion of the text at a given point.

MC Centers the middle of text at a given point.

MR Ends the text at the middle right portion at a given point.

BL Starts the bottom left portion of the text at a given point.

BC Centers the bottom center portion of the text at a given point.

BR Ends the bottom of text at a given point.

TIP:

To replace the font globally in a drawing, type style at the command

prompt and keep the same style name but replace the font file with the

new font. When AutoCAD regenerates, it will replace all text drawn with

that style with the new font.

MTEXT options:

Rotation Controls the rotation angle of the text boundary.

Style Specifies the text style to use in paragraph text.

Height Specifies the height of uppercase text

Direction Specifies whether text is vertical or horizontal.

Width Specifies the width of the text boundary.

MTEXT Editor

Editing text

The easiest way to edit the contents of your text (what you wrote) is to double click on it. Depending up your method of entering the text, a different editor will appear (MTEXT or single line text).

If you want to change the shape of your MTEXT box, just pick on the text, and use grips to drag the frame to the right or to the bottom.

Arc-Aligned Text

Recently AutoCAD added a selection of commands called "Express Tools". These are regular AutoCAD commands, but they aren't fully supported (meaning don't cry to Autodesk if they don't work). They are also sometimes installed separately from the regular AutoCAD installation, so you may not have them on your screen. But they do offer a nice option to some drawing problems. One of these Express Tools is Arc-Aligned Text. Just like the name suggests, you can place text along an arc.

Draw an arc and start the command as shown above (ARCTEXT). As prompted, select the arc, and this dialog box will appear:

As you can see, there are quite a few options. Use the default settings and you should have text that looks something like this:

Review:

Text in a drawing should be clear, concise and uncluttered. Always use CAPS unless you're told otherwise. Use different styles for different situations. Use Multiline text when creating more than one line of text. Check you spelling. Reread what you just wrote and ensure that it will make sense to someone else reading it that is not familiar with the drawing.

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