When you pick a start point for text, the relationship between the start point and the actual letters is determined by the justification. The start point is also called the insertion point. When you want to refer to text by using object snaps, you use the Insertion object snap. If you select text without first choosing a command, grips appear at the insertion point as well as at the bottom-left corner.

By default, text is left-justified; therefore, there is no left justification option. To change the text's justification, right-click and choose Justify at the Specify start point of text or [Justify/Style]: prompt. The command responds with this bewildering prompt:

Enter an option [Align/Fit/Center/Middle/Right/TL/TC/TR/ML/MC/MR/BL/BC/BR]:

Align and Fit offer two ways to fit text into a specified space. Both respond with the same two prompts:

Specify first endpoint of text baseline:
Specify second endpoint of text baseline:

Specify the beginning and the end of the text line. Align then prompts you for the text and squeezes or stretches the text to fit within the text line. The height of the text changes accordingly, to maintain the proportions of the font.

Fit adds the Specify height <0.2000>: prompt. Type the height that you want and then type the text. Fit also squeezes or stretches the text to fit within the text line, but maintains the text height that you specified, distorting the font letters to fit the space. Figure 13.1 shows an example of normal, aligned, and fitted single-line text.

Figure 13.1. Normal (left-justified), aligned, and fitted text.

Here is an explanation of the other justification options:

Setting the height of text is fairly straightforward. The default is 0.2 units. The main point to consider is the scale factor. If you're drawing a house and plan to plot it at 1″ = 8′ (1 = 96), you need to figure out how big to make the text so that you can still read it when it is scaled down.

For example, if you want the text to be 0.2 units high and your scale factor is 96, your text needs to be 19.2 inches high (0.2 × 96). On the other hand, if you're drawing a very small object, such as a computer chip, and your scale is 0.10, then your text needs to be 0.02 inches high.

AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT calculate text height in units. Most word processors calculate text height in points. A point is

You can create annotative single-line text, using an annotative text style. This feature automatically scales text according to your scale. For more information, see the section see the section "Understanding Text Styles" later in this chapter. To make existing single-line text annotative, select the text and change the Annotative property in the Properties palette from No to Yes. For more information about changing the scale of text, see the section "Editing single-line text" later in this chapter.

The final prompt in DTEXT is the rotation angle. This angle applies to the entire line of text, not to individual characters. (You can specify slanted text, called obliqued text, using the STYLE command covered later in this chapter.) Figure 13.2 shows text rotated to 315 degrees.

Figure 13.2. Text rotated to 315 degrees.

To create special characters and formats, you have to use codes. These codes are shown in Table 13.1.

Figure 13.3 displays text using some of these codes, along with the entries that created them.

Figure 13.3. Using special characters and formatting with text fonts.

STEPS: Creating Text with DTEXT

Figure 13.5. The master-bathroom plan drawing with added single-line text.

As with any drawing object, the need often arises to edit your text. The most common way to edit single-line text is to use the DDEDIT command. Double-click the text to start the command. Remember that each line of text created with DTEXT or TEXT is a separate object.

The text appears in a border with your text highlighted in an edit box, as shown in Figure 13.6. You can start typing to completely replace the text or click where you want to change part of the text and use standard Windows techniques to edit the text. Press Enter or click anywhere outside the border. DDEDIT prompts you to select another annotation object. Press Enter to end the command.

Figure 13.6. Editing single-line text in the drawing.

Tip

If you find other nearby or overlapping objects to be distracting, right-click and choose Editor Settings

You can also change text by using the Quick Properties palette. Select any text and click in the Contents item of the Quick Properties palette to edit the text. To use the Properties palette, select any text object and open the Properties palette (Ctrl+1). Here you can edit the text content as well as every other conceivable property, including layer, linetype, lineweight, color, insertion point, justification, rotation angle, and others that I cover in the section on text styles.

Justifying text

Note

The drawing used in the following exercise on editing text, ab13-b.dwg, is in the Drawings folder on the DVD.

STEPS: Editing Text

1. Open ab13-b.dwg from your DVD.

2. Save the file as ab13-02.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder. This is an air and vacuum release valve, as shown in Figure 13.7.

3. Double-click the text 1/2″ piping. A highlighted border appears around the text. Select only the text 1/2 and type 3/8. Press Enter or click anywhere outside the text border. The DDEDIT prompt continues to prompt you to select another annotation object. Press Enter to end the command.

4. Display the Properties palette (Ctrl+1). Click Quick Select in the Properties palette. In the Quick Select dialog box, choose Text from the Object Type drop-down list. In the Operator drop-down list, choose Select All. Click OK to select all the text objects in the drawing.

5. In the Properties palette, choose Layer. From the Layer drop-down list, choose TEXT. Choose Color. From the Color drop-down list, choose ByLayer. All text is now on the TEXT layer using the ByLayer color. Press Esc to remove the grips and see the result.

6. Select the text at the bottom of the drawing that reads N.T.S. From the grips you can tell that it has a middle-left justification. Choose Annotate tab

   

   The command ends. You can select the text again to see that the insertion point grip is now at the bottom center of the text.

   

   Figure 13.7. An air and vacuum release valve.

7. Choose Annotate tab

   

   Select objects: Select the two lines of text at the bottom of the drawing.
   Select objects: 
   
   Enter a base point option for scaling
   [Existing/Left/Center/Middle/Right/TL/TC/TR/ML/MC/MR/BL/BC/BR] <BC>:
      Type e 
    to use the existing base point.
   Specify new model height or [Paper height/Match object/Scale factor]
      <1/8″>: Right-click and choose Scale factor.
   Specify scale factor or [Reference] <2″>: Type 1.5 
   

8. You can click the Properties palette's Close button to close it. Save your drawing.

Figure 13.8. The Text Style dialog box.

Choose New to open the New Text Style dialog box. Type the name of your new text style and click OK. Text style names can be up to 255 characters and can include spaces. You return to the Text Style dialog box where you can define the new text style.

At the top left of the Text Style dialog box is a list of currently defined styles in the drawing. At the lower-left corner is a preview of the style that is selected in the Styles list.

Size

The Size section of the dialog box lets you specify the height of the text. There are two types of height:

• Height in the drawing. If you are going to use the text style in the main drawing area (model space, where you draw and edit), use the Height text box to enter the height of the text. Remember to take into account the scale factor, if necessary.

• Height in a viewport. If you are going to use the text style for text that you will display in a scaled viewport on a layout, check the Annotative check box. Then use the Paper Text Height text box to enter the height of the text. You don't need to adjust for the scale factor when you enter a height, because annotative objects facilitate that process for you. I cover layouts and using annotative objects in Chapter 17.

Note

If you check the Annotative check box, you can also check the Match Text Orientation to Layout check box. If you rotate the viewport by using the MVSETUP command, with the Align

In both types of height, you can leave the height at zero if you want to be able to vary the text height within that one style. If the height is zero, the DTEXT and TEXT commands prompt you for a height when you use these commands to place text.

Warning

If you create a text style using a height other than zero and then use that text style when you define a dimension style, the text style height overrides the text height that you specify in the dimension style. See Chapter 15 for more information on dimension styles.

Effects

In the Effects section, you specify the orientation, width factor, and oblique angle of the text style. The default width factor of characters is set to 1. You can specify a smaller number to compress text and a larger number to expand it, as shown in Figure 13.9.

Figure 13.9. Text using different width factors.

The term oblique angle refers to the angle of the individual letters. It is generally used to create an effect, such as italic text. You don't need to use an oblique angle if you're using a TrueType font that supports italic text.

The angle definition used to define oblique text is different from the angle definition used for other objects. Up and down text, which is normal text, has a zero oblique angle. A positive angle slants the text to the right; this is typical for italic text. A negative angle slants the text to the left. Figure 13.10 shows text with a positive and negative oblique angle.

Figure 13.10. Text using different oblique angles.

You can create text that is backward (like a mirror image) or upside down. Some fonts also let you create vertical text. Figure 13.11 shows an example of each kind of text. Check the appropriate check box to create the effect that you want.

Figure 13.11. Upside-down, backward, and vertical text.

After you finish defining your text style, click Apply to make it current. Click Close to return to your drawing.

You can rename and delete text styles easily. To rename a text style, start the STYLE command to open the Text Style dialog box. Select the text style, click the text style's name again, enter a new name, and press Enter.

To delete a text style, choose it from the Styles box of the Text Style dialog box and click Delete. A message box asks you to confirm the deletion. Click OK to delete the text style. You cannot delete a text style that is being used.

STEPS: Creating Text Styles

Figure 13.12. The addition of text using a new text style.

To change a style, choose Home tab

You can choose the current style when you use one of the text commands. If you use DTEXT or TEXT, the command displays the Specify start point of text or [Justify/Style]: prompt. Right-click and choose Style. (The prompt also displays the current style, height, and annotative setting.) If you know the name of the style that you want to use, type it and press Enter. The Specify start point of text or [Justify/Style]: prompt repeats. You can choose the Justify option or pick a start point to continue the command.

If you use MTEXT, the In-Place Text Editor opens, as explained in the next section. Choose the text style that you want from the Style drop-down list.

An easy way to make a style current or to change the text style of existing text is to choose Home tab

As explained in Chapter 11, you can use the DesignCenter to import features from other drawings. To import a text style, follow these steps:

STEPS: Modifying Text Styles

Current text style: ″ROMANS″ Text height: 4 1/2″ Annotative: No

The command continues with the Specify first corner: prompt. Specify one corner of a bounding box to indicate where to place the text. At the Specify opposite corner or [Height/Justify/Line spacing/Rotation/Style/Width/Columns]: prompt, specify the diagonally opposite corner of the bounding box. The Text Editor tab appears on the ribbon. You can choose one of the other prompt options to specify the text properties before you type the text. Some of these options are also available in the In-Place Text Editor, which opens after you specify the bounding box. Figure 13.13 shows the In-Place Text Editor.

Figure 13.13. The In-Place Text Editor.

Type your text in the bounding box. The In-Place Text Editor wraps the text to the next line when the text meets the right side of the bounding box that you specified. Although you've created a bounding box with four sides, only the paragraph width (that is, the left and right margins) limits the text. If you type too much text for the bounding box, the bounding box expands vertically. To format selected or new text, use the buttons on the panels of the Text Editor tab of the ribbon. In the Style panel, you can do the following:

In the Formatting panel, you can do the following:

In the Paragraph panel, you can control formatting that applies to an entire paragraph, as follows:

Figure 13.14. The Paragraph dialog box offers one place where you can specify many settings relating to paragraphs.

The Insert panel enables you to do the following:

In the Spell Check panel, you can do the following:

In the Tools panel, you have the option to do the following:

On the Options panel, you can find the following:

In the Close panel, click Close Text Editor to close the editor. You can also close the editor by clicking anywhere outside the editor or by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

Right-click in the editor to display the shortcut menu. The shortcut menu contains many of the options that are on the ribbon. Here I discuss the options that are not available on the ribbon.

You may plan to display certain sections of your drawing at more than one scale. For example, you may want to show the entire model at a 1:4 scale, but a detail of the model at a 1:1 scale. If you have some text next to the model and want that text to appear at both scales, you have a problem — (how do you get the text to appear the same size in both places? Without addressing this problem, your text will be either too big or too small at one of the scales. Another situation may be that you want one text object to appear at one scale, but another to appear at a different scale.

You create displays of various scales by using floating viewports on a layout. I cover viewports and layouts in Chapter 17, and you'll find further coverage of this topic there. However, if you know the scales you want to use, you can plan for this situation while you're in the drawing and editing stage by using annotative text.

Annotative objects create representations at various scales that you can automatically display at those scales when you lay out your drawing for plotting. The following objects can be annotative: text, tables, dimensions, tolerances, multileaders, blocks, and attributes. Text styles, dimension styles, and table styles can also be annotative; if you create an object using an annotative style, then the object is annotative. See the chapters that cover each of these objects for more information on their annotative property.

Previously, to create text that appeared in viewports of different scales, you needed to create a separate layer for each scale. You could then put the text on different layers and turn off the layers that you didn't want in each viewport. You might also have created separate text styles for each text object. This was a complicated and time-demanding task. Annotative text can eliminate the need for separate layers and text styles when you need to display text at more than one scale.

To create annotative text, follow these steps:

If you want one text object to have more than one scale, you can add an annotative scale to it. Follow these steps:

Figure 13.15. You can add or delete scales for annotative objects in the Annotation Object Scale dialog box.

If you want to change a text object that is not annotative to one that is annotative, you can use the Properties palette. Follow these steps:

To edit paragraph text, double-click the text to start the In-Place Text Editor.

Make your changes in the editor. The techniques are similar to those in any word processor. You can:

To change characters, you must first highlight the characters. This lets you make height or font changes to individual words or even letters. When changing properties that affect the entire paragraph, such as justification, you do not first highlight the characters.

If you right-click in the In-Place Text Editor with the cursor on a field, you have options to edit the field, update it, or convert it to regular text. For more information about fields, see the section "Inserting Fields" later in this chapter.

As mentioned earlier, you can import text by using the In-Place Text Editor. You can also import text in three other ways:

STEPS: Creating Multiline Text

Figure 13.17. Use the Insert Table dialog box to create a table in your drawing.

On the left side of the Insert Table dialog box, you see a preview of how the table will look. By default, you see either the Standard table style or the last table style that you used. Choose the table style that you want from the Table Style name drop-down list. In the next section, I explain how to define a table style.

In the Insert Options section, you can choose from three options for getting data into the table:

If you choose to start from an empty table, you can choose from one of the following options in the Insertion Behavior section of the dialog box:

In the Set Cell Styles section, you specify which cell styles go where. See the next section for an explanation of cell styles. By default, the First Row Cell Style uses the Title cell style, the Second Row Cell Style uses the Header cell style, and All Other Row Cell Styles use the Data cell style. If you create your own cell styles, you can choose them from the drop-down lists here.

If the table style shown is what you want, click OK. Then specify an insertion point or window to place the table.

Figure 13.18. The Table Style dialog box gives you the tools to create tables with style.

On the left side of the Table Style dialog box is a list of styles. From the List drop-down menu at the bottom, you can choose to display all styles or only styles that are in use in your drawing. To make a table style current, choose the style that you want and click Set Current.

To create a new style, click the New button. In the Create New Table Style dialog box, enter a Name in the New Style Name text box. From the Start With drop-down list, choose an existing table style as a basis for your new style. The new table style inherits the properties of this existing style so that you have to specify only the differences that you want. Then click Continue to open the New Table Style dialog box, as shown in Figure 13.19.

Figure 13.19. The New Table Style dialog box is the place to define a new table style.

As you define your new table style, the preview panel shows you the results. You use the Cell Styles drop-down list to format data in the cells of the table, column headers, and the table's main title. Each category is one of the preexisting cell styles — data, header, and title — but you can create your own.

You use the three tabs to define general, text, and border formatting for each cell style. In this way, you format the entire table. The three cell styles are very similar, but have slightly different defaults. For example, the Title cell style has centered text and a larger height than the headers and data cells.

You can add data to a table from three sources:

You choose which method you want to use in the Insert Options section of the Insert Table dialog box. I discuss the first two methods in the next two sections.

Entering data into a table

After you've placed a table, you can then enter data into the table. The cursor is automatically placed in the first cell, and you can just start typing. Press Tab to move to the next cell. Continue in this way until you have completed the table. Figure 13.20 shows an example of a table.

Figure 13.20. A nicely styled schedule of parts.

Tip

You can create a complete table on the fly by importing data from Microsoft Excel. Select the data in Excel and copy it to the Windows Clipboard. In AutoCAD, choose Home tab

You can insert a field into any cell in a table. Click a blank cell, right-click, and choose Insert

You can create tables that function like a spreadsheet. To enter a formula into a cell, follow these steps:

1. Select the cell.

2. Right-click and choose Insert

   

3. Choose one of the suboptions.

   • Sum. Adds rows or columns. At the Select first corner of table cell range: prompt, pick inside the first cell. At the Select second corner of table cell range: prompt, pick inside the last cell. You see the formula listed in the cell, for example, =Sum(C3:C5).

   • Average. Averages rows or columns. At the Select first corner of table cell range: prompt, pick inside the first cell. At the Select second corner of table cell range: prompt, pick inside the last cell. You see the formula listed in the cell, for example, =Average(C3:C5).

   • Count. Counts the number of cells in a row or column. At the Select first corner of table cell range: prompt, pick inside the first cell. At the Select second corner of table cell range: prompt, pick inside the last cell. You see the formula listed in the cell, for example, =Count(C3:C5).

   • Cell. Displays the value of another cell. At the Select table cell: prompt, select the cell that you want to display. You see the formula listed in the cell, for example, =C3.

   • Equation. Lets you write your own equation. You just see an equal sign (=) in the cell. Enter the equation, for example =a3+b4.

   Note

   To create equations, you use the same conventions as for spreadsheets. For example, you use an asterisk (*) for multiplication, a slash (/) for division, a caret (^) for powers, and sqrt for a square root.

   You also see row headings (1, 2, 3, and so on) and column headings (A, B, C, and so on), so that you can easily determine any cell's address.

4. Press Enter to place the value of the formula.

Tip

You can auto-fill data like you can in Excel. This makes it easy to copy data along a row or column and to automatically create incremental data, such as consecutive numbers. To auto-fill cell data, click in a cell that you've already filled with a value. Click and drag the cyan (turquoise) diamond to the desired cell and click. To auto-fill incremental data, such as consecutive numbers, drag across two cells that already have incremental data. For example, if you typed 1 and 2, drag across those cells. Then click and drag the cyan diamond to the desired cell and click. Before the final click, a tooltip shows you what results to expect.

Linking to external data

You can create a table that links to external data that was created in Microsoft Excel or that is in comma-delimited (CSV) format. The link maintains its connection, so that if you change the spreadsheet, the table in your drawing also changes. You also have the option to change the external data from within AutoCAD.

Note

In Chapter 20, I cover the external database connectivity feature. While this feature also allows you to connect to Microsoft Access databases and other types of databases, it's more complicated to use.

To create a linked table, you first need an Excel or CSV file. Make sure that you know the file's name and location. Then choose Home tab

The New Excel Data Link dialog box opens. Click the Ellipsis button at the right to choose an Excel file. When you click Open, you return to the New Excel Data Link dialog box, with your data link listed, as shown on the left in Figure 13.21.

In the Link Options section, you can choose which sheet you want to use, and you can link to a named range (you can name ranges of cells in Excel) or you can specify a range, such as A1:H20. Click OK to return to the Select a Data Link dialog box, where your data link is now listed and highlighted. Click OK to return to the Insert Table dialog box. You should see your table in the Preview box.

Figure 13.21. You can create a table that links to Excel data.

Note

You can click the More Options arrow at the lower-right corner of the New/Modify Excel Data Link dialog box to convert cell data to text, to turn off the ability to save changes that you make in AutoCAD back to the source spreadsheet, and to control cell formatting. You can choose whether or not to use Excel formatting and keep the table updated to the formatting in the Excel file.

Click OK one more time and specify an insertion point to insert the table into your drawing. You may have to resize the table to avoid unwanted word wrapping in the cells. (See the upcoming section, "Modifying a table," for instructions.) Figure 13.21 shows the result on the right.

When you create a linked table, it's locked to prevent changes; this makes sense, because the content should come from the Excel spreadsheet. However, you can unlock it and make changes; you can save these changes back to the spreadsheet to keep the two data sources the same. To unlock data (both content and formatting), select one or more cells, right-click, and choose Locking

After changing the data, right-click and then choose Data Links

Extracting data from drawing objects

You can create a table that contains information about the objects in your drawing. For example, you might want to display the number of window blocks and their location. If a circle represents trees and bushes in a landscaping plan, you could list the number of circles and their layer; perhaps you have a tree and a bush layer. You can extract data from all objects, not just blocks. For information about extracting data from blocks using attributes, see Chapter 18.

Note

You cannot extract data from drawing objects in AutoCAD LT.

To create a table from object data, choose Home tab

Figure 13.22. The Data Extraction Wizard guides you through the process of creating a table from object data.

Choose to create a new extraction or edit an existing one. If you want to create a new extraction, you can use one of two types of files as a template to use settings you've specified previously:

• DXE. When you create a data extraction table, AutoCAD creates a DXE file that contains settings for the extraction.

• BLK. When you extract attribute information from blocks, you can save a BLK file, which is a template that defines the settings for the extraction.

The following explains how to create a new data extraction without a template. Choose Create a New Data Extraction and click Next. The Save Data Extraction As dialog box opens, so you can save a DXE file; this is the file that you can use in the future as a template. Choose a name and location and click Save.

On the Define Data Source (Page 2 of 8) page of the wizard, you define which objects you want to include and where they come from. You can use a Sheet Set, which is a collection of drawings (covered in Chapter 26) or choose any drawings that you want. The Drawing Files and Folders box lists the drawings and their locations. If you want to use objects from other drawings, click Add Drawings. To add all the drawings in a folder, click Add Folder.

If you choose multiple drawings, you create a table from all the objects in those drawings. If you want to select specific objects, you can do so only in the current drawing. In that case, choose the Select Objects in the Current Drawing option. The following assumes that you are selecting objects in the current drawing.

Click the Settings button to open the Data Extraction - Additional Settings dialog box, shown in Figure 13.23, where you define which types of objects you want to include. These settings are particularly important if you are extracting data from entire drawings (rather than selecting objects) and you have blocks or xrefs in those drawings. (I cover blocks in Chapter 18 and xrefs in Chapter 19.) Choose whether you want to extract data from blocks and xrefs and whether to include xrefs in the block count. You can also choose whether to include objects only in model space or all objects in the drawing, meaning also objects in layouts. (See Chapter 17 for coverage of layouts.)

Figure 13.23. You can specify what kinds of objects you want to include in your data extraction.

The Select Objects page shows the objects you've selected. You can choose to display only blocks or only non-blocks, instead of the default, which is to display all object types. If you're interested in blocks, you can choose to include only blocks with attributes. Finally, you can choose to display objects that are currently in use because some blocks may be defined but not inserted into the drawing. (See Chapter 18 for information about attributes.) Then click Next.

On the Select Properties page, you specify which properties of the objects you want to include. The properties come in 10 categories:

• 3D Visualization. Includes materials assigned to objects. (See Chapter 22.)

• Attribute. Includes blocks and dynamic blocks with attributes. (See Chapter 18.)

• Drawing. File-related information including the author, date created, dated accessed, location, name, size, total editing time, and so on.

• Dynamic blocks. Properties of dynamic blocks. (See Chapter 18.)

• General. Includes color, layer, linetype, linetype scale, plot style, thickness, and hyperlink.

• Geometry. Depending on the type of object, can include area; center; circumference; diameter; length; radius; start angle; total angle; delta (change) in X, Y, and Z; start of X, Y, and Z coordinates; and so on.

• Misc. Includes closed (or open).

• Pattern. Includes hatch pattern properties, which I cover in Chapter 16.

• Table. Includes table properties.

• Text. Includes single or multiline text properties.

For each category, you can choose which property you want to include by checking the check boxes. As you can see, your choices depend on why you're extracting the data. In some cases, you may want drawing information for archiving purposes; in other cases, you may be interested only in geometry data. When you're done, click Next.

On the Refine Data page, you can reorder and sort columns, filter the results, combine identical rows, specify if you want a count or a name column, add formulas, and include external data. Click on a column and right-click for numerous options, including the ability to rename and hide columns. Click on any column to sort by that column, and click again to reverse the sorting order. Right-click and choose Filter Options to open the Filter dialog box, which is similar to the Quick Select feature (described in Chapter 10), but has fewer options.

Tip

When extracting data, you can add formulas such as totals to a column. Right-click the column and choose Insert Totals Footer. You can choose Sum, Max, Min, or Average. You can also create a new column from data in other columns. Right-click any column and choose Insert Formula Column. Use the Insert Formula Column dialog box to specify the formula. Click OK.

Click the Full Preview button to see what the table will look like in a new window; then click the window's Close button to return to the wizard and click Next.

On the Choose Output page, you can choose to create a table and insert it into a drawing, output the data to an external file (XLS, CSV, MDB, or TXT), or both. If you choose to create an external file, click the Ellipsis button to browse to a location and give the file a name. Then click Next.

If you chose to create a table, you now choose a table style or manually set up the table. Then click Next. The Finish page explains that you need to specify an insertion point for the table and that the external file you requested (if any) will be created when you click the Finish button. Click the Finish button and you're done.

You may need to change the data in a table, or you may want to change the way the table looks. Either way, you can modify a table easily. However, you need to know some of the techniques involved, because tables in AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT are a little different from tables in your word processor.

Breaking a table into sections

Sometimes you need to fit a table into a tight space; to do so, you might want to break up the table into two or more sections.

Breaking a table is easy, but you can also access a number of settings to fine-tune how it works. To break a table, click it once to select it. Then drag the cyan down arrow, located at the bottom of the table, upward to the point where you want the table to break (see Figure 13.24), and click.

To adjust breaking settings, open the Properties palette. In the Table Breaks section, you can set the direction of subsequent sections, repeat top labels, and repeat bottom labels. You can also manually set the position of sections, individually set the height of subsequent sections (otherwise, they're the same size as the first section), and set the spacing between the sections. In this example, I chose to repeat top labels; you can see the result in Figure 13.25.

Figure 13.24. You can break a table by dragging upward on the Table Breaking arrow.

Figure 13.25. After breaking, the table appears in two sections with top labels on each section.

Note

The drawing used in the following exercise on creating tables, ab13-c.dwg, is in the Drawing folder on the DVD.

STEPS: Creating Tables

1. Open ab13-c.dwg from the DVD. This is the same drawing used in the previous exercise.

2. Save the file as ab13-06.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder.

3. 
4. 

5. In the Table Style dialog box, click New. In the Create New Table Style dialog box, enter Acreage Schedule in the New Style Name text box. The Start With text box should read Standard. Click Continue. The New Table Style dialog box opens.

6. 

7. On the General tab, you want to set the numbers in the table to be right-aligned, so choose Middle Right from the Alignment drop-down list. In the Cell Margins section, change both the Horizontal and Vertical text box values to 5.

8. Click the Text tab. From the Text Style drop-down list, choose ROMANS. In the Text Height text box, enter 12.5.

9. To format the column headers, choose Header from the Cell Style drop-down list. Again, click the Create a New Cell Style button, name the cell style Plat Header, and click Continue. On the General tab, leave the alignment as Middle Center, but change the cell margins to 5. On the Text tab, again set the Text Style to ROMANS and the Text Height to 12.5.

10. Choose Title from the Cell Style drop-down list. Create a new cell style named Plat Title. Make the following changes:

    • General tab. Change the cell margins to 5. From the Fill Color drop-down list, choose Blue.

    • Text tab. Choose ROMANT (for a different look). Change the Text Height to 13.5 to make the title text bigger than the rest of the table text. Click the Text Color drop-down list and choose Select Color. From the Select Color dialog box, choose the light gray color (254) on the Index Color tab. Click OK to return to the New Table Style dialog box.

    • Borders tab. From the Color drop-down list, choose Blue to match the fill. Click the All Borders button.

11. Click OK to return to the Table Style dialog box. Then click Close to return to the Insert Table dialog box.

12. In the Insertion Behavior section of the dialog box, make sure that the insertion behavior is set to Specify insertion point. In the Columns & Row Settings section, set the number of columns to 2 and the column width to 100. Set the number of data rows to 5. The row height should be 1 (which means one row high).

13. In the Set Cell Styles section, set the First Row Cell Style to Plat Titles, set Second Row Cell Style to Plat Header, and set All Other Row Cell Styles to Plat Data. Then click OK.

14. In your drawing, pick an insertion point anywhere in the lower-right area of the drawing. The In-Place Text Editor opens. Because you need to zoom in first, click anywhere outside the editor and do a ZOOM Window around the table. Then double-click the table to open the In-Place Text Editor again, with the cursor in the title cell.

    Tip

    To zoom in without exiting the In-Place Text Editor, you can use the wheel of your mouse (if you have one). I explain how to zoom with the mouse wheel in Chapter 8.

15. Complete the data for the four plats, shown in Figure 13.26, pressing Tab to go from cell to cell.

16. Type Total in the last row. Right-click the cell and choose Alignment

    

17. Click anywhere outside the In-Place Text Editor and then click the lower-right cell to select it. Right-click the cell and choose Insert

    

18. At the Select first corner of table cell range: prompt, click anywhere inside cell B3. At the Select second corner of table cell range: prompt, click anywhere inside cell B6. Press Enter. Your table should look like Figure 13.26.

19. Save your drawing.

Figure 13.26. The plat acreage table.

To create a new field as a multiline text object, you can use two methods:

Whichever method you use, the Field dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 13.27.

Figure 13.27. Use the Field dialog box to choose, format, and insert a field into your drawing.

The Field dialog box offers a huge variety of fields. To give you an idea of the possibilities, here are the available categories of fields:

Note that there are two date-related fields. The CreateDate field creates a date based on the current date. This field does not change if you open the drawing on a future date. For example, you can use this field to show the last time a drawing was updated. The Date field always shows the current date.

To insert a field, follow these steps:

By default, fields appear in your drawing with a gray background. This background doesn't plot. If you want, you can remove the background by choosing Application Button

Figure 13.28 shows an example of a titleblock that uses fields.

Figure 13.28. Filling in a titleblock is easier when you use fields.

To edit a field, double-click the field's text to open the In-Place Text Editor. Select the text, right-click, and choose Edit field. The Field dialog box opens. You edit a field in the same way that you define the field originally. When you're done, click OK. The field is reevaluated immediately. Close the In-Place Text Editor to place the edited field.

By default, a field is evaluated and updated, if necessary, whenever you open, save, plot, eTransmit, or regenerate a drawing. (See Chapter 28 for information on eTransmitting a drawing.) You can change when AutoCAD updates a field by choosing Application Button

You can manually update a field if you want. For example, you may have an object field that displays the radius of a circle. If you resize the circle, you probably want to update the field.

To update a field, double-click the field to open the In-Place Text Editor. Select the text, right-click, and choose Update Field. Close the In-Place Text Editor to return to your drawing. Another method is to select the field and choose Insert tab

You can convert a field to text. Open the In-Place Text Editor. Select the text in the field, right-click, and choose Convert Field to Text.

What happens to fields when you save a 2005 or later drawing to an earlier release of AutoCAD? The fields display as their last value in the newer drawing but are not updated.

STEPS: Using Fields

Figure 13.29. The titleblock after adding some fields.

The QTEXT command replaces all text with rectangles that approximate the placement of the original text. All text objects, including dimensions, attributes, and tolerances, are affected. To use QTEXT, type qtext

AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT fonts are simpler than TrueType fonts, and offer a range of complexity. The simplest font is txt.shx. You can easily define a text style by using an AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT font and then change the font to something nicer just before plotting. Be aware that the text may take up more or less space than before.

When your drawing cannot find the specified font, it uses an alternate font. This may happen if you receive a drawing from someone else that uses a custom or third-party font that you don't have. You can specify the alternate font by choosing Application Menu

You can further control the fonts used in your drawing by customizing the Font Mapping File, acad.fmp (or acadlt.fmp). The format is current_font; font_to_substitute. (You need to use the actual filenames of the fonts.) To substitute a simpler font for the Arial Black font, you can add the following line:

Ariblk.ttf;simplex.shx

To find the Windows TrueType fonts, look in the Fonts subfolder of your Windows folder.

Note

To find acad.fmp (or acadlt.fmp), choose Application Button

Freezing text layers can reduce regeneration time dramatically; this is a good reason to give text its own layer. Don't forget to freeze dimension text, as well. Dimensions (see Chapter 14) are usually placed on a separate layer.

When you mirror sections of your drawing that include text, you usually don't want any backward text (unless you're Alice going through the looking glass). The MIRRTEXT system variable controls whether text is mirrored or retains its normal orientation. The default value for MIRRTEXT is off, so mirrored text is not backward. The text is copied to the mirrored location, but reads from left to right (if that's the direction of the language that you're using).

If you do want to mirror the text, type mirrtext

Table 13.2. Express Tools for Text

Command	Ribbon Location	Description
RTEXT	Express Tools tab	Displays text from an outside file. You can specify the text style, height, and rotation. Use RTEDIT on the command line to edit remote text.
TEXTFIT	Express Tools tab	Stretches or shrinks Text objects (but not MText) to fit between two points.
TEXTMASK	Express Tools tab	Creates a wipeout, 3D face, or 2D solid object behind the text, with a little extra space around the text. You can use this to make text on top of a hatch more legible.
TEXTUNMASK	Express Tools tab	Removes a text mask.
TXTEXP	Express Tools tab	Transforms Text or Mtext into geometrical shapes.
TXT2MTXT	Express Tools tab	Converts Text objects to Mtext objects.
ARCTEXT	Express Tools tab	Aligns text along an arc.
TORIENT	Express Tools tab	Rotates multiple text, Mtext, and attribute definitions to a specified angle without moving them, or aligns them so that they're horizontal or right-side up for easy reading.
TCIRCLE	Express Tools tab	Encloses selected Text or Mtext inside a circle, a slot (a rectangle, but with arcs at each end), or a rectangle.
TCOUNT	Express Tools tab	Numbers lines of text by adding a prefix or suffix, or by overwriting the text.
TCASE	Express Tools tab	Offers the following ways to change the case of text: uppercase, lowercase, sentence case, title case, and toggle case.