Drawing Single-Line Text
A single line of text can consist of a single character, a word, or a complete sentence. The easiest way to draw such text is to use the DTEXT command. To insert a single line of text, open the Draw menu and choose Text, Single Line Text. The initial prompt displayed in the command window presents several options:
Specify start point of text or [Justify/Style]:
The default option is to specify the lower-left corner, otherwise known as the start point, of the new line of text. After picking the start point, you are prompted to supply the height (unless the height is set in the style being used), the rotation angle of the text, and the new text to be drawn. As you type the text, it is displayed on your drawing. If you make a typographical error, you can use the Backspace key to delete the error and retype the text. You signify the end of the line of text by pressing the Enter key, at which point you can begin a new line of text immediately below the line of text just created. To stop adding lines of text, press the Enter key without typing any new text. You can also relocate the next line of text by picking a point with the cursor.
Note
AutoCAD 2002 replaces the TEXT command with the DTEXT command. Therefore, when you type TEXT at the Command: prompt, you are actually starting the DTEXT command. The original version of the command can be accessed by -TEXT.
When you enter text, you can take advantage of the command-line buffer to repeat previously entered text. You use the up- and down-arrow keys to scroll through the buffer.
Tip
The spacing between successive lines of text is fixed at a factor of approximately 1.667 of the text height. This spacing is normally fixed; however, each line of text created with the DTEXT command is a separate object. As such, you can use the MOVE command to rearrange the lines. You also can pick a new justification point at the Text: prompt before typing the new line of text; this overrides the default line spacing.
Typing the text you want to create is the easy part. It is also important to know how to format the text according to your needs. The following sections discuss how to choose the correct text height, justification, and text style. You also learn how to continue text below the previous line, use special formatting codes and symbols, and edit text.
In the following exercise, you use DTEXT to add several lines of text to a site drawing.
Exercise 15.1 Drawing Single-Line Text Using DTEXT
1. |
Open the drawing 15dwg01.dwg from the accompanying CD. This is a site drawing set up in paper space with a model space scale in which 1 drawing unit is equal to 100 feet (1:100 scale). |
2. |
Be sure you are in paper space. Choose Named Views from the View menu to restore the view TITLE_BLOCK. Be sure the layer named TEXT is current. |
3. |
From the Draw menu, choose Text, Single Line Text. Using the Style option, set the current style to STANDARD. Using the Justify option, set the justification option to Center and pick the point 29,2.5 as the center point. Specify a height of 0.3 and a rotation angle of 0. Type ACME Engineering and press the Enter key twice. |
4. |
Repeat the DTEXT command. Pick the point 26.75,2 as the start point. Remember that the default justification is left-justified text, but that is what we want now. Use a height of 0.2 and a rotation angle of 0. Type Bakersville Project and press the Enter key once. Type Legend & General Notes and press the Enter key twice. |
5. |
Repeat the DTEXT command. Type M
at the start point prompt to specify Middle as the justification setting. You can bypass the Justify option and set the justification directly at the initial prompt. Pick the point 29.5,1 as the middle point. Use a height of 0.2 and a rotation angle of 0. Type L100 and press the Enter key twice. |
6. |
Repeat the DTEXT command. Type R
at the start point prompt to specify Right justification. Pick the point 27.8,0.6 as the right point. Use a height of 0.1 and a rotation angle of 0. Type 1"=100' and press the Enter key twice. |
7. |
Restore the view ALL. Make the model space viewport active (choose the Model tab). |
8. |
Issue the DTEXT command. Pick the point 855,1290 as the start point. Use a text height of 50, which at a 1:100 plot scale will produce 1/2" text. Use a rotation angle of 10 degrees. Type Route 101 and press the Enter key twice. |
9. |
Choose the Layout 1 tab. You can close the drawing without saving your changes. Figure 15.1 shows the outcome. |
Now you know how to create new text in your drawing. The following section provides details on how to change text styles in accordance with your needs.
Choosing the Correct Text Height
The hardest part of drawing text is deciding on the correct text height for the scale for which the drawing is set up. Unfortunately, because AutoCAD does not have a built-in mechanism for storing and using the drawing scale to set the correct text height for full-size drawings, it is necessary to take into account the drawing scale when specifying the text height. Use Tables 15.1 and 15.2 to help you determine the correct text height. To use these tables, go to the row associated with your drawing scale, and then move along the row to the column associated with the height you want your text to have on your plot.
| Plotted Text Heights | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drawing Scale | 3/32" | 1/8" | 3/16" | 1/4" | 3/8" |
| 1/16"=1' | 18" | 24" | 36" | 48" | 72" |
| 3/32"=1' | 12" | 16" | 24" | 32" | 48” |
| 1/8"=1' | 9" | 12" | 18" | 24" | 36" |
| 3/16"=1' | 6" | 8" | 12" | 16" | 24" |
| 1/4"=1' | 4.5" | 6" | 9" | 12" | 18" |
| 1/2"=1' | 2.25" | 3" | 4.5" | 6" | 9" |
| Plotted Text Heights* | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drawing Scale | 3/32" | 1/8" | 3/16" | 1/4" | 3/8" |
| 1:10 | 0.9375 | 1.25 | 1.875 | 2.5 | 3.75 |
| 1:20 | 1.8750 | 2.50 | 3.750 | 5.0 | 7.5 |
| 1:50 | 4.6875 | 6.25 | 9.375 | 12.5 | 18.75 |
| 1:100 | 9.3750 | 12.50 | 18.750 | 25.0 | 37.5 |
| *All values in basic drafting units | |||||
Choosing a Justification
The default option of DTEXT is to specify the left endpoint, or the start point, of the line of text. Specifying the Justify option at the initial DTEXT prompt displays the following prompt:
Enter an option [Align/Fit/Center/Middle/Right/TL/TC/TR/ML/MC/MR/BL/BC/BR]:
Figure 15.2 shows the various justification options and their corresponding locations.
Figure 15.2. The possible justification points for a standard piece of text.
Unlike the justification options illustrated in Figure 15.2, the Align and Fit options require you to define two points.
Use the Align option when you want to specify the left and right endpoints of the text and do not care about the resulting height. The text height is automatically set to make the text fit between the specified points. Also, the angle from the first point to the second point is used as the rotation angle of the text.
Use the Fit option when you want to specify the left and right endpoints and the height of the text. To make the text fit between the specified points, AutoCAD varies the height-to-width ratio of the text characters. Therefore, you may end up with skinny-looking characters on one line and very fat-looking characters on the next.
Tip
You can enter the desired text justification option when the DTEXT command prompts for the Start point, which eliminates the need for first selecting the Justify option.
When the text is initially drawn with one of the alternate justification options specified, it is drawn left justified, as if the default justification were being used. When the DTEXT command ends, however, the text is redrawn with the correct justification.
Note
You can snap to the justification point of an existing line of text using the INSERT object snap mode.
This concludes the discussion of text justification options. The next section deals with the topic of text styles.
Choosing a Text Style
The appearance of the text drawn by DTEXT is controlled via a named group of settings referred to as a Text Style. The default text style supplied in the template drawings ACAD.DWT and ACADISO.DWT is STANDARD. In other template drawings, several text styles are predefined for you. Use the Style option to set the style you want to use to display text with the new style. The process of actually defining new styles and modifying existing ones is discussed in the section “Defining Text Styles,” later in this chapter.
Continuing Below the Previous Line
If, after you end the DTEXT command, you want to draw an additional line of text below the last line drawn, you can easily do so by issuing the DTEXT command and pressing the Enter key instead of picking a new start point. DTEXT will then draw the new line of text right below the last one, using the style, height, and rotation angle of the previous line.
Tip
To help you spot the last line of text drawn, that line is highlighted when you begin DTEXT. The highlighting, however, may not be apparent if the text is too small on the screen.
Using Special Formatting Codes and Symbols
You can do a limited amount of formatting with the DTEXT command. For instance, you can add a line under or above the text simply by adding the codes %%u (for underlining) and %%o (for overlining) to the text as you enter it. The codes act as toggle switches; the first time you include the code in a line of text, it turns that effect on and is applied to the successive text characters. The second time you enter the code in the same line of text, the effect is turned off. If you do not enter the code a second time in the line of text, the effect is continued to the end of the text line but is not continued to the next line. For example, to draw the text shown in Figure 15.3, you would type this line of text: %%uUnderlining%%u and %%oOverlining%%o can be used separately or %%o%%utogether .
Figure 15.3. Using underline and overline formatting codes.
In addition to underlining and overlining, you also can draw symbols that are in the font file but are not on the keyboard. Table 15.3 shows several formatting codes and the resulting symbols.
| Formatting Code | Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| %%c | Ø | Diameter |
| %%d | ° | Degree |
| %%p | ± | Plus/Minus |
The codes are not case-sensitive. In addition to the codes in Table 15.3, you can enter the code %%nnn , where nnn is a three-digit integer, to draw any character in a font file.
A much easier way of drawing a symbol is to use the Windows Character Map program. To use the Character Map program in place of the %%nnn code, simply start the Character Map program (usually found in the Accessories group of programs) and select the font file you have specified in the current text style. Then select the character you want to draw and copy it to the Clipboard. You can then paste the character into the text you are typing.
Caution
Not all font files contain the same characters, which is why it is important that the font file you choose to copy from in the Character Map program is the same font file specified in the text style you are drawing with in AutoCAD. What the Character Map program actually copies when you copy a character to the Clipboard is the character’s position number in the font chart. When you paste that character into AutoCAD, the character corresponding to the position number recorded in the Clipboard is drawn. Therefore, if you are using a different font file in AutoCAD, you may end up with a different character look altogether.
After drawing and formatting the initial text, you may want to change the wording or appearance of the text. The following section covers the commands you will need to do this.