Linetypes can be made with text, symbols, and complex shapes, but we will begin by making a linetype with simple text and symbols:

In the following example, we will make a linetype containing the text water wrapped inside two double arrows pointing towards the text and surrounded by lines, as shown in Figure 8.1:

1. To begin making this linetype, select the Mtext tool from the Annotation panel of Home tab or use its command alias, MT.
2. Now, make a text box and type water.
3. To add the symbol, click the Symbol icon on the Insert panel of the Text Editor tab and select other option from the list of symbols.
4. The Character Map window will open. Select the double arrow symbol from the character map, then click on the Select button and then the Copy button, and close the Character Map window:

5. In the textbox, right-click next to water and select Paste from the context menu. Repeat the process to paste the arrow pointing in the other direction too.
6. When you are done adding the text and the symbols, exit the Mtext tool and add two lines, one to the left and another one to the right of the text.
7. Linetypes can only be made with single-line text, and we have used multiline text here. So, we need to convert the multiline text into single line text and we can do it by using the Explode command.
8. Select the Explode option from the Modify panel of the Home tab or use its command alias, X.
9. Select the text and the arrow symbols and press Enter, and the text along with symbol will be exploded and you will end up with single line text.
10. Also, make sure you have made the lines with the line command and not with the polyline command, or you won't be able to make the linetype.

So, now that we have made the first pattern of the linetype, we will convert this pattern into a linetype. Follow these steps to convert this pattern into a linetype:

1. Go to the Express tools tab and, from the expanded tools panel, select the Make Linetype option. Alternatively, you can also use its command alias, MKLYPE:

2. Now, the Select Linetype File window will open. Here, you need to save the linetype file, which will hold the code required to make this linetype. Specify a location and a name and then hit the Save button and the linetype file will be saved with the LIN extension. In our example, I have named my linetype file Sample line, and I saved it to the desktop:

3. Now, the command line will prompt you to specify the name of this linetype. Type waterline in the name and press Enter.
4. The next prompt is for the description. Type linetype for water pipeline and press Enter again.
5. Now, the command line will prompt you to specify the starting point of the linetype definition. Click on point A, and for the ending point click on point B, as shown in Figure 8.5:

6. The next prompt is Select objects. Here, make a selection box to include all the objects (the text, the symbols, and the two lines) and press Enter.
7. You will see a message that says WATERLINE created and loaded. This indicates that we have successfully created a new custom line and that it is also loaded in our drawing and ready to use.

To test this linetype, make a line that is larger than the text, symbol, and line segments we used to make the linetype. Select this line, then go to the Properties panel of the Home tab, expand the linetype drop-down, and select the WATERLINE from the linetype list, as shown in Figure 8.6:

The custom linetype will be applied to this line. You can apply this linetype to a circle or other geometries as well, and you can even change the scale of this linetype from the properties palette to make the linetype bigger or smaller.

This was an easy and straightforward method of making a linetype in AutoCAD, and we used this method to make a simple linetype. In the next section, we will make another custom linetype using complex shapes.