354 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions Step-by-Step: Creating Text Styles 1. Open ab13-b.dwg from your CD-ROM. 2. Save the file as ab13-03.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder. 3. Choose Format ➪ Text Style to open the Text Style dialog box. Click New. In the New Text Style dialog box, type Notes and click OK. 4. From the Font Name drop-down list, choose romans.shx. In the Height text box, change the height to 1/16". In the Width Factor text box, change the width factor to .95. In the Oblique Angle text box, type 10. Click Apply to make the new style current. Click Close. 5. Start the DTEXT command. At the Specify start point of text or [Justify/Style]: prompt, pick a start point at the lower-left corner of the drawing. At the Specify rotation angle of text <0>: prompt, press Enter. At the Enter Text: prompt, type Note: Not drawn to scale. ↵. Press Enter again to end the command. 6. Save your drawing. It should look like Figure 13-16. If you are going on to the next exercise, keep this drawing open. Figure 13-16: You have added text by using a new text style. Modifying a text style To change a style, choose Format➪Text Style. From the Style Name drop-down list, choose the text style you want to change. Make changes the same way you did when creating the style. Choose Apply and then Close. AutoCAD regenerates the drawing and changes all text that uses the style you changed. This is a powerful way to control the look of text in your drawing. Unfortunately, only changes to the font and text style affect current text. Other changes, such as width factor, oblique angle, orientation, and height, are ignored. However, new text takes on these other changes. Note 16 539922 ch13.qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 354 355 Chapter 13 ✦ Creating Text To change existing text to another text style, choose Properties from Standard tool- bar and select the text. In the Properties palette, choose a new text style in the Text Style drop-down list. Making a style current or changing a text object’s style You can choose the current style when you use one of the text commands. If you use DTEXT or TEXT, AutoCAD displays the Specify start point of text or [Justify/Style]: prompt. Right-click and choose Style. (AutoCAD displays the current style and height before the prompt.) If you know the name of the style you want to use, type it and press Enter. AutoCAD repeats the Specify start point of text or [Justify/Style]: prompt. You can choose the Justify option or pick a start point to continue the command. The new Styles toolbar makes is easier to make a style current or change the text style of existing text. To make a style current, choose the style from the Text Style Control drop-down list. To change the text style of existing text, select the text and choose a new style from the list. If you use MTEXT, the Multiline Editor opens, as explained in the next section. Choose the text style you want from the Style drop-down list. Importing a text style As explained in Chapter 11, you can use the DesignCenter to import features from other drawings. To import a text style, follow these steps: 1. Choose DesignCenter from the Standard toolbar to open the DesignCenter. 2. In the left pane, navigate to the drawing that has the text style you want. 3. Double-click the drawing icon or click its plus sign. 4. To see the list of the text styles, double-click the text styles icon in either the left or right pane. 5. Double-click the text style’s icon to import it into your drawing. 6. Click the DesignCenter’s Close button to close the DesignCenter. The drawing used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on changing text styles, ab13-3.dwg, is in the Results folder of the AutoCAD 2004 Bible CD-ROM. Step-by-Step: Modifying Text Styles 1. If you have ab13-03.dwg open from the previous Step-by-Step exercise, continue to use it for this exercise. Otherwise, open ab13-03.dwg from the Results folder of your CD-ROM. On the CD-ROM New Feature 16 539922 ch13.qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 355 356 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions 2. Save the file as ab13-04.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder. 3. The note at the bottom-left corner of the drawing uses the Notes text style. Choose Format ➪ Text Style. In the Text Style dialog box, make sure NOTES is the style name listed, and then choose italic.shx from the Font Name drop-down list. Choose Apply and then Close. 4. AutoCAD regenerates the drawing and changes the text’s font. 5. Save your drawing. Creating Multiline Text Single-line text is awkward when you want to type quite a bit of text. The main dis- advantage is that single-line text does not use word wrap, a feature that wraps text to the next line to keep a neat right margin. Multiline text (also called paragraph text and not to be confused with multilines) solves this problem and also offers many more formatting options compared to single-line text. The entire paragraph of multiline text is one object. AutoCAD 2004 introduces a new frameless Multiline Text editor. New features include tabs and indenting. Many of the features that were previously on tabs in the Multiline Text Editor are now available from a shortcut menu that you access by right-clicking anywhere in the text area. The Multiline Text Editor that you use to create multiline text resembles Windows word processors. You use this box both to create and also to edit text and its properties. Using the Multiline Text Editor To create paragraph text, choose Multiline Text from the Draw toolbar. This starts the MTEXT command. AutoCAD tells you the current style and text height. For example: Current text style: ROMANS. Text height: 4 1/2" AutoCAD continues with the Specify first corner: prompt. Specify one corner of a bounding box to specify where to place the text. At the Specify opposite corner or [Height/Justify/Line spacing/Rotation/Style/Width]: prompt, specify the diagonally opposite corner of the bounding box. You can also choose one of the other options to specify the text properties before you type in the text. Some of these options are also available in the Multiline Text Editor, which opens after you have specified the bounding box. Figure 13-17 shows the Multiline Text Editor. When you specify the corners of the Mtext box, you see sample text at the cursor to give you an idea of the actual current height of the text. You can change the sample text with the new MTJIGSTRING system variable. New Feature New Feature 16 539922 ch13.qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 356 357 Chapter 13 ✦ Creating Text Figure 13-17: The Multiline Text Editor Type your text in the large edit box. The Multiline Text Editor wraps the text to the next line when AutoCAD senses that the text has met the right side of the bounding box you specified. Although you have created a bounding box with four sides, AutoCAD only limits the text by the paragraph width, that is, the left and right margins. If you type too much text for the bounding box, AutoCAD expands the Text Editor. When you type, the text may be enlarged or reduced in size. This can be discon- certing, but when you close the editor, the text takes on the correct size. To stop the text from resizing and the MText Editor from floating, set the MTEXTFIXED sys- tem variable to 1. To format selected or new text, use the buttons on the Multiline Editor’s toolbar: ✦ Style: Choose any text style from the Style drop-down box. ✦ Font: Choose any font from the Font from the drop-down list. ✦ Text Height: Choose a height from the drop-down list or type a new height in the Text Height box. ✦ Bold: If Bold is supported for the font, select text and click Bold. ✦ Italic: If Italic is supported for the font, select text and click Italic. ✦ Underline: Select text and click Underline. ✦ Undo: Undoes recent editing operations. ✦ Redo: Redoes recent editing operations. ✦ Stack/Unstack: Toggles stacking and unstacking fractions. Use this option to stack characters that are not numerals and not immediately before or after the three AutoStack symbols (slash, pound sign, and carat). Select the text and click Stack/Unstack. See the next section for more details. ✦ Color: Choose ByLayer or any color from the Color drop-down box. To choose from additional colors, choose Select Color to open the Select Color dialog box. (See Chapter 11 for details on using this dialog box.) Note 16 539922 ch13.qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 357 358 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions To create an exponent (or superscript), type a number and then a carat, as in 2^. Select the number and the carat and click the Stack/Unstack button. To create a subscript, type a carat, and then the number, as in ^2, and stack it. Right-click in the editor to display the shortcut menu. The shortcut menu contains many important controls that are no longer available elsewhere. You have the fol- lowing options: ✦ Undo: Undoes the last Mtext edit. ✦ Redo: Redoes the last undo operation. ✦ Cut: Places selected text in the Windows clipboard and removes it from the editor. ✦ Copy: Place selected text in the Windows clipboard. ✦ Paste: Places text from the Windows clipboard. ✦ Indents and Tabs: Opens the Indents and Tabs dialog box, as shown in Figure 13-18. You can set the following: • First line indentation: Sets the indentation for the first line of the paragraph. • Paragraph indentation: Sets the indentation for every line of the para- graph except the first line. Use this indentation for creating bulleted and numbered lists. To indent an entire paragraph, use both first line and paragraph indentation. • Tabs: Type the location of each tab. It’s easier to set indentation and tabs on the Multiline Editor’s ruler than in the dia- log box. Drag the first line indent marker (the top triangle at the left of the ruler) or the paragraph indent marker (the bottom triangle) to the left or right. To set a tab, click on the ruler where you want the tab. To delete a tab, drag a tab marker off the ruler. Figure 13-18: Use the new Indents and Tabs dialog box to set indents and tabs for your text. Tip Tip Tip 16 539922 ch13.qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 358 359 Chapter 13 ✦ Creating Text ✦ Justification: Choose a justification from the submenu. The justifications are discussed in the “Justifying single-line text” section earlier in this chapter. ✦ Find and Replace: Opens the Replace dialog box so that you can find or replace specified text. If you want the search to match the case of the speci- fied text, choose Match Case. If you want the search restricted to whole words that match the specified text, choose Whole Words. To find text, ignore the Replace text box. To both find and replace text, enter text in both boxes. Make sure that the cursor is at the beginning of the text if you want to search the entire Mtext object. ✦ Select All: Selects all the text. ✦ Remove Formatting: Removes formatting, such as bold and italic. Does not remove color or font changes. ✦ Combine Paragraphs: Combines separate paragraphs into one. First select the paragraphs that you want to combine. ✦ Change Case: Changes the case of selected text to uppercase or lowercase. ✦ AutoCAPS: Automatically changes newly typed and imported text to upper- case, even if the Caps Lock key is not on. (And it’s a cute pun on AutoCAD.) ✦ Symbol: Inserts the degree, plus/minus, or diameter symbol. You can also insert a non-breaking space. Or choose Other to open the Windows Character Map to choose any of the available symbols. Click a symbol, and then click Select. Click Copy and then click the Close button to close the Windows Character Map. In the Text Editor, press Ctrl+V to paste in the symbol. ✦ Import Text: Opens the Select File dialog box, which lets you choose a text ( .txt) or Rich Text Format (.rtf) file to import. Find the file, choose it, and click Open. AutoCAD inserts it into the Multiline Text Editor. The maximum file size is 16 kilobytes. Other techniques for importing text are covered later in this chapter. Rich Text Format preserves formatting from application to application. Text-only documents retain no formatting. After you finish creating multiline text, close the editor in one of three ways: ✦ Click OK on the Text Formatting bar ✦ Click anywhere outside the Multiline Text Editor (but inside the drawing area) ✦ Press Ctrl + Enter You can snap to the corners of the Mtext bounding box using the Node Object Snap. (See Chapter 4 for an explanation of object snaps.) New Feature Note 16 539922 ch13.qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 359 360 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions Creating stacked fractions automatically You can create automatic stacked fractions and tolerances as you type, using a system sim- ilar to those described earlier for creating special characters with DTEXT/TEXT. You can also type unstacked fractions (as in 1/2), select the fraction text, and then click Stack/Unstack on the Character tab. To create stacked fractions as you type, open the Multiline Text Editor and follow these steps: 1. Type the numerator (or text that you want on top). 2. Type the character that defines the fraction format you want: • Type a slash (/) to create a fraction separated by a horizontal line. • Type a pound symbol (#) to create a fraction separated by a diagonal line. • Type a carat (^) to create a tolerance stack, which is like a fraction separated by a horizontal line except that there is no horizontal line. 3. Type the denominator. 4. Type a space (or other nonnumeric character). AutoCAD opens the AutoStack Properties dialog box. 5. Change any settings you want to change and click OK. AutoCAD creates the stacked fraction. To use the settings in the AutoStack Properties dialog box: ✦ Uncheck Enable AutoStacking to disable the automatic stacked fraction feature. ✦ Uncheck Remove leading blank if you want to retain a space between whole numbers and fractions. ✦ Choose whether you want the slash to result in a fraction with a horizontal line or a fraction with a slash. This choice has no effect on how the pound sign and carat work. If you want the slash to result in a fraction with a slash (which would seem to make more sense), you have no automatic way to create a fraction with a horizontal line. ✦ Check Don’t show this dialog again; always use these settings to stop the dialog box from opening when you create automatic stacked fractions. ✦ Click OK to create the stacked fraction or Cancel to leave the numbers as you typed them. AutoStack only works with numerals immediately before and after the slash, pound sign, and carat. You can also set the properties of individual stacked fractions. Right-click the fraction in the Multiline Text Editor and choose Properties from the menu. In the Stack Properties dialog box you can change the following properties: ✦ Text: Edit the upper and lower text. ✦ Style: Change the fraction style. (See the sidebar figure for the three possible styles.) 16 539922 ch13.qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 360 361 Chapter 13 ✦ Creating Text Specifying and changing line spacing You can specify the spacing between lines in multiline text. Line spacing is useful for fitting text into a schedule or table in your drawing. To set line spacing: 1. Start the Mtext command. 2. At the Specify first corner: prompt, pick the first corner of your Mtext box. 3. At the next prompt, Specify opposite corner or [Height/Justify/ Line spacing/Rotation/Style/Width]: , choose Line spacing. 4. At the Enter line spacing type [At least/Exactly] <Exactly>: prompt, choose Exactly. 5. At the Enter line spacing factor or distance <1x>: prompt, type a number, such as 1 to specify a one unit space between lines of text. (If you type 1x, you get single line spacing, which varies according to the size of the text.) 6. Then continue with the command. This setting persists for future Mtext objects. To change existing line spacing, select (but do not double-click) the multiline text. Open the Properties palette and set one or more of the following: ✦ Line space factor: Specifies line spacing as a multiple of lines. Single line spacing is 1.0000; double line spacing is 2.0000. ✦ Line space distance: Specifies line spacing in units. Use this measurement (along with a line space style of Exactly) to fit text into an existing table or schedule. ✦ Position: Position the fraction so that the top, center, or bottom is aligned with other text. ✦ Size: Change the size of the numbers that make up the fraction. Fraction numbers are usually smaller than regular numbers. Typed as 3/5 Typed as 3#5 Typed as 3^5 16 539922 ch13.qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 361 362 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions ✦ Line space style: Choose At Least (the default) to adjust line spacing based on the height of the largest charter in the line of text. Choose Exactly to specify line spacing that is the same regardless of differences in character height. Specifying and changing width and rotation To change the width of an Mtext object, you can use its grips: 1. Select the Mtext object. 2. Click one of the grips that you want to stretch to make it “hot.” (For instructions on using grips to edit objects, see Chapter 10.) 3. At the Specify stretch point or [Base point/Copy/Undo/eXit]: prompt, pick a new location for the grip, to make the multiline text wider or narrower. You can use the Properties palette to change the width and height. You can specify the exact width when creating the Mtext object by using the Width option after you specify the first corner of the Mtext box. Otherwise, you generally specify the width by picking the two corners of the Mtext box. When the Multiline Text Editor is open, you can change the width of the Mtext object by dragging on the right edge of the ruler. You can also change the width of the editor itself by dragging on the right edge of the editor box. To rotate an existing Mtext object, use the Properties palette or use the grips: 1. Select the Mtext object. 2. Click one of the grips to make it “hot.” 3. Right-click and choose Rotate. 4. At the Specify rotation angle or [Base point/Copy/Undo/Reference/ eXit]: prompt, pick a new location for the grip or type a rotation angle. You can also specify the rotation while creating the Mtext object. Use the Rotate option that appears on the command line after you specify the first corner. Editing paragraph text To edit paragraph text, double-click the text to open the Multiline Text Editor. If you choose single-line text created with TEXT or DTEXT, AutoCAD opens the Edit Text dialog box (refer to Figure 13-7). Make your changes in the edit box. The techniques are similar to those in any word processor. Your options are: Note Tip 16 539922 ch13.qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 362 363 Chapter 13 ✦ Creating Text ✦ Select text and press Del to delete the text or type to replace the selected text. ✦ Click to move the insertion point to where you want to insert text and start typing. (To type over text, press Insert to enter overtype mode.) ✦ Use the toolbar or shortcut menu to change formatting. 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 proper- ties that affect the entire paragraph, such as justification, you do not first highlight the characters. Mmt combines two MText objects into one MText paragraph. Look in \Software\ Ch13\Mmt. Importing text As mentioned earlier, you can import text from the Multiline Text Editor. You can import text in three other ways: ✦ You can use drag-and-drop to insert text into a drawing. Open Windows Explorer and locate the file. It should be a text ( .txt) or Rich Text Format ( .rtf) file. Position the Explorer window so that you can see the file name and your AutoCAD drawing at the same time. Click the file and drag it to your drawing. Close Windows Explorer and move the text to the desired location. ✦ You can copy text from another file to the Windows clipboard. Open the other file, select the text, and choose Copy from the Standard toolbar. Return to your drawing by clicking the AutoCAD button on the Windows Taskbar. Choose Paste from the Standard toolbar. The OLE Properties dialog box opens (by default). Specify the properties of the object and click OK. ✦ If you are in the Multiline Text Editor, you can paste the text directly into the editor. Right-click in the editor and choose Paste (or use Ctrl+V). You can then format the text. For more information on importing text, see Chapter 27. The files used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on creating multiline text, ab13-c.dwg and ab13.txt, are in the Drawings folder of the AutoCAD 2004 Bible CD-ROM. Step-by-Step: Creating Multiline Text 1. Open ab13-c.dwg from your CD-ROM. 2. Save the file as ab13-05.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder. This is a plat drawing, as shown in Figure 13-19. On the CD-ROM Cross- Reference On the CD-ROM 16 539922 ch13.qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 363 [...]... showing the snap point you chose AutoCAD places the dimension just where you need it The drawing used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on drawing linear dimensions, ab 14- a.dwg, is in the Drawings folder of the AutoCAD 20 04 Bible CD-ROM On the CD-ROM Step-by-Step: Drawing Linear Dimensions 1 Open ab 14- a.dwg from your CD-ROM 2 Save the file as ab 14- 01.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder This is a plan... Step-by-Step exercise on drawing aligned dimensions, ab 14- b.dwg, is in the Drawings folder of the AutoCAD 20 04 Bible CD-ROM On the CD-ROM Step-by-Step: Drawing Aligned Dimensions 1 Open ab 14- b.dwg from your CD-ROM 2 Save the file as ab 14- 03.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder This is the same drawing used in the previous Step-by-Step exercise, as shown in Figure 14- 12 OSNAP should be on Set running object snaps... ab 14- 02.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder This is part of a plan of a house with an unusual-shaped ceiling, as shown in Figure 14- 9 OSNAP should be on Set running object snaps to endpoint and intersection If the Dimension toolbar doesn’t appear, right-click any toolbar and check Dimension 2 1 4 3 Figure 14- 9: A house plan with an octagonal ceiling 17 539922 ch 14. qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 387 Chapter 14. .. 539922 ch 14. qxd 386 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 386 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions Figure 14- 8: Drawing a rotated linear dimension for a hexagonal stepping stone On the CD-ROM The drawing used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on using linear dimension options, ab 14- b.dwg, is in the Drawings folder of the AutoCAD 20 04 Bible CD-ROM Step-by-Step: Using Linear Dimension Options 1 Open ab 14- b.dwg from... replace the dimension text AutoCAD calculates or add a prefix or suffix to it When you right-click and choose MText at the Specify dimension line location or [Mtext/Text/Angle/Horizontal/Vertical/ Rotated]: prompt, AutoCAD opens the Multiline Text Editor, as shown in Figure 14- 6 383 17 539922 ch 14. qxd 3 84 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 3 84 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions Figure 14- 6: Changing the dimension... On the CD-ROM The drawing used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on managing text, ab13-d dwg, is in the Drawings folder of the AutoCAD 20 04 Bible CD-ROM Step-by-Step: Managing Text 1 Open ab13-d.dwg from your CD-ROM 2 Save the file as ab13-06.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder This is a small section of an electrical schematic, as shown in Figure 13-21 Make sure ORTHO and OSNAP are on and set running... drawing Using AutoCAD fonts AutoCAD fonts are simpler than TrueType fonts, and some AutoCAD fonts are simpler than others The simplest font is txt.shx, the font used by the default Standard text style You can easily define a text style using an AutoCAD font and 16 539922 ch13.qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 367 Chapter 13 ✦ Creating Text then change the font to something nicer just before plotting AutoCAD immediately... plan of a bedroom, as shown in Figure 14- 4 ORTHO and OSNAP should be on Set running object snaps for endpoint, midpoint, and intersection The current layer should be set to Dim 2 1 3 Figure 14- 4: A bedroom plan 3 To display the Dimension toolbar, right-click any toolbar Click Dimension If you want, drag the toolbar to the top or bottom of your screen until it docks 4 Choose Linear Dimension from the Dimension... docks 4 Choose Linear Dimension from the Dimension toolbar At the Specify first extension line origin or : prompt, pick 1 in Figure 14- 4 At the Specify second extension line origin: prompt, 17 539922 ch 14. qxd 5/2/03 9:37 AM Page 383 Chapter 14 ✦ Drawing Dimensions pick 2 At the Specify dimension line location or [Mtext/Text/ Angle/Horizontal/Vertical/Rotated]: prompt, move the cursor to... At the Select object to dimension: prompt, pick 3 (the window) in Figure 14- 4 At the Specify dimension line location or [Mtext/Text/Angle/Horizontal/ Vertical/ Rotated]: prompt, move the cursor down until you have suffi- cient space for the dimension text and click 6 Save your drawing It should look like Figure 14- 5 Figure 14- 5: The bedroom with two linear dimensions Using dimension options You can . Drawings folder of the AutoCAD 20 04 Bible CD-ROM. Step-by-Step: Creating Multiline Text 1. Open ab13-c.dwg from your CD-ROM. 2. Save the file as ab13-05.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder. This is. the Drawings folder of the AutoCAD 20 04 Bible CD-ROM. Step-by-Step: Managing Text 1. Open ab13-d.dwg from your CD-ROM. 2. Save the file as ab13-06.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder. This is a small section. Step-by-Step exercise on changing text styles, ab13-3.dwg, is in the Results folder of the AutoCAD 20 04 Bible CD-ROM. Step-by-Step: Modifying Text Styles 1. If you have ab13-03.dwg open from the