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Use Tool Palettes for Preset Text Styles
Tip# 3203 By Shawn Crites On 17-May-2009
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Rated By 1 users
Categories : Styles
Software type : AutoCAD 2010
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This tip will help make sure text has the proper font, size, and other stylings.

Shawn Crites uses tool palettes to standardize his text styles.

"One of the things that has helped me with text insertion into drawings is tool palettes. I have a palette tab named Text. Any name can be used - such as Annotation. I chose to differentiate from the Dims palette tab that I have for dimension styles -- another tremendously helpful palette tab.

"Palettes can retrieve their information from a common directory or a drawing. I've chosen to use a master drawing for my palettes that has named layouts corresponding to the palette tab that uses it. The Text layout in this case contains text objects with the different styles that I commonly use. This drawing must remain in a common search path as a resource for the palette to pull style information from.

"To bring the text objects into the palette tab (once you create a blank palette tab) simply drag the text object onto the palette. Once there right click on the new command that you just placed in the palette and choose properties. You will see that the proper command string and text style will already be called out. Customize to your liking with a unique name for your command and set other settings such as layer, color, linetype, etc. Whatever layer your text is on in the master drawing will be automatically applied as the insertion layer for the text in the palette command. This may be reset to a layer in the current drawing using a drop-down selection. If a layer other than Use Current is chosen, the layer will be automatically created if necessary upon selection of the palette command.

"Blocks with a text object in them may be created and placed in the palette having insertion points that differ from those available with text justification alone. This would allow the text to be placed with reference to another object using the blocks insertion point. The block can then be exploded and the text edited for content. One could also put a block of Mtext with predefined formatting so that titled and numbered notes would be easier to create. A custom predefined stamp block of text could be another idea.

"The Palette command icons may be customized also if you want to give your individual text commands more visual distinction."

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Patrol: Great tip. Tool palettes are very easy to generate and then to use. You can use them to ensure that users are all creating the same type of text in your company. This will help to make sure text has the proper font, size, and other stylings. If you do as the tipster suggests, keep the objects the palettes are referencing in one central file. It is very easy to update the standard and every user on your network. If you need to make sure everyone is using the Simplex font instead of Arial, change the text objects in your master file. That way when a new file is started, everyone will be using the proper text style. Be careful, though. If that object is already inserted in your drawing and you update the master, you have to manually insert the new standard and overwrite the one already in the file. Tool palettes look inside the drawing first for any particular style, or block that you are telling it to insert. If it can’t find it in the drawing it will go to the referenced file (the master file) for what you need.

 

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