Have you ever come across the term “annotative text” while working with AutoCAD? If you’re new to AutoCAD or unfamiliar with this feature, don’t worry! In this article, we will delve into the concept of annotative text and understand its significance in the world of CAD drafting.
What is Annotative Text?
Annotative text is a feature in AutoCAD that allows you to create text entities that can automatically adjust their size based on the scale of the drawing. This means that regardless of the scale at which you view or print your drawing, the text will always appear legible and proportional.
Using annotative text can save time and effort by eliminating the need to manually resize text objects when changing scales. With traditional non-annotative text, resizing would involve modifying each individual instance, which can be a tedious task.
How Does Annotative Text Work?
Annotative text works by associating a specific annotation scale with a given piece of text. This annotation scale determines how the text appears when the drawing is displayed or plotted at different scales.
To enable annotative text functionality, you need to activate it in AutoCAD’s properties. Once activated, you can create annotative text by selecting the appropriate annotation scale from a list. This ensures that the size of your text remains consistent across various scales.
Benefits of Using Annotative Text
- Simplified Workflow: The use of annotative text streamlines your drafting process by automatically adjusting the size of your annotations as per the required scale.
- Consistency: With annotative text, you can maintain consistent and readable annotations throughout your drawing, regardless of its scale.
- Multiple Scales: Annotative text allows you to add multiple annotation scales to a single piece of text, accommodating different scales within the same drawing.
- Efficient Collaboration: Annotative text simplifies collaboration by ensuring that everyone working on the drawing sees the same legible annotations, irrespective of their display or plot scale settings.
Creating Annotative Text in AutoCAD
Let’s walk through the process of creating annotative text in AutoCAD:
- Select the “Text” command from the toolbar or type “TEXT” in the command line.
- In the “Text Style” dialog box, click on “New” or select an existing style to modify.
- In the “Text Style” dialog box, enable the “Annotative” option.
- Add desired annotation scales to your text style by clicking on the “Add..” button under “Annotation Scale.”
- Click “OK” to save your changes and exit the dialog box.
- Create your annotative text by clicking and dragging on your drawing area to define its bounding box.
Congratulations! You have successfully created annotative text in AutoCAD. Now you can explore different scales and see how your annotations automatically adjust their size accordingly.
In Conclusion
Annotative text is a powerful feature in AutoCAD that simplifies the process of creating legible and consistent annotations across various scales. By enabling annotative text functionality and associating annotation scales, you can save time, maintain accuracy, and enhance collaboration in your CAD drafting projects. So, give it a try and experience the benefits for yourself!