AutoCAD Platform Customization. Ambrosius Lee

of the text, or if the object will be annotative when a new text object is created.

      Text styles in AutoCAD can be defined to use one of two font types:

      Shape (SHX) Fonts Shape fonts are optimized for and only work with AutoCAD. Shape fonts are defined through a series of vectors, which make them more efficient than TrueType fonts. Shape fonts are also used when specifying a Big Font file to use for Asian languages. You can create your own custom fonts or characters by defining them in a Shape (SHP) file. I discuss creating shapes in Chapter 9.

      TrueType (TTF) Fonts TrueType fonts are common to the operating system and other applications on a workstation. They offer a wider range of looks than the SHX files do, but they can impact the performance of zooming and object selection in AutoCAD.

      Make sure the fonts that you choose to use are easy to read; at the end of the day, annotation is about communicating your design, not for winning awards at an art show. The fonts you pick can affect sharing or exchanging of drawings, too. If a font is not available on a workstation that opens the drawing, a substitute font is used and the text might not appear properly. When a font is not available, AutoCAD replaces the missing font with the one specified by the fontalt system variable.

      Creating and Modifying Text Styles

      Text styles are created and modified using the Text Style dialog box, which is displayed with the style command. The process for creating and modifying a text style is similar on Windows and Mac OS. There are some minor differences because of the way the dialog boxes are laid out. After a text style has been created with the Text Style dialog box, you use the dialog box again to make changes by selecting the style you want to edit from the Text Styles list and changing the properties of that style. Once the property changes are made, you click Apply to save the changes. If you want to create or modify text styles using scripts or custom programs, you can use the – style command.

      The following explains how to create a text style in AutoCAD on Windows:

      1. On the ribbon's Annotate tab ➢ Text panel, click the panel-launcher button located to the right of the Text panel's title (or at the command prompt, enter style and press Enter).

2. When the Text Style dialog box (Figure 2.11, top) opens, click New. Enter a name for the new text style and click OK.

      3. Select a TTF or SHX file from the Font Name drop-down list. Choose an option from the Font Styles drop-down list as needed. If you need to create a style with a Big Font, select an SHX font and click Use Big Font. Then, specify a font from the Big Font drop-down list.

      4. Enter a text height in the Height box. The value entered becomes the default text height when you create text objects. It also affects other annotation styles that use the text style. You can create annotative text, which I cover in the section “Annotative Styles and Annotation Scaling” later in this chapter.

      5. In the Effects section, specify any of the options needed for your text style.

      6. Click Apply.

      7. Double-click the text style you want to make current. When no objects are selected, you can also set a text style as current from the Text Style drop-down list, which is available on the ribbon's Annotate tab ➢ Text panel.

      8. Click Close.

Figure 2.11 The appearance of text can be controlled with text styles.

      If you are using AutoCAD for Mac, you can do the following to create a text style:

      1. Click Format menu ➢ Text Style (or at the command prompt, enter style and press Enter).

      2. When the Text Style dialog box (Figure 2.11, bottom) opens, click the + (plus) button located in the lower-left corner. Enter a name for the new text style and press Enter.

      3. Select a TTF or SHX file from the Family list box. Choose an option from the Typeface list box as needed. If you need to create a style with a Big Font, select an SHX font and then select a font from the Asian Set list box.

      4. Enter a text height in the Text Height box. The value entered becomes the default text height when you create text objects; it also affects other annotation styles that use the text style too. You can create annotative text as well, which I cover in the section “Annotative Styles and Annotation Scaling” later in this chapter.

      5. Specify any of the effects in the Text Style Preview area as needed.

      6. Click Apply.

      7. Double-click the text style you want to make current. You can also set a text style as current from the Text Style drop-down list in the Annotation section of the Properties Inspector when no objects are selected.

      8. Click Close.

      Using a Text Style with Dimension, Table, and Multileader Styles

      When you create a text style, you have the option to specify a default text height for use when you create new text objects. Setting a text height to a specific value also forces any dimension, table, or multileader styles that reference that text style to take on the text height to which the text style is set. Don't use a specific text height when you define text styles unless you wish to restrict flexibility in changing heights when creating text objects or using a text style with other annotation styles.

      Dimension Styles

      Dimension objects are made up of a number of different components, from arrowheads to extension and dimension lines to annotation objects with formatted values. All of the components that make up a dimension object are defined using dimension styles. Dimension styles allow you to control the text size and placement, dimension and extension line colors and linetypes, as well as a dimension scale, which is used to scale up or down the various components of a dimension so that they display correctly based on a drawing's plotted scale.

      Dimension styles are created and modified using the Dimension Style Manager, which is displayed with the ddim command. If you want to create or modify dimension styles using scripts or custom programs, you will want to take a look at the – dimstyle command and the dozens of system variables that all begin with the letters dim.

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      You can use the Compare button or option from the Dimension Style Manager to see the differences between two different dimension styles.

      You can create a dimension style on Windows or Mac OS with these steps:

      1. Do one of the following to display the Dimension Style Manager:

      • On the ribbon's Annotate tab ➢ Dimensions panel, click the panel-launcher button located to the right of the Dimensions panel's title (Windows).

      • Click Format menu ➢ Dimension Style (Mac OS).

      • At the command prompt, enter ddim and press Enter (Windows and Mac OS).

Figure 2.12 shows the Dimension Style Manager as it appears in Windows (top) and Mac OS (bottom).

      2. In the Dimension Style Manager, click New (Windows) or the + (plus) button (Mac OS).

      3. In the Create New Dimension Style dialog box, enter a name for the new style.

      4. Optionally, do the following:

      • Select an existing style to start with and check Annotative if you want to create an annotative style. I discuss annotative styles in the section “Annotative Styles and Annotation Scaling” later in this chapter.

      • Select an option from the Use For drop-down list to have the new dimension style apply only to a subset of dimension objects. Typically, keep the Use For drop-down list set to All Dimensions.

      5. Click Continue.

      6. When the New Dimension Style dialog box opens, start on the Lines tab and change