Adding content to mtext

[davwong]

I am trying to add labels everywhere on my drawing to show the properties of my objects i.e. lines. (But the thing is, I need static text). This is because I need to be able to "distort" the drawing for legibility purposes but retaining the label information. This is a common drafting task in surveying. Solution A - add the labels and then convert then into text. (I don't think Autocad allows this) Solution B - add the mtext via script, but so far I am stuck on the text editor. Here's what I have done so far. mtext 100,100 <-- I'll need to come up with some calculation to automatically place the text in the middle of the line. Any help is appreciated. j mc r 96d08'27" 130,100 "186° 08' 27""" <-- how to you add the content of the mtext object???? I'm stuck here. and then Ctrl-Enter to quit the text editor.

[3wood]

Spoiler

Please try ADDLINES.vlx. It can add length and bearing to middle of selected lines.

[M_Hensley]

Instead of using mtext and dealing with the mtext editor would it work to just use text? You can answer all the prompts for justification, insertion point, rotation, etc. using script very easily. You are however limited to a single line of text.

[pendean]

Are you using plain AutoCAD?
Or a survey-capable version like AutocAd MAP or Civil?
Is there a reason you only want to use MTEXT?

[jggerth1]

As a _consumer_, not a regular creator or survey drawings, I can't tell you how much I hate getting in a CAD file from surveyor where the labeled line lengths are not the actuall lengths of the line.  Please, create your survey drawings on real-world coordinate systems (eg State Plane or local national equivalent) and provide me with a correct & accurate model.

No deliberate distortion is ever needed.  if the PoB is 22 klicks from the site, use multiple Viewports in the sheet, to show the PoB and site on a single layout, but use the correct line length and direction in modelspace.

[davwong]

No particular reason besides that I must create separate text objects if I want to change the labels from bearing [space] distance above the line to bearing [new line] distance and move the 2 row mtext so that the line goes between the two rows.

[davwong]

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@jggerth1 wrote:

As a _consumer_, not a regular creator or survey drawings, I can't tell you how much I hate getting in a CAD file from surveyor where the labeled line lengths are not the actuall lengths of the line.  Please, create your survey drawings on real-world coordinate systems (eg State Plane or local national equivalent) and provide me with a correct & accurate model.

No deliberate distortion is ever needed.  if the PoB is 22 klicks from the site, use multiple Viewports in the sheet, to show the PoB and site on a single layout, but use the correct line length and direction in modelspace.

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Ah yes, how I wish! I can spend all day talking about how much I agree with you! It would make my life much easier too! I create the drawings exacly from data and then spend so much time to distort it due to legibility reasons. Unfortunately, I can't see how this can be possible in a paper based system without at least 10 pages when it could have been only 1. Plus it's local convention here. Hopefully one day we can fully move to a purely LandXML based system where we just have to input instrument setups, observations, record any remarks, etc. Hopefully, we won't need AutoCAD then. 🙂

[davwong]

I have discovered that simply copying and pasting works into model space works and lee-mac's excellent CurveAlignedTextV1-1 routines. Albeit, I would still prefer to write my own script to automatically output labels in the right rotation, and place.

I haven't figured out how to get past the in-built text editor when I invoke the "mtext" or "text" command. I haven't got an opportunity to try yours yet since it seems to be a trialware (as stated at the bottom 5 lines only?).