MTEXT Paragraph Spacing Bug

[stillperson]

A nice feature of MTEXT is the ability to put a space after each paragraph.  This creates some visual separation between notes and improves readability of your drawings.  Unfortunately, this feature appears to be broken in AutoCAD LT 2012.

For example, with a model space text style that is 9" high, a 1/8"=1' paper space viewport will plot the text at a traditional height of 3/32".  Imagine that you want a space equal to one line of this text height to separate the paragraphs in an MTEXT entity.  You can just hit return and have an empty paragraph, but this is inelegant and also undesirable when using automatic paragraph numbering or bullets.  What you need is to automatically create an empty space that is 15" or so in height after each carriage return.  This looks like a job for paragraph spacing (found on the MTEXT toolbar dropdown menu.)  In an ideal world, one could just check the box next to "Paragraph Spacing" and enter 15" in the "after" field.  But hold on...

AutoCAD limits the amount of space you are allowed to have after paragraphs to values between 1/4" and 4".  This equates to a paragraph spacing value that is between invisible and indiscernible.  I consider this to be a bug in the program.  At first I thought that you were supposed to enter the spacing you wanted in Paper Space units, but this is not the case.  The spacing you get is in model space drawing units - even with an annotative text style.

There are two workarounds; 1) Do all your notes in paper space and settle for the 1/4" paragraph spacing (which is a little much for 3/32" text height.) or 2) Create your Mtext in a style that is about 2X your desired Paper Space text height - in my case 3/16".  Once you have a body of MTEXT with correct paragraph spacing, you can scale it up and it will scale up the paragraph spacing proportionally.  Just don't try to go back into the paragraph dialog box and change it or you will bang your head on the dreaded 0.25-4 du limitation.

I propose that the limitation be eliminated or limited to some positive multiple of the text style height - certainly not 0.25-4 du.

[pendean]

So you are saying this limitation is not found in LT2011 or lower?

[stillperson]

I jumped from '07 to '12.  I don't think '07 had paragraph spacing.  I can't speak for any versions in between.

[marchitect_nc]

I just tap the enter key a couple of times to create space between my paragraphs...

[stillperson]

That works OK when you are not numbering the paragraphs.

Maybe nobody else puts their specs on the drawings sometimes?  We're an MEP firm and don't need vast volumes to specify our stuff.  It's when I'm working on a drawing spec that I'm bugged the most by this feature.

[drjohn]

This may not work well in ACAD but it may be worth a try as a work-around.

I create websites in CMS type website software and they have the same type of spacing behavior that I work around by using notepad.

For some reason I can control the spacing and paragraphs with that little prog better than I can in the CMS prog.

I type what I want in notepad and then cut and paste into the CMS and it has the spacing I want. Try making up your list in notepad and c/p into the mtext space and see what happens. Only takes a second.

Works for me.  YMMV

HTH

Regards,

DJ

[pendean]

So it's not a bug if it was never there and suddenly stopped working: just a bad omission in the program's design. You were just being a tad dramatic for effect in your first post. DJ has a good tip for those that need that level of control.

[stillperson]

I guess my choice of the word "broken" was over the top.  Maybe I just don't understand this feature?

Has anyone used it successfully?

[Anonymous]

The 15" paragraph AFTER spacing works as you desire in AutoCAD LT2010. Tested with autonumbering and all.

And *Yes*, this is a bug. I have AutoCAD 2011, AutoCAD 2012 and AutoCAD Mechanical 2012 as well as AutoCAD LT2010. All but LT2010 are dysfunctional. In the ACAD 2011, the paragraph spacing ALLOWS you to enter a value greater than 4.0 however, it has no effect. Whereas 2012 versions, do NOT allow a value greater than 4.0. Unfortunately, I do NOT have LT2011 to test that specific version.

I toyed around with several parameters with no additional better workarounds than was suggested in original post.

Clearly this "feature" should be rolled back to 2010 functionality (in my opinion).

One note here to STILLPERSON, even though this is a horrible workaround...are you aware that when you have autonumbering enabled, you CAN hit backspace to delete the autonumbering and the next number one line after will continue? Having said this, please realize in my experience, you SHOULD have all your lines typed, then go back and delete your blank lines to "fix" the autonumbering. Further, in several versions of AutoCAD, when cutting/pasting with auto line-numbering active, it butchers the numbering, forcing you to [SELECT ALL], clear numbering, then re-enable, which puts you back to step 1 !!!  Suffice it to say, I'm not happy with the paragraph formatting either and am almost resigned to using Word (or almost any other word processor) for any significant text manipulation, saving as PDF, then xref in.

[jalneal]

I agree this is a bug.  It works fine if you have larger text, but the paragraph spacing should be able to be smaller.  it was intentionally included, so it's kind of odd that a minimum was added - maybe to resolve another bug?  It should at least allow the minimum to be equal to the text height you have, and I'd love to see this set to x times the text height since it can vary in mtext.

[stillperson]

Matt,

I had a chance to try it in '09 and it works as advertised there as well.

How do we alert the entomologists?  I hope we can expect a patch for this.

[stillperson]

Pandean,

I've confirmed, it is, in fact, broken.

It worked fine in '09. 

[stillperson]

This just in;  AucoCAD LT 2013 upgrades kicked in by subscription and the bug has not been fixed   Don't the programmers read these forums?

[Anonymous]

I haven't upgraded to 2013 yet...Please confirm the "Paragraph Spacing" from the MTEDIT, Paragraph Panel does not allow you to enter a value more than 4.0.

If not...(grumble) Another annoying feature/improvement that does not permit us to "roll back to previous implementation". I only know of the "Product Feedback Form" to submit feedback.

[Charles_Shade]

Seems they do read as an AutoCAD Full user has noticed a fix for this issue:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-2013/MText-spacing-between-paragraphs-appears-to-be-fixed/m-p/...

Hopefully this cured your issue as well.

Please mark any response as "Accept as Solution" if it answers your question.
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