topic Re: Arc Aligned Text in AutoCAD Forum

Arc Aligned Text

JackNaylorPE — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 04:00:22 GMT

OK the Arc Aligned text Window is a bit unintuitive and I have to get my brain aligned each time I use it but 2 things I find annoying are:

1. Getting spaces between words is odd... been using space space space and other methods but that doesn't seem to work consistently.

2. The other thing shows up as the space between letters in a word is or at least appears inconsistent. My last name for example always comes like this N A Y L O R. Is this a function of the font used perhaps or some other weird thing. Didn't see it as much years back but now that we are allowed to use electronic seals* when stamping drawings it comes up now and then.

Any suggestions ?

The * is a non CAD related question but would appreciate feedback on design professionals thoughts on municipalities requiring electronic submissions. In recent years all paper submissions required that either the seal or the signature be in ink. Now that ***require*** that both be done electronically which is a violation of state law here. Our state professional society is taking issue with this.

Re: Arc Aligned Text

pendean — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 11:28:05 GMT

Why not explore other free solutions that' have been around for a long time and work differently
https://apps.autodesk.com/ACD/en/Detail/Index?id=3068650286547777168&appLang=en&os=Win32_64
http://www.lee-mac.com/curvealignedtext.html
http://www.lee-mac.com/dtcurve.html

HTH

Re: Arc Aligned Text

Michiel.Valcke — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 14:03:59 GMT

As @pendean hinted at, the arcalignedtext is an Express Tool which are no longer supported / developped by Autodesk and just given as is to the users. If you're unhappy with it's workings your only recourse would be to find other similar programs.

I have no idea about your second question, you would need to find someone from the same state as you to know how to handle such requests from your clients / municipalities.

Re: Arc Aligned Text

ВeekeeCZ — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 14:43:20 GMT

@Michiel.Valcke wrote:

As @pendean hinted at, the arcalignedtext is an Express Tool which are no longer supported / developped by Autodesk and just given as is to the users. If you're unhappy with it's workings your only recourse would be to find other similar programs.
...

Removed.

Re: Arc Aligned Text

cadffm — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 14:23:26 GMT

>>"FYI It's ARCTEXT, and it was until 2023 an Express Tool."

FYI, ARCTEXT is still an Expresstool, also in 2023! (the help[F1] is wrong, it should be in LT-Help only)

BUT, it is also an native AutoCAD LT(!) command since LT2023.

So it is supported in LT, but not in AutoCAD or Toolsets 😁

Re: Arc Aligned Text

JackNaylorPE — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 16:38:28 GMT

@pendean wrote:
Why not explore other free solutions that' have been around for a long time and work differently

If it wasn't obvious, that was my reason for making the post 🙂 ... to either a) get some tips from others who may have solved the problem or b) getting a suggestion of what alternatives to explore. Isn't the purpose of a forum to allow able to take advantage of the shared experiences of other users to make things work better ?

I'll see if I have any better luck with your suggestions, thank you for the suggestions ... will report back afterwards

@Michiel.Valcke

Amaware that the tools are unsupported, ... but from my view irrelevant ... they are still widely used and regardless of whether Autodesk chooses to support them, to date it's been the best tool that I was aware of. It's certainly a lot better than typing one letter at a time and then rotating each one. Question wasn't directed to Autodesk, but at other users. It's not a matter of being unhappy, it's matter of being 99% happy ... was hopping someone could get me to that last 1 %. As for Autodesk support... given my recent experiences, especially with account management and license manager failings .... the value and response time are far less than satisfactory. Only used as a last resort if colleagues and forum searched fail.

As to the legal question .... I'm actively involved in the issue in my role as past President .... of the State and VP of national PE society. Had been actively involved lobbying at the state and federal level for decades. The purpose of the question is in relation to that role and looking for feedback in preparing an updated position paper on the topic. Laws that affect the licensed professions start with those members of those professions who put in the T&E to draft them and work to gain their passage. When meeting with our elected representatives, it's always beneficial to come prepared and have a sense of the "pulse" of everyday practitioners. If most folks in any grouping of people don't see it as a high priority, neither will they.

I expect most are unaware of this situation and would certainly appreciate and responses from people seeing this and / or discussing with colleagues as most in my immediate circle are as they say "of like mind".

Re: Arc Aligned Text

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 16:36:13 GMT

@JackNaylorPE wrote:

....

2. .... now that we are allowed to use electronic seals* when stamping drawings ....

[Rather than use Arc-aligned Text, with the accompanying need to draw the other elements of the seal, how about just using your stamp carefully to get a nice clean stamp, and scanning that to a .jpg or .tif or some such file type that you can put into drawings as an image?]

Re: Arc Aligned Text

JackNaylorPE — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 00:54:40 GMT

That's what I was using before I found curved text thingie

I just had a regulatory zoom meeting with a reviewer of our recent plan submission.... we got 8 comments, which was 7 more than I have ever gotten before. The reviewer started off with the 1st comment ... that on one page I spelled his name right and then wrong in another spot. he said that he had done that just to prank me as he never finds anything when reviewing my stuff cause he said I was the most "****" engineer he's known in his career". I said that's the best compliment I have had in my career. ... when engineers cease being ****, bridges fall down.

So yeah, my complaints with curved text are probably something that doesn't bother most people .... on a scale of 1 - 100, I'll give a 97 to Express Tools Curved Text.... a 70 to the ink stamp scan. ... image was like like scanning a fax.... lines were 'fuzzy', usual raster / vector jaggies on the curves. I only looked in there cause someone had suggested it on the forum some years back.

I recently went to use an ole lisp routine to "Change Text and ... hey what ? it's now in Express Tools ... I have to peek in there ... saw lotta things that made me wish I looked earlier.