Changing Attribute text styles

[Cole64]

Hello all,

I have been trying to globally change the WD text style in my drawing and have tried via the Project/Utilities tab but it tries to process but does nothing and no errors. When I use the Enhanced Attribute Editor using double click on the attribute text and select the Text Option tab I see it is on WD and when I change it to another and then back to WD the attribute text does change. Is this a bug? It happens regardless of which way I process eg Current Drawing or Project.

Also I have limited Text Options in the Enhanced Attribute editor? Is this normal?

Is there a way to find out the current WD style?

Thanks

Colin

[rhesusminus]

Hmmm... Are you using the IEC symbol library?

Those symbols use the WD_IEC style, and for some reason, the "Change Style" int Project Utilities only seems to update the WD style :(. Can you confirm this @PatMurnen_Adsk ?

As a workaround, I've created a script file (See attachment) that you can run via project utilities like this:

The script is changing the font for the WD_IEC style to "Arial" as it is now, but you an modify it to whatever you want. The SCR-file can be edited in notepad.

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

It worked fine for me running it on the IEC60617DEMO project in AutoCAD Electrical 2016 or 2017. I tried both on the active drawing and project.  Can either of you provide more details on the command and what options on the dialog(s). Also, it might help diagnose if you turn on the command trace and log and send the log file.

1. LOGFILEON

2. AEONLISPDEBUG

3. run the command

4. AEOFFLISPDEBUG

5. LOGFILEOFF

6. LOGFILENAME

Find and upload the log file indicated in step #6.

Regards,

Pat

[rhesusminus]

After a restart of AcadE it worked here. Hopefully @Cole64 is able to give you log-files.

[Cole64]

Hi Guys,

I am using the PID components for this and have not tried it on Electrical ones yet. I have done the log which is attached.

I also tried Rhesusminus script and that did not work either.

Have a busy day today, but will try on the electrical drawings later. Let me know if there is anything else you want me to test.

Thanks

Colin

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

Colin,

One thing I noticed in the log was that it changed the WD_IEC style. But, the PID symbols use the WD style I think. Are you running it on just the active drawing? Is the drawing part of the active project?

Can you upload a small sample project that it fails on and I can try it at my end? What version of AutoCAD Electrical are you using?

Regards,

Pat Murnen

[Icemanau · Accepted solution]

For a quick and easy method of globally changing a text style within a single drawing, use this method.

1. Make sure your menu bar is showing. Click on the little down Arrow at the end of the Quick Access Toolbar if it's not and select Show Menu Bar.

2. Click on format and then select Text Style from the menu.

3. Select the Text Style you wish to change from the list of styles active in the drawing.

4. Make the changes you require and select Apply.

5. Make sure the style is highlighted and then click on Set Current.

6 Click on Close.

This will cause every piece of text using that style to change to match. It doesn't matter if it's an attribute, Single line text or Multiline text.

Be aware that some text objects will appear out of place due to the text style change so you may have to edit them and then exit without making any changes to get them to change properly.

Regards Brad

[Cole64]

Hi Brad,

Thanks for that, i did also want to know where the short list of fonts was managed. However, I selected the 'Styles in use' and changed every type of font to Centaur (something completely different to what is being used) and it did not change either.

But then I restarted Acade and all the attribute text changed but not the text used for annotation. I formatted the annotation as ISO under the Standard style so that must be over riding any global changes.

The text on the PID attributes is WD, so this is probably why the Project/Utilities global change is not working.

I must say going through this I am getting a much better understanding of Acade. So in terms of me being able to change text globally I can do this and it allows me to get my project finished to specification. I can do this using Icemanau's suggestion but I have to restart Acade to do this. This isn't as elegant as id like but gets the job done. In regards to Project/Utilities this does not work as it is changing the WD_IEC and not the WD required for my PID. I will sign off as solved but I think there is more to go here.

Thanks

Colin

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

Colin,

I'm glad you found a method that is working for you.

I would like to track down why it is updating WD_IEC when you run the Project Utilities. When I use it on the sample project with PID symbols it correctly updates the WD style. 

Are you running it on just the active drawing? Is the drawing part of the active project?

What version of AutoCAD Electrical are you using?

Can you upload a small sample project that it fails on and I can try it at my end? If you don't want to upload here, can you send it to my email pat.murnen@autodesk.com

Regards,

Pat

[Cole64]

Hi Pat,

I have attached a zip file of the project. I was having trouble zipping it through project zip but that is another problem so I just zipped the project file.

Let me know if there is anything else I can do.

Thanks

Colin

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

Colin,

thanks for uploading the project. Can you answer these questions -

Are you running it on just the active drawing? Is the drawing part of the active project?

What version of AutoCAD Electrical are you using?

Regards,

Pat

[Cole64]

Hi Pat,

Thanks for looking into this.

1. The same thing occurs if I run it as the active drawing or a file of the project.
2. Yes it is part of the active project.
3. Autocad Electrical 2017.

Let me know if there is anything else.

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

Thanks for the information. I hope to look at this over the next few days to see if I can identify the issue.

Regards,

Pat

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

I wasn't able to reproduce any problem with this on your drawing. The project you sent me didn't actually include any drawings so I did add your drawing to the project. Once I added it the WD_IEC style was updated with the font I chose.

If you want to pursue this it might help if you could record a video showing everything and upload it for me to see. It might highlight something we are doing differently. Otherwise, if you are ok with your solution we can let it go.

Regards,

Pat

[Cole64]

Hi Pat,

I think the problem here (as you mentioned earlier) is that the PID icons are WD style and the project utilities function updates the WD_IEC style. Why are the PID icons different? If for some reason they need to stay WD then this makes the project utilities function ambiguous and redundant as the operator is best to use the format tab.

I would suggest that the PID icons be changed to the WD_IEC style and/or the system should specify which style is being changed eg In help menu or on the pop up window.

Thanks for you help.I am much wiser after this posting.

Colin

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

Colin,

I tried this on a number of projects using various symbol libraries. Some used WD style, some WD_IEC. Each time the command correctly identified which style to update. So I don't think it is accurate to say it only works with one style or the other. So something else must have been going on when you were running it that it wasn't correctly identifying which style (WD or WD_IEC), but I just can't reproduce it. 

I would say as a general rule it will work best when all drawings use the same style and that the style is used on the drawing that is active when you launch the command.

Regards,

Pat