I'm having a problem with my limit of work linetype in Autocad 2016. I imported it from another drawing where it looks normal but when I bring it into another drawing the text "LOW" is backwards and upside down. I have tried reversing and mirroring the polyline and have done a couple hours of searching on the internet on how to fix it only to come up empty handed. Is there a way to change the text or is it something the do with the drawing itself?
Linetype is backwards and upside down
Accepted solution
There are a couple things to check here:
First check the code for that specific linetype (via the LIN file) or the definition of the line type and see 'what text style' that the linetype is using. Example below shows that the text style 'STANDARD' is being used.
*HOT_WATER_SUPPLY,Hot water supply ---- HW ---- HW ---- HW ----
A,.5,-.2,["HW",STANDARD,S=.1,U=0.0,X=-0.1,Y=-.05],-.2
Next, in the drawing that the incorrect appearance of the linetype is occurring, under TEXT STYLES (enter STYLE on the command line), check to see what the STANDARD (in this example) is set to and if any effects are changing the orientation of the text.
Additionally as another troubleshooting option, ensure the linetype is completedly purged out of the effected drawing, then re-insert and see if that resolves the issue.
Report back once you have done this additional testing, good luck!!
Chad Franklin
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Glad I could assist, text in linetypes can be a real pain to coordinate and is dependent on a variety of things. It could be related to the LIN code itself (how it affects text orientation), the assigned text style in the drawing (as I showed in the screenshot), etc. Other things that can be challenging is centering the text in the linetype 'gap', height of text, etc.
I spend some considerable time in the past setting up internal CAD standards LIN files where we commonly use text characters within the linetypes to differentiate different entities/lines (plotting greyscale on hardcopy so 'color coding' linetypes is not an option).
Glad you got it resolved, have a great day and thanks for the kudos!
Chad Franklin
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If you ever run into this without the Style definition having "effects," another possibility is that the Polyline was drawn somehow "from below" in a UCS with its Z axis aimed downward. Paste this into the command line:
(cdr (assoc 210 (entget (car (entsel)))))
<Enter>, and then select the object. If what it returns is:
(0.0 0.0 -1.0)
that's the likely cause. If the 1.0 is not negative, something else is going on. [All three numbers will be different, and wackier-looking, if it's in a UCS with a Z axis that's not WCS-vertical in either direction.]
Kent Cooper, AIA 
@cwkbpa wrote:
.... I look in the .lin file and don't even see my linetype there. They Style is "STANDARD" and I've played around with the upside down and backwards options and it doesn't do anything. I tried the REVERSE command and it only changed the direction at which the line was drawn, but keeps the text in the linetype the same orientation. ....
If it's not in AutoCAD's own .lin file, look for another that contains it. You can have linetypes loaded from other .lin files, and a linetype file can even contain more than one linetype definition. My guess is that it's about the U= vs. R= text rotation element in the definition, and/or possibly the extrusion direction problem described in Message 7.
Kent Cooper, AIA
@cwkbpa wrote:
.... I have the 1.0. Would it help if I do the FLATTEN command?
If by that you mean the extrusion direction is the usual, and it's not drawn from underneath, then I suspect Flattening won't fix it, but try it. My guess is that we need to see the linetype definition. Maybe a small sample drawing exhibiting this behavior....
Kent Cooper, AIA
@Kent1Cooper thank you for assisting in this thread!
@cwkbpa If you cannot share a sample drawing, you can try to export the linetype using the information (and download) in the Autodesk link below.
Edit: unsure why the reply is 'tagged' to a different user (pressed the reply button on message 13?).
Chad Franklin
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@Cadologist wrote:
....Edit: unsure why the reply is 'tagged' to a different user (pressed the reply button on message 13?).
That's the author of Message 1, which is what happens when the "Reply to the topic..." slot below the last Message is used. If you really did use the REPLY button in my Message, then the website has gone wacky, but it didn't do the same for this one.
Kent Cooper, AIA
@cwkbpa wrote:
...Attached is a sample file with the line types I use as well as the .lin files in the support folder.....
Are you looking for the text in your linetype to auto-rotate all by itself by chance? not a program feature. PLAN command needs to be set to CURRENT UCS is the usual fix for rotated UCS drafting.
That linetype is not defined in either of those .lin files posted, so it's coming from somewhere else, but the not-being-in-un-spun-plan-view, as pointed out by @pendean, is the cause of your trouble.
Kent Cooper, AIA
