MText Issue - Copy+Pasting from Word into AutoCAD with Lists

[Anonymous]

When I copy+paste a section of text from my word document into AutoCAD the program does not recognize the list I used in word and instead configures it in a different format in the text box (see screengrabs). This leads to the numbering and indents being completely disregarded/deleted throughout the text box. In this case, the first section of the document does not pick up the first heading (1.0.) and changes the numbering system throughout the rest of the document (This becomes really messy later on with the rest of the document).

That being said, is there a particular function that simply allows me to paste without changing the list settings from word, and if not, how can I possibly avoid this issue in the future? It becomes really tedious to have to reconfigure the list again in AutoCAD, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks in advance! 

[pendean]

AutoCAD's MTEXT has limited abilities, and looking at your screenshot from AutoCAD, you forgot to preset tabs before pasting, so you will need to fix the formatting there manually.

Q: Why don't you just OLELINK your original MSWord document to avoid having two versions of lists everywhere n doing the work twice? Or better yet, just type it all in AutoCAD to start with? It's what most of us do, avoid doing ti all twice or having two copies of something that needs to only exist once. Try it.

HTH

[kbriscoeV365Z]

I also struggle with Autocads auto-number. I often have to copy existing text from a sequence of operations from a PDF document and insert it into a DWG. These usually have several sub-levels of auto-number. Copying and pasting into Autocad keeps the original numbers, but moves everything to justify left.

Pasting into a word document and reformatting from scratch then copying that and pasting into Autocad also creates strange behaviour.

Using the built in Auto-number feature within autocad is very limited. For instance, I may want the following

1.

   A.

       i.

      ii.

Autocad only seems to let me do the following

1.

   1.1.

       1.1.1.

       1.1.2.   etc...

Is there any 3rd party solution to get around Autocads auto-number system?

Thanks

[pendean]

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@kbriscoeV365Z wrote:

...Is there any 3rd party solution to get around Autocads auto-number system?

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Something like this perhaps after committing to using only MSWord for your writing/formatting needs

https://www.dotsoft.com/word2cad.htm

Try before you buy.

[kbriscoeV365Z]

At this point ill try anything. Im currently working on a sequence of operations, and within a single Mtext box Im getting radically different formating. Different indents on the second line, different number scheemes for sub lists. No way to see the formatting being applied to the text.  This is a spot where Autocad really screwed the pooch. for something this bad it would be better for Autocad to just remove it.  Thanks for the link. Ill check it out and see if my company will buy it.

[TheCADnoob]

In my experience, copying anything from a PDF leads to problems, especially if it's been OCR'd. I usually copy from PDF and paste into something that clears out everything but paling text (like Notepad) as a way to remove odd special characters that pop-up. 

There is a workaround to customizing numbering (its not really customizing though) in AutoCAD, but it's not pretty, and by the time you are done, it would probably have been easier to just do it manually as it doesnt auto number/letter after you change it. 

You can change your text editor to an external text editor in AutoCAD. I tried doing this with word (using the command listed below) on your data, but the results were not very good. That said you can try it on your own and experiment and see if you have more luck. you just have to find your Word executable file and put it in. 

In this example i used the MTEXED command and set the text editor to notepad.exe and this allows you to see the text formatting code being used in AutoCAD. Doing this breaks the auto numbering but it allows you to change it to look like you need. (text codes here) Just remeber to set it back to internal after you are done. 

As you can see from the text codes though, the numbering is not part of the codes but happens in the editor in AutoCAD so as @pendean mentioned you are kinda outta luck for out of the box AutoCAD. 

That said if you set it up how you want it in the other numbering thing and dont intend to change much after you change the numbering its a good way to at least get it in the the proper indented format. 

 

[kbriscoeV365Z]

thanks for the ideas. Unfortunately, the Mechanical engineers that I get my documents from only give me PDF files. Which, it's obvious that they also had trouble with Autonumbering to create the original file, as there are continuity and style changes throughout. 

[pendean]

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@kbriscoeV365Z wrote:

thanks for the ideas. Unfortunately, the Mechanical engineers that I get my documents from only give me PDF files....

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It might be time to commit to only referencing those PDFs in your files instead of trying to convert them?