Mleader Text Size

[kenmckinley3729]

I have an issue that whenever I create a Multileader the text does not come out the correct size.

Text Style:

Annotative and set to paper text height of 0.1000

Dim Style:

checks out OK (correct Text Style and Height)

Multileader Style manager:

Again, checks out OK with the correct Text style and text height.

If I use MLD or the MLEADER button on the Annotative Tab, it always has a text height of 0.0800.

Always.

I can change the text height via the Properties tab, but that defeats the purpose. One extra step I do not need. This leads to the potential problem of a drawing have leaders with 2 different text height. Unacceptable.

Any ideas what is going on?

[FDGJames]

Sounds like a style issue.  Click the arrow in the bottom right of the Leaders ribbon and modify the multileader style.

For what it's worth, someone doing cad here before me couldn't figure this out and set up the templates to have text, dimensions, and mleaders already in paperspace.  If I ever have the time, I will remove them, but for the non-cad users of us, this is a simple workaround.

[kenmckinley3729]

that opens the Multileader Styles manager.

Everything there checks out.

[Joe-Bouza]

Is the MLEADER/text annotative if so is the current annotations scale what you think it is?

[kenmckinley3729]

Not sure I undrstand what you are saying

Drawing Scale set to 1" = 10'

Text Style: Name=Text1,  Font: Simplex. Annotative box checked, Paper Text Height 0.1000

Multileader Style Manager: (Leader1), Content Tab, Text Style (from pull-down, Text1), Text height, 0.1000 (greyed out)

So with the text style Text1 active and using Leader1, any Multileader I create should have a text height of 0.1000

It doesn't

The text height is 0.0800

I am tempted to just create a new DWT file

[ChicagoLooper]

Go to your Text Style (or '_Style' on command line without the quotes). What is Paper Text Height? It must be zero. If has a value greater than zero, then you're doing it OLD SCHOOL (like before annotative text was invented) and old school will override your annotative settings. Make paper text height zero and you'll be fine.

Make paper text height = 0.

[rl_jackson]

1. If I understand correctly you created a mleader style at X height and want to change the height of the text for other labels. Create another style with the new X height. Mleaders are like dimensions if you change there native style they will update

EDIT: Also if your text style isn't annotative it's cause problems. 

[drenaud]

"If has a value greater than zero, then you're doing it OLD SCHOOL ..."

@ChicagoLooper can you elaborate, or point me to an article that talks about this? we hired a consultant to set up a multi-agency template and they have all the text style heights set to 0. I want to understand better what is going on.

[hencoop]

What plot device do you have assigned to your layout?

It is a known issue that when a raster plot device is assigned to the layout the styles in C3D are scaled by a factor of 12.  0.08 is 1/12 of 0.10 (0.083333 actually but this value can be rounded)

[ArchD]

Make sure you set your drawing scale by the scale icon found on the status bar rather than setting the scale using the ZOOM command, as the ZOOM command fails to set the CANNOSCALE variable that annotative objects depend on.

[kenmckinley3729]

Drawing scale is set by the status bar CANNOSCALE

rl_jackson: No, I do not want to change the height of other labels. I want the MLeader to have the height that I have specified in the settings.

hencoop: The plot device is PDF. We always plot to PDF before anything is sent to a printer.

Everything that uses that named Text Style uses the correct text height. MText, DText, DIMS. etc. It only fails when I use MLeader.

After hours last night, I opened the _AutoCAD Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS.dwt

Made the changes to Test Style

Made the changes to Multileader Style Manager

and behold! MLeader uses the correct Text Height.

To be fair, my template was created with C3D2011 and been in use all these years and software upgrades. The issue with the MLeader has been going on for a long time, I just have time now to try to fix it.

Can't seem to figure it out so I'll probably continue to modify the imperial.dwt and use that for QNEW.

[ChicagoLooper]

The Paper Text Height in the Text Style manager will highjack your text height when you make new mleaders. To avoid this situation, keep it at zero. When using the text style in mtext, you must either accept that height or perform an override during the mtext command.

Back in the day, you' d put your title block in modelspace so you could plot. Since you drew at 1:1 scale, you sized your title block big for a parcel drawing, small for a front door elevation and teeny-tiny for a door lock detail. And for the subdivision layout, you'd size the title block big, really, really big, in order to capture all the streets and parcels and make them fit inside your title block. To make your drawings look professional, sell lots and lots of houses, impress the client and make lots and lots of money, you'd make your font height consistent from drawing to drawing i.e., your text height for a parcel drawing might measure 5' in height (relative to the parcel) whereas in a subdivision drawing the text might be 50' in height (relative to the subdivision). By creating multiple text styles and assigning a specific text height to each style, it became easier to annotate from drawing-scale to drawing-scale or when annotating from sub division down to parcel by simply using a different text style. Each 'sheet-view' would have a different text style while you maintained the same font. E.g. Arial-Parcel would have text ht=50, Arial-Parcel text ht=5, and so forth and do on. Each text style's height would be established in the TEXT STYLE manager.

Now  however, we longer do that because we are NEW SCHOOLERS and use ANNOTATIVE text and viewports. (At least most of us do, some old-schoolers still insert title blocks to their modelspace and never, ever use viewport's or annotative text, sigh! You can tell who they are because they still use public pay phones and typewriters.)

From the Text Style manager check the annotative box in the Size section, then for PAPER TEXT HEIGHT make it zero. If you give your annotative text style a value other than zero, say 1.45, you'll automatically get height=1.45  when performing MTEXT unless you override that height by specifying, or inputting, another one, such as 2.15, when performing your MTEXT command. 

If the paper text height is 0 in the Style manger, then MTEXT command will default to the last used text height the last time you used the MTEXT command.

If you use that same Text Style in your MLEADER, it will automatically default to 1.45 and, unlike the mtext command, you don't have the option to override the text height during the mleader command. If you go to the mleader style manager the text height will be grayed out. Yikes, it's been highjacked and it's annoying. If you want something other than 1.45 you'll have select the leader then to go properties palette and do an override.

The only time you should use non-annotative text is when you want text, such as an attribute, in an 'annotative block.' Use non-annotative text into an annotative block. If you put NON-ANNO text into an anno block, then the attribute, your text, will inherit the annotative properties of the annotative block so it's unnecessary to use anno text into an anno block.

Same for using a block instead of mtext when creating an annotative mleader. If you want to use a block in lieu of mtext, then use a NON-ANNO block. The non-anno block will inherit the annotative properties of the annotative mleader so using an anno-block in an annotative mleader is unnecessary.