Text anchor points and constraints

[ryancousins]

After creating a text box in a sketch, it will be surrounded by eight green circle anchor points, and one in the center. I am finding that I am unable to constrain to the center point, only the ones along the perimeter. Does anyone know if this is by design? I am trying to constrain the center of the text box to the center of a circle, but I have to create a construction line through the text box and then I can select the midpoint of that construction line, but that seems like a workaround. 

Also, I'm struggling to understand exactly what is happening when I move those anchor points. It seems to rotate the text but it doesn't seem very intuitive. It would appear it's changing how the text box is rotated about some other point? I know I can move the text by clicking on the text instead of an anchor point, or by using the move command, but I'm still curious what exactly is happening when I try moving those points. I have searched through the F360 help files and forums but I'm not finding any answers. 

[kellings · Accepted solution]

Hi @ryancousins You can't use the center dot of the text box, but you can use the mid points on the vertical and horizontal sides of the text box to do this. 

In the image below, when I created the text I used the align center and align middle justification options. After I created the text, I used the horizontal/vertical constraint command to add a horizontal constraint to the top horizontal line of the text box. You could also apply it to one of the vertical edges. The text isn't constrained by default to allow a user to rotate it after creation. 

I then used the same horizontal/vertical constraint to add a horizontal constraint between the origin point (or center of the circle) and the midpoint of the left vertical edge (Red arrows) Then I used the horizontal/vertical constraint to add a vertical constraint between the origin (or center of the circle) and the midpoint of the top horizontal edge (purple arrows) That will the perfectly center the text in the circle. 

Let me know if you can get this to work out. If you need some more help, maybe post your file here so I can take a look. 

Thanks,

Kevin

[ryancousins]

That makes sense as well. It just seems strange to me that you can't choose the center point when it looks like the same kind of point as the ones on the perimeter. Not a huge deal. But thank you for the alternate method.

[dan.banach · Accepted solution]

Hi @ryancousins 

If you want to constrain to the centerpoint of the text box, you can add an angled construction line to the text box. Then add a constraint to the midpoint of the angled line by moving the cursor over the midpoint while holding down the shift key.

Hope this helps.

-Dan