Placing text on a sketch is very awkward!

[Anonymous]

So, I just wanted to add a label on one of my models...  Seems like a simple enough thing to do.  Start a sketch on one of the faces and use the 'Text' command to enter some text.  It seemed to work OK until I started trying to position the text.  I wanted the text to be centered horizontally and vertically inside a rectangle.  I tried using the symmetry constraint to center the construction lines around a center line, but that doesn't work.  Once you select the two construction lines (top and bottom for example), it won't let you select the symmetry line.  I tried everything I could think of and it just wouldn't work.  Yet, I could draw my own rectangle with construction lines and get it to straddle the symmetry line just fine so it seems, that is it something related to the text field.

I did manage to get it positioned where I wanted it by using a convoluted scheme of attaching sketch point mid-line and making them coincidence with other sketch points.  Then I had the problem of the sketch points showing up .. It just looked awful.  So,  I restrained the label in it's position with dimensions and deleted the sketch points.  It looked better except for the orange construction box around the label.

It doesn't much matter anyway though because if/when you double clicked on the text field and edit it in any way (change the text, change the font, change the size),  the whole label is apparently deleted and recreated from scratch and any dimensions or points you had attached to it are gone and you have to start all over again.

As you can see from the above screenshot, the pivot point is always place at the lower left of the text.  Why not give the user the choice of 'left', 'center', or 'right' for horizontal alignment and 'top', 'middle' and 'bottom' for vertical alignment.  The pivot and alignment point could then be placed based on these.

When editing the text field, this point should stay constant, so the text would stay where it is supposed to be.  Changing the size of the text, the justification, or font should not make any difference in where the text is anchored on the sketch.

Also, being that this stuff is 'parametric', it would be GREAT if there were a way to incorporate user parameters into the text fields.  perhaps some kind of escape sequence such as 'UP<parmName>'.  This is why I was trying to label my model in the first place.

Jody

[jhackney1972]

You need to add some construction lines on the text box to use the Symmetrical sketch constraint.  The Construction lines around the text can be dimensioned and will react to all the sketching constraints available as long as you have and are using the correct geometry.  Take a look at the screencast.

I would also suggest that you do not leave text as a free sketch in your model unless it if fully constrained because it will move around as other features are added or edited.  Extrude it as a very shallow cut or raised feature.

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much for your reply.  As I said in my original post, I did figure out how to align the text by sticking things to the construction box around the text.  I used points on the construction box and the box I was centering the text in and aligned them horizontal and vertical.  It worked, but your way with construction lines and the symmetry constraint is easier.  I also did extrude the text a few thousandths and paint the text to get rid of the construction box around the text.

Also, the real awkwardness, comes in when you try to edit the text field.  Please try that in your example. Double click on the text and change the text to be a few characters longer or shorter.  It will no longer be centered your construction lines will not be where you left them and you will have to mess with it again.  In fact,  you can't even use the midpoint constraint to put the construction lines back where the were and and recenter the text.  The only thing you can do is delete the construction lines (which also deletes the symmetry constraints) and start over.  Which I find to be very awkward.

I created what I think is a really neat parametric model and because you can easily make so many variations of the model,  I wanted to put a sticker or label on it so you could easily identify the variables that were used.  I had already already accepted that I would have to manually update the labels after changing the parameters but I thought I should at least be able to define the position and size of the text field as part of the model.  But alas... if you have to go back and completely redo every aspect of the text field every time you updated it, it ends up being more of a waste of time than a help.

I don't want this to come off like a complaint.  I'm just a hobbyist, using this software for free and very great full to have it.  It was intended to be more of a suggestion as to how I feel the software could be improved.  It certainly seems like it would be much easier to just click 'center', tie the text to a point in the sketch and then have it stay there regardless of how you changed the text/font/size etc.  Also, like I said, having the ability to access user parameters in the text field would be gravy

I did find you post to be helpful and thank you very much.

Jody