Drawing Annotation Questions

[Anonymous]

I have a few questions related to annotating drawings in Inventor. Ive been using the modeling portion for a few months but I am currently making my first in depth drawing set. All of these things would make my drawings appear "neater" and easier to create.

1) Can you copy and paste text? When on a drawing, when I have a text box, I can right click the box and select copy but then there is no paste option after. Even when I press the keyboard shortcut control + v, nothing seems to paste. This is anooying when I need to label multiple beams with the same size as I need to make a new text box for each label.

2) Can you align text boxes to each other? On drawings I would like to have all my view titles aligned. I also would like to align my multiple beam labels.

3) Can you align centre lines? On my drawings when I use the "centerline bisector" tool to place grid lines on my columns, I can't seem to find an option to align the ends of them (see picture below).

4) Can you align section cut lines? When I take multiple section cuts from a single view, I cannot seem to find a way to align the cut lines (see picture below).

Any help for any of the above questions appreciated. Let me know if I am going about thing the wrong way or just not finding what I need.

[Anonymous]

When you copy the text are you editing it?  Sounds like what you want to do is select the text (but not edit it), then copy and click somewhere on the drawing, then you should be able to paste it.

As far as the alignments, I don't know of any way to do what you are asking.

[JDMather]

Give it time and practice - you will learn the tricks.  (Tip: Right Mouse Button everything - find out what sub-commands are hidden.)

And, I suspect that you could benefit from Sketched Symbols.

[Anonymous]

I copy text often using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. I also love the leader text with inserted Model properties. Copy-Paste those from one part to another and the leader text updates! 

You can have your drawing views label themselves, and you can change the label if you want. No text to follow-up! Aligning text boxes probably would need a sketch underlay. Click anywhere in the drawing area (not in a view) and pick Sketch. You can draw lines that are "Sketch only" that will not show when exited from the sketch. Align your boxes (or anthing, really) on those lines.

Aligning cut lines may be just a personal preference, because it's not that important. It may be prettier, but useless in the end. Make your drawing neat, clear, and it should be fine. Noone will put a straightedge to your cut line arrows.

If you really want everything to be on a grid, you could make a drawing template with grid lines embedded, sort of like an ACAD simulation.

Keep on cadding!

[mslosar · Accepted solution]

1. Yes. It works differently on a drawing and inside a sketch on that drawing for some reason. On the drawing it self, you select the text to copy, and CTRL-C or right click/copy, etc. To paste, make sure any view is deselected and it should paste it and allow you to place it whatever. On crowded drawings i've seen it be an issue.

2. Sadly, no. If you're in a sketch, you can place text and contrain it's justification point to a line which can then be set to SKETCH ONLY. That's about as close as you get. In the drawing sheet itself, if you're close enough, you can get a dotted line telling you you're in alignment but it's not actually aligned. It's baffling as to why something so simple isn't there yet. You shouldn't need 20 versions to get some features, you know?

3. You can't align center lines, but you can align views. That allows centerlines to line up. Also. use projected views if possible for the same reason. 

4. Depends on what you want to align section cut lines to. To each other? No. A section line is a 'sketch', which can be edited. When editing that sketch you can project geometry lines inside that sketch and align/constraint your section line to the reference lines.

[Anonymous]

When I was talking about copying text I was reffering to copying seperate instances of text to have multiple instances.

Example.

I have 1 piece of text that says W8x18 labelling a beam on my drawing. I have 30 beams on my drawing that are to be labelled as the same size. I want copy and past 30 instances of text that say W8x18 and move them around my drawing accordingly. I want to do this without having to click the "text" option form the menu bar 30 times and typing or "pasting" my text out again. I just want to hit ctrl + v 30 times and have 30 pieces of text come up.

[JDMather]

Have you checked out Sketched Symbols yet?

There are two methods of placement - I recommend experimenting with both methods.

[Anonymous]

Would that be located under "Annotae -> Symbols" ? If so then all i've used from there are the welding symbols.

[JDMather]

Not exactly.

In the drawing browser expand the Drawing Resources folder.

Right click on Sketch Symbols

You can now create a library of symbols you can use over and over again (place them in your drawing template).

They can be placed as simple text boxes or with leaders.

Investigate all of the options in these - they are very powerful.  You can set them up to self-populate with relevant information.

[Anonymous]

Sketched symbols are working good so far. Just one question: how do I save these symobls for use in futre projects?

[Anonymous]

Save sketched symbols to your templates.  If you are using 2016, there is now a symbol library.

[Anonymous]

This can be done. It is a matter of where you are pasting from. First, copy your text. Then, click outside of a view but still on the page. Then right click, again not on top of a view but still on the page. You should the outside of the text box following your mouse. Place as many text boxes as your heart desires. Good luck!