Explore the process of creating annotations in AutoCAD, focusing specifically on text for room labels. Discover techniques to adjust text size, alignment, and placement, and learn how to use the Multiline Text tool for effective drafting projects.
Key Insights
- The article offers guidance on creating annotations in AutoCAD, which can include items such as room labels, door and window symbols, and drawing dimensions.
- The Multiline Text tool is used in the process, allowing users to draw text, adjust its size and justification, and underline for emphasis. The text can be moved and placed using the center grip.
- The annotation process includes duplicating text for different rooms and updating the labels accordingly, demonstrating how to effectively use AutoCAD for drafting projects.
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In this video, we will begin on our annotations. Annotations mean anything that is not a real-world object, and it helps us to understand our drawing.
In this case, it will be text for room labels, inserting blocks for our door and window symbols, and drawing dimensions, which is a special type of annotative object in AutoCAD. For now, let's start by drawing some text. And in order to do that, I'll first close my blocks dialog box, and let's choose our A text layer.
With A text selected, we can go to the Home panel, Annotation tab, and choose Multiline Text. In order to draw this text, I'll just draw a box that's roughly this size, and let's check our options. We can use text 01 for these room labels.
So I'll choose text 01. Our height can be six inches, and at a quarter inch equals a foot, this will print the text at one eighth of an inch high, and this is a fairly standard size for drafting projects. The justification is important.
This should be middle center, and that will help us understand how to place our text in the middle of this room. Also, let's underline this text. And now we can type bedroom, and close the text editor.
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Now this text is in one of the rooms, and if I click on it, I can see that it has multiple grip options. This changes the width of our multiline text, and this changes the height of our multiline text if we wanted to squeeze it in a different direction. For now, I'm more interested in moving the text using the center grip.
So I'll click it to make it hot, and try to align the text somewhere in the middle of the room. Now I want to copy this text to the other rooms, and I can use a grip edit for this. Click the grip to make it hot, right click, copy.
And I don't need to use ortho. Instead, I can just use my long crosshairs to visually align where these text objects are gonna go. I'll click to place one here.
And even though this says bedroom, I can place one in the bathroom, and one in the family room. Hit escape to say that I'm done. Escape, escape, escape.
And quickly jump into the bathroom, and update this text with a double click to change this to bath. Close text editor. And double click the text in the family room, and change that to family room.
Remember, you can click close text editor, or click anywhere outside the text bubble to close your multi-line text. Zoom extents, and control S to save. In the next video, we will update our blocks for the door and window symbols, and insert them into our drawing.
See you there.
