Working with text styles

 

A text style is a named, saved collection of format settings that determines the

appearance of text.

 

Understanding text styles

When you add text to a drawing, it is created using the current text style. The text

style determines the font, size, angle, orientation, if the text is annotative by default,

and other text characteristics.

 

Every drawing has at least one text style, named Standard, which initially uses the

Arial font. You cannot delete the Standard style, but you can rename it or modify it.

For example, you can change the font or the oblique angle applied to the font. You

also can use an unlimited number of additional text styles in your drawing.

 

From the CADdirect 2022 Explorer, you can directly edit any setting associated

with a text style by using the single-click editing method to change the setting.

Displaying text style information in CADdirect 2022 Explorer

 

To display the CADdirect 2022 Explorer Text Styles element

 

Do one of the following to choose Explore Text Styles:

 

• On the ribbon, choose Tools > Text Styles (in Explorer).

• On the menu, choose Tools > CADdirect 2022 Explorer > Explore Text Styles.

• On the Explorer toolbar, click the Explore Text Styles tool.

• Type expstyles and then press Enter.

Creating and naming text styles

Fonts are character sets that consist of letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and symbols. Each font is stored in its own font file. Text styles apply additional formatting to fonts. You can create multiple text styles based on the same font, changing the various characteristics to alter the appearance of the font. To create a new text style, you assign formatting characteristics to a font.

 

CADdirect 2022 uses *.shx font files and provides a selection of fonts. These fonts are located in the CADdirect 2022/Fonts directory. You can also

use any font designed to work with AutoCAD as well as Windows system fonts. Many fonts are available from third-party vendors.

 

Modifying text styles

A new text style is initially assigned default values for height, width factor, oblique angle, and other characteristics. You can change these values for both new and existing text styles. You can also change the font assigned to the text style. If you change the font or orientation properties of a text style assigned to text previously inserted in the drawing, all text using that style is regenerated to reflect the changes. Oblique angle and height, if specified, are given by the style definition when text is created, but are not updated for existing text when the style is changed.

 

A fixed text height value of 0 allows you to specify the text height at the time you insert text into the drawing. Any other value sets height of the text to that value; the program does not prompt for the text height when you insert text into the drawing. The width factor determines the horizontal scaling of text. A value less than 1 compresses the text (for example, 0.75 compresses the text 25 percent); a value greater than 1 expands the text (for example, 1.50 expands the text 50 percent). The oblique angle determines the forward or backward slant of text as an angle offset from 90 degrees. Negative values slant text to the left; positive values slant text to the right.

 

Setting the current text style

When you insert text in a drawing, the text is created using the current text style. You can also select a different text style when you create text.