AutoCAD® 2012 FOR DUMMIES®

Getting Ready to Write

In AutoCAD, adding text to a drawing is only slightly more complicated than adding it to a word-processing document. Here are the basic steps, which I explain in more detail in the sections that follow:

1. Select an existing AutoCAD text style, or create a new style, that includes the font and other text characteristics you want to use.

   Just like a word processor, AutoCAD uses styles — collections of formatting properties — to control the appearance of drawing text. I explain text styles in the next section.

2. Make an appropriate layer current.

   To make your AutoCAD drawing efficient and easy to edit for both you and others, create text on its own layer. Most drafting offices already have a set of CAD standards that establish specific layers for text and other object types.

3. Run one of these commands to draw text:
   • TEXT: Draws single-line text
   • MTEXT: Draws paragraph (also called multiline) text
4. Specify the text alignment points, justification, and (if necessary) height.
5. Type the text.
6. (Optional) For annotative text, assign annotation scales to the text you just typed.

Annotatively yours

One of the great things about AutoCAD is that it offers multiple ways of accomplishing your drafting tasks. The drawback, of course, is that it's much more complicated to learn. You could master one of the ways and then find yourself working in an office where you're expected ...