Loading Text from a File onto a Drawing

Command:

pdms_textfile

Menu Selection:

PDMS Draw>Load Text

Initial Prompt:

Filename of text file:

Use:

Enter the name of the text file, with extension (if present).

Left/Centre/Right/<start point>:

Click where you wish the text to start, or select one of the justification options (by pressing L, C or R as appropriate). The justification options will give:

Start point:

Centre point:

or End point:

prompts. Click at the required justification point. The default is left justified.

The remaining prompts are:

Height <default>:

where default is the AutoCAD default text height. This will be the last text height used, or the starting default (0.2). A height of at least 10 times the AutoCAD starting default (for metric drawings) is recommended.

Press Enter to accept the default value, input a new value, or define the text height by clicking on a point above the text start point.

Rotation angle <default>:

where default is the AutoCAD default rotation angle. This will be the last angle used, or the starting default (0).

Press Enter to accept the default value, input a new value, or define the angle by clicking on a suitable point.

Line Spacing (range -0.5 to 3.0) <default>:

where default is the AutoCAD default line spacing. This will be the last spacing used, or the starting default (0).

Press Enter to accept the default value, or input a new value.

See Note: below for further details.

Block Name/<None>:

If you wish the text to be placed in a block then input the block name, otherwise just press Enter.

Note:
Text is loaded from a file onto the current layer on the drawing. The start point is always located at the top of the input text. Text height and rotation are specified in the same way as the AutoCAD text command.

Line spacing factor (LSF) specifies the gap between lines of text. It is measured as a proportion of the text height. If LSF=0 (the default) the lines are positioned one below the other with no gap. If LSF=1, one blank line is left between each line of text.

If LSF=-0.2 then the lines of text will overlap. Note that text fonts allow for spacing above and below characters in the font. This means that the text body itself may not overlap with adjacent lines of text for small negative LSF (for example, -0.1).

If a block name is specified the text loaded onto the drawing is put into a block of that name and an INSERT created on the drawing. If no block name is specified then the text is loaded onto the drawing as individual text entities.

If a block name is used more than once, then previous examples of blocks with that name will be redefined (to conform to the new settings) should you respond positively to the Redefine it? prompt.

The MONOTXT font (or any other fixed-spaced font) is recommended when loading in column style reports.