Unit 7: Annotating a Drawing with Text and Hatching Overview Almost every drawing you create will contain some type of text. At the very least, the name of the person creating the drawing is included. Text is also commonly used to create notes, a bill of materials, and door and window schedules. Many architectural drawings also make use of hatching to represent different materials, such as brick, wood, or stone. Objectives Use text styles (DDSTYLE) for architectural drawings. Select a font for Architectural drawings. Name the text style. Set the text height for architectural drawings. Enter text and changing the style. Use architectural hatch patterns. Introduction The LINE, CIRCLE, ARC and POLYGON commands can be used to make the majority of geometry required in architectural drawings. Most drawings contain more than just geometry, however. Almost every drawing you create will contain some type of text, such as dimensioning and notes. Adding text in manual drafting can be a long and tedious process. Using a CAD system greatly simplifies this process. When it is properly applied, all text on a CAD drawing will be perfect. In addition to text, many architectural drawings contain some type of hatching. Often elevation drawings are included with a set of plans. To make the elevation appear more realistic, hatching may be used to give the appearance of brick or some other type of construction material to the drawing. Section 1: Adding Text to a Drawing AutoCAD allows you to use a wide variety of fonts in your drawing. Fonts provided with AutoCAD have the (.SHX) extension. In addition to the.shx fonts, you can also use TrueType fonts (.TTF). Many programs provide their own fonts, and as long as they have one of the file extensions listed above, they can be used in a drawing. With the ability to use a wide variety of different font types in a drawing, your possibilities are almost limitless! 74
Selecting the Correct Font The design of modern alphabets originated in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Over time, these hieroglyphics evolved into a cursive hieratic style of writing. Originally, the Roman capital alphabet consisted of 22 different characters. These characters have remained practically unchanged to this day. The wide variety of font styles we see today were derived from the design of the original Roman capitals. With the wide variety of font styles available, not to mention variations on a style (such as boldface or italic), selecting the proper font can be very difficult. When architectural drawings are created manually, the drafter often uses a unique lettering style to signify that it is his or her work. This type of lettering is normally called hand lettering. AutoCAD provides several different font files that look like the hand lettering used in manual drafting. Figure 7.1 displays the City Blueprint font. This style, which is a TrueType font, is included with AutoCAD. Figure 7.1 The City Blueprint font, included with AutoCAD. Defining a Text Style for Architectural Drawings (STYLE) As previously mentioned, hand letter fonts are included in many architectural drawings. The best way to define the different text styles is with the Text Style dialog box shown in figure 7.2. You can access the Text Style dialog box as follows: Select Text Style from the Format pulldown menu. Type style at the Command: prompt. Figure 7.2 The Text Style dialog box is used to define the different text styles used in a drawing. 75
The procedure for creating a text style is as follows: 1. Name the Style. Give your new style a name. For ease in naming the style, indicate the name of the font used along with its size. 2. Select a Font. After naming your new style, select the font. For most drawings you should use one font throughout the drawing. If a drawing requires different sized fonts, the sizes should be based on the same font. 3. Preview the Font. The Character Preview window will provide a graphical picture of the selected font. 4. Set the Height Factor. To ensure uniformity, set a default height for each text style. Naming the Text Style The name of the text style should be based on the font and its size. For example, if you are using the City Blueprint font with a height of 4, name the style CIBT4. Selecting the City Blueprint Font The City Blueprint font is located in the Font Name dropdown menu located in the Text Style dialog box. Choose the down arrow below Font Name to access the available fonts. Setting the Text Height For most architectural drawings you should use one font style throughout the drawing. If a drawing requires different sized fonts, they should be based on the same font style. Creating different text styles and setting a default value for the height will ensure standardization throughout your drawing. By entering a text height, a constant value is applied to the style when it is used in the DTEXT, MTEXT, or TEXT commands. The remaining effects, such as width factor and obliquing angle, should be left at their default settings. Entering Text and Changing the Style After defining the text styles, you can enter text into your drawing using the TEXT or DTEXT commands. Any text you enter will use the style that is current. You can change the current text style by using the following: Text Style dialog box. Access the Text Style dialog box and select the new style you want current. Select Apply, Close. Type Style or (s) at the initial prompt. At the Justify/Style/<Start point>: prompt, enter s. Type in the name of the new style, or type a? to list styles that are currently available. 76
Displaying and Outputting Text Lettering on a CAD drawing must be legible and suitable for easy and quick output. Complex fonts like City Blueprint can significantly increase the time required to regenerate a drawing. AutoCAD provides a method to change the display and plotting of complex fonts. You can also change the output quality of several different fonts. The following system variables can be used to control the display of text on the screen. To change the values of these variables, enter the name of the variable at the Command: prompt. QTEXTMODE. The QTEXTMODE system variable controls the appearance of the text. By default, QTEXTMODE is set to OFF, and the text appears normally on the screen. If QTEXT- MODE is turned ON, all text is replaced by a rectangle that redraws, regenerates, and plots faster than text. 0=OFF. Text is shown normally (the default). 1=ON. Text is replaced with a rectangle. TEXTFILL. Textfill controls the display and output of TrueType, PostScript, and Bitstream fonts. By displaying text as outlines, you can improve output and drawing speed. 0= Displays text as outlines. 1= Displays text as filled images. TEXTQLTY. This variable sets the resolution of text created with TrueType fonts. Increasing the value of TEXTQLTY can make the text easier to read on the display. Increasing the value, however, makes the display and plotting speed slower. Lowering the value makes the display and plotting speed faster, but makes the text more difficult to read on the screen. Valid values are 0 to 100.0. The default value is 50, which sets the text resolution to 300 dpi. Setting the value to 100.0 sets the resolution to 600 dpi. Section 2: Filling Areas with Hatching Hatching is used in many architectural drawings. A hatch pattern is often used to indicate the material used to produce the object. The pattern may represent materials such as brick, sand, concrete, or wood. Large areas filled with hatching can significantly increase the size of a drawing and slow down regeneration and plot times. Consider hatching small areas instead of the entire area that contains the hatch. Hatch patterns provided with AutoCAD are not drawn to scale. A scale of 2 may have quite dramatic effects on two different hatch patterns. Hatch patterns may also be dragged and dropped directly from the Design Center. To do this locate the acad.pat file in the Design Center to display the various hatch patterns. To hatch an area simply drag the pattern from the Design Center to the area you want to hatch. The Design Center displaying the standard hatch patterns is shown in Figure 7.3. 77
Figure 7.3 The Design Center can be used to drag and drop hatch patterns directly into the drawing. Unit Review Text and hatching are two common tools used to enhance architectural drawings. Before adding text to a drawing, you first must define the style. In architectural drawings, you should select one font style for use in the drawing, and create a different style for each size of the font used in the drawing. Hatch patterns are often used to indicate the material an object is made of. AutoCAD supplies several architectural hatch patterns, located in the ACAD.PAT file. 78