The halls of Autodesk are getting quieter and quieter as the week continues. Autodesk observes what is known as the "annual week of rest" between Christmas and New Years Day which as employees we look forward to every year! So many employees add on a few vacation days here and there, and consequently it's getting mighty quiet at Autodesk Headquarters! Today I had the privilege of spending a couple of hours with Doug Cochran, AutoCAD Product Manager, and he was kind enough to give me a sneak peak into the next release of AutoCAD. Of course, I can't say anything, but I can tell you there are some pretty cool features we can all look forward to! A great big thanks to the very patient Doug for taking the time out of his ever busy schedule for me!
Doug also gave me some nice insight into the Layout Export Preview Tool that I mentioned in my last blog entry. Apparently this tool can also be used to "smash" (his term) your dynamic blocks along the way. This is great if you want to send someone a drawing file that doesn't contain all your super smart dynamic block information. Just a thought...
I have some wrapping to do tonight but wanted to provide you with a quick holiday Hip Tip before I do.
An AutoCAD Holiday Hip Tip on Scaling Text:
Sure, you can use the good old SCALE command to change the size of existing text objects but then you're faced with one base point for all the selected text strings. And that means you get to scale each text string individually otherwise they are going to end up moving to all over to different locations (and that's no good). The SCALETEXT command, on the other hand, is built expressly for text objects and makes quick work of just such a project!
Command: scaletext
Select objects: Use an object selection method, and press ENTER when you finish
Enter a base point option for scaling [Existing/Align/Fit/Center/Middle/Right/TL/TC/TR/ML/MC/MR/BL/BC/BR]<Existing>: Specify a location to serve as a base point for scaling
Specify new model height or [Paper height/Match object/Scale factor] <5.0534>:
Here you will find all the text insertion options we are familiar with to help us scale our text without relocating them.
note: this only scales the text to the specified base point - it doesn't actually change the justification for the text.
It's also so easy to specify a new height for the text so you don't have to do any math and figure out the appropriate scale factor (and that's always good!). And if you've already jumped on the Annotative Objects bandwagon you'll love the Paper Height option (which only works for annotative objects).
Personally - I love the Match object option. You simply select an existing text object with the correct height and SCALETEXT will match the height - it doesn't get much easier than that!
Give SCALETEXT a try the next time you need to scale one or more text strings - you're going to love it!
Happy Holidays...I leave you with a picture of Tiffany by the Christmas tree (I told you I had to wrap some presents!).
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