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-
- 5.9.1 DRAW TEXT
-
-
- The DRAW TEXT command is used to draw one or more text entities. The
- parameters used to define the text height and width etc. are taken from the
- selected parameters defined for the viewport or the system default
- parameters. Any of these parameters can be altered within the command by
- using the PARAMETERS modifier.
-
-
- COMMAND FORMAT
-
- #DRAW TEXT TEXT string [modifiers] :Loc x1 x2 ... xn [:Loc x1 ... ]
-
- Text entities are drawn at each location entered after the colon. ( See fig.
- 5.62 ). If more than one string is specified after the TEXT modifier, then
- the separate text strings are drawn sequentially at each location. ( See
- fig. 5.63 ). If more locations than strings are entered, the text strings
- will be drawn starting at the beginning of the list again after the last
- has been drawn.
-
- If a colon is entered in the IDENTS stream, the text strings will be drawn
- starting at the first of any list of text strings entered after the TEXT
- modifier.
-
-
- MODIFIERS
-
- LAYER Requires a layer number. This will override the current
- active layer.
-
- DEPTH Requires a depth number. This will override the current
- active depth.
-
- TEXT The TEXT modifier is followed by one or more text strings
- each of which will be drawn as a text entity. The string
- itself can be entered in one of three ways:
-
- TEXT string
-
- If the required string consists of standard alpha-numeric
- characters, it can be typed as is - delimiters are not
- required.
-
- TEXT "string"
-
- If the required string contains any characters that may have
- some special meaning in the command line - a colon or return
- for example - then delimiters must be used to enclose the
- string. There are several characters that may be used as
- text delimiters, for a full description see the documentation
- for command format.
-
- TEXT ""string1"string2"stringN""
-
- If more than one string is going to be entered for the
- command, then each individual string must be separated by
- a common delimiter. The start and end of the complete
- sequence of strings must be prefixed and suffixed with
- double delimiters.
-
- The total maximum number of characters for all strings must
- not exceed 1024 characters.
-
- RECTANGLE If the RECTANGLE modifier is used, then the position, height
- and width of the text string is calculated to fit into a
- specified rectangle. The command format differs slightly
- when using this modifier:
-
- #DRAW TEXT TEXT string RECTANGLE :Loc x1 x2 [:Loc ... ]
-
- The locations 'x1' and 'x2' define the extents of a
- rectangle into which the text will be fitted. ( See fig. 5.64
- ).
-
- Using RECTANGLE excludes the use of the HEIGHT, WIDTH and
- ANGLE modifiers.
-
- INCREMENT The INCREMENT modifier can be used to increment the last
- numeric value or alphbetic character of a text string in
- ascending or descending order.
-
- As an example, if the command
-
- #DRAW TEXT TEXT pin18 INCREMENT ASCENDING :Loc x1 x2 ...
-
- was used, the text entities created at each location
- entered after the colon would appear as:
-
- "pin18"
- "pin19"
- "pin20" etc.
-
- If the text string ends in a numeric value, the value can
- be incremented infinitley but can only be decremented to
- zero. If the last character is alphabetic, when the
- characters 'z' or 'Z' are reached, the next occurance of
- the string will restart with the last letter 'a' or 'A'.
-
- The modifier should be followed by one of two keywords:
-
- ASCENDING For ascending increments.
- DESCENDING For descending increments.
-
- ( See fig. 5.65 ).
-
- TNODE The TNODE modifier is used to relate a text entity to an
- existing tnode entity. Using TNODE excludes entering any
- text parameters as the text entity will take its parameters
- from the identified tnode.
-
- The command format when using the TNODE modifier is as
- follows:
-
- #DRAW TEXT TEXT string TNODE :Ent x1 x2 ... x2 [:Ent ... ]
-
- Instead of entering locations for each text entity, an
- existing tnode must be identified. The identified tnode is
- used to provide the text origin and parameters.
-
- The relationship created between the text and tnode entities
- is a parent/child relationship where the tnode is the parent
- entity and the text is the child entity. Therefore if the
- tnode is moved or deleted, the text entity will also be
- moved or deleted. Modifying the text entity will not affect
- its parent tnode.
-
-
- PARAMETERS The PARAMETERS modifier is used to enter a further family
- of modifiers used to control the text parameters and
- appearance.
-
- .HEIGHT A real value defining the character height. ( See fig. 5.66
- ).
-
- .WIDTH A real value defining the character width. If the HEIGHT
- modifier is used without the WIDTH modifier, the character
- width will be set to its default width in proportion to
- the character height.
-
- .ANGLE Text angle in degrees. ( See fig. 5.67 ).
-
- .ALIGN The ALIGN modifier allows you to derive the angle for the
- text by aligning it to a segment of an existing line, string,
- polygon or xhatch polygon entity. The command format changes
- slightly when ALIGN is used:
-
- #DRAW TEXT TEXT string PARAMETERS ALIGN
- :Ent x1 :Loc x2 x3 ... xn [:Ent ... ]
-
- 'x1' is used to select the required entity. The angle of the
- segment identified will be used to obtain the angle for the
- text. Only angle in the region of +/- 90 degrees will be
- used. Locations 'x2' through to 'xn' define the origin points
- for text entities.
-
- ALIGN excludes use of the ANGLE modifier.
-
- .SLANT Text slant in degrees. A slant of zero will produce
- standard upright text. A positive angle, say 10 degrees,
- will slant the text to the right. A negative angle will
- slant the text to the left.
-
- .SPACING Should be followed by one of two keywords:
-
- PROPORTIONAL Which will produce proportionally
- spaced characters.
-
- UNIFORM Which will produce uniformly spaced
- characters. Uniform spacing is required
- in circumstances where tables or data
- need to align vertically. ( See fig.
- 5.68 ).
-
- .CHARSPACING Requires a real value defining the distance between
- adjacent characters as a proportion of the character width.
- A value of zero will align characters with no space between
- them. A value of .5 will space each character by half the
- width of the character. Negative values can be used to
- produce overlapping characters.
-
- .LINESPACING A real value defining the spacing of vertically adjacent
- text strings as a proportion of the character height. A
- value of 1.5 will separate each line by half the character
- height. A value of 1 will leave no space between lines.
-
- .BOXED A flag indicating a box will be placed around the text.
-
- .FONT The name of an existing text font or a new font created
- with the DEFINE FONT command. ( See fig. 5.69 ).
-
- .JUSTIFY Requires one of three keywords which define how the text
- will be positioned relative to its input location:
-
- LEFT Text will be left justified.
- CENTRE Text will be centre justified.
- RIGHT Text will be right justified.
-
- ( See fig 5.70 ).
-
- .NOFILL Disables text fill if it is currently selected.
-
-
- The following modifiers affect the graphic appearance of the text. The
- FILLED modifier can only be used on text fonts that may be filled. Fonts
- such as the default STANDARD font cannot be filled.
-
- .FILLED Specifies that the text is to be filled with a solid colour
- or patternfill. If none of the following modifiers are used,
- the text will be filled with the colour assigned to the
- layer it will be created on.
-
- ..COLOURFILL Requires a colour number which will be used to fill the
- text overriding the default layer colour assignment.
-
- ...OUTLINE Will outline a colour filled character in the layer
- dependent colour.
-
- ..PATTERNFILL Takes the name of a patternfill which will be used to fill
- the text. To view all of the currently defined patternfills,
- use the command DISPLAY PATTERNFILL.
-
- ...COLOUR Only applicable to single colour patternfills. As with the
- modifier COLOURFILL, a colour number is entered which will
- be used as the patternfill colour overiding the default
- layer colour assignment.
-
- ....BACKGROUND Specifies that the patternfill background areas are to be
- filled with the layer dependent colour. If this modifier
- is not used, the background is filled with the background
- colour ( colour 0 ).
-
- ...OUTLINE Will outline a patternfilled character in the layer
- dependent colour.
-
-
- The following modifiers can be used to alter the graphic appearance of any
- type of text font.
-
- .HARDFONT Specifies that a hardware font will be selected. If this
- modifier is used without specifying a style and thickness,
- any previous hardfont selection made with SELECT TEXT is
- cancelled. The default will be set ( style 0 thickness 1 ).
-
- ..STYLE Requires one of the hardware line-style numbers 0 to 15. To
- view the hardware line-styles, use the command DISPLAY
- HARDFONT.
-
- ..THICKNESS Display line thickness, a value between 1 and 5.
-
- ATTRIBUTE Used to enter one or more attributes associated with this
- entity. For a full description of the ATTRIBUTE option, see
- the documentation for the command ADD ATTRIBUTE.
-
-
-