by David Gate
The normal text tool within Inventor allows you to add text into a sketch but it only allows you to add it in a straight line (although it does give you some limited control to rotate it around at right angles).
Hidden underneath the text tool is “Geometry Text”. This text tool is a lot more powerful and gives you a lot more control over your text.
Geometry Text allows you to place text so it follows a line, arc or circle in your sketch. Tying this is with the new arc length dimension you can really control the text.
Using the Fit Text button toggles on the automatic spacing, meaning the individual letter spacing will expand to fill the selected geometry, very useful if you need to it be an exact size. The offset distance allows you to enter both a positive and negative figure or pick a user parameter as shown meaning all your text can match and be edited using the parameter window. The Start Angle is particularly useful when your text is going round a circle and you want it to start at a specific point.
You might notice that the Geometry Text dialog is more limited than the normal text editor but this is not the case. If you hit the pencil button it fires up the normal text editor allowing you to add in custom text, linked parameter and iproperty text and more.
