By Dennis Collin
I recently posted about how text can be positioned along a curve using a couple of different techniques.
This outlined either using the Align Text Express tool which gets text to align to and flow along any circular curve, or Lee Mac’s utility that would align any text object to any curve but due to annotation limitations cannot make it flow along a curve.
However, with the power of programming it is possible to break the text into separate characters, get the individual characters to follow the curve and then group them together for ease of selection. As I indicated on a previous post this routine would be ideal for the placement of such annotations like Street Names on utility drawings.
The routine is a Lisp routine, provided on Lee Mac’s AutoLisp page. The routine can be accessed here:
http://www.lee-mac.com/slinkytext.html
I have outlined how to load Lisp and other routines here using AutoCAD’s Appload command. Popular routines can be added to a Startup suite and will work like standard AutoCAD commands.
Unlike the Express Tool Arc Aligned Text, elements can be made to flow along any curve. It does not have quite the editability of Arcaligned text but since it uses standard text elements it is probably easier to create new text strings and realign as required.
To get the text to flow along a curve create a single line or Multiline text object and choose the selected curve. The routine will separate the characters and flow them along the curve, grouping them in the process.
For more useful routines look here for a list of sites including Lee Mac’s collection of utilities.