MTEXT

MTEXT writes a paragraph of text, such as a general note on a drawing. You draw a box with two corners, and the text wraps to fit the box’s width. The whole paragraph is one object.

How it works

Type MT (or T) and press Enter. Musa CAD shows the current text style and height. Click the first corner of the box, then the opposite corner. Then type the text and press Enter.

Command line

Command: MT
Current text style:  "Standard"  Text height:  2.5000  Annotative:  No
Specify first corner: (click a point)
Specify opposite corner or [Height/Justify/Line spacing/Rotation/Style/Width/Columns]: H
Specify height <2.5000>: 3.5
Specify opposite corner or [Height/Justify/Line spacing/Rotation/Style/Width/Columns]: (click the opposite corner)
Enter text: ALL DIMENSIONS IN MM. REMOVE ALL SHARP EDGES.
MText placed.

While you choose the opposite corner, a rectangle follows the cursor. An arrow inside it shows which way the text will grow: down from a top justification, up from a bottom one, and both ways from the middle.

Only the width of the box really matters. The text wraps at the box’s width and takes as many lines as it needs, even if that runs past the box’s bottom edge. The box’s height only helps place the text when you choose a middle or bottom justification.

After each option, Musa CAD asks for the opposite corner again, so you can set several options before you click.

Options

Option	What it does
Height (H)	Asks Specify height <2.5000>:. The height of the capital letters. Enter keeps the value shown.
Justify (J)	Asks Enter justification [TL/TC/TR/ML/MC/MR/BL/BC/BR] <TL>:. The point of the box the text hangs from: top, middle or bottom (T, M, B), then left, center or right (L, C, R). TL, top left, is where Musa CAD starts.
Line spacing (L)	Asks Enter line spacing type [At least/Exactly] <At least>:, then Enter line spacing factor or distance <1.0000x>:. Type a factor with an x, such as 1.5x, or type a distance from one line to the next. Both types give the same result in Musa CAD.
Rotation (R)	Asks Specify rotation angle <0.0000>:. The angle of the whole paragraph, in degrees.
Style (S)	Asks Enter style name or [?] <Standard>:. Uses that text style’s font, and its height if it has one, for this text. ? lists the styles. It does not change the current style.
Width (W)	Asks Specify width:. Type the width, or click a point to give it, instead of clicking the opposite corner. The text hangs from the first corner. A width of 0 means the text does not wrap.
Columns (C)	Asks Enter column type [Dynamic/Static/No columns] <Dynamic>:. Columns are not available yet: any answer but N or Enter gets Columns are not available yet; the text is one column.

Typing the text

At Enter text: type the whole paragraph on one line. Musa CAD wraps it to the width of the box. Press Enter to place it.

The same text codes work as in single-line text: %%d for °, %%p for ±, %%c for ⌀, \U+XXXX for any character by its Unicode number, and the rest listed under Text codes on the TEXT page. In MTEXT, %%o and %%u are taken out, but no overline or underline is drawn yet.

Text that comes from an AutoCAD drawing keeps its MTEXT formatting codes, such as \H for height, \C for colour and \S for stacked fractions, and Musa CAD draws them.

Editing the text afterwards

Double-click the text when no command is running. The Edit MText window opens with the text in a box, codes and all. Here Enter starts a new line, so this is where you split the text into separate paragraphs. Click OK to save the change, or Cancel to leave the text as it was. The change is one undo step, and the text keeps its layer, position and other properties.

You can also:

• Drag the text’s grips. One moves the text; the width grip changes the width, and the text wraps again as you drag.
• Use TEXTEDIT to type new words at the command line.
• Change the height, justification, line spacing and more in the PROPERTIES palette.

Good to know

• MTEXT starts each time with the current text style’s height, or 2.5000 if the style has no height of its own. It does not remember the height you typed last time.
• A height or line spacing of 0 or less is refused with Requires a positive value. A rotation that is not a number gets Requires an angle.
• A wrong justification gets Enter TL, TC, TR, ML, MC, MR, BL, BC or BR.
• A style name that does not exist gets Cannot find text style "NAME". (with the name you typed).
• Esc cancels the command and nothing is placed.
• To type the text line by line at the command line instead, use -MTEXT. To turn single-line texts into one MTEXT, use TXT2MTXT.

Compared with AutoCAD

MTEXT uses the prompts AutoCAD users know, with AutoCAD’s single line spacing of 5/3 of the text height. Columns are not available yet, and formatting only some of the words (another height or colour) cannot be done from MTEXT’s prompts; the developers list it as planned, and text from AutoCAD drawings keeps such formatting.

Next

• Write labels one line at a time with TEXT.
• Point a note at a feature with QLEADER or MLEADER.
• Read about notes, dimensions and leaders in Annotation.