- Introduction
- Using Isometric Snap
- Switching Isometric Planes
- Using COPY and Other Edit Commands
- Drawing Isometric Circles with ELLIPSE
- Drawing Text Aligned with Isometric Planes
- Drawing Ellipses in Orthographic Views
- Saving and Restoring Displays with VIEW
- Chapter Summary
- Chapter Test Questions
- Chapter Drawing Projects
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Drawing Text Aligned with Isometric Planes
Adding text to isometric drawings has some challenges you may not have encountered previously. To create the appearance that text aligns with an isometric plane, it needs to be altered in two ways. First, the whole line of text needs to be rotated to align with one side of the plane. Second, the obliquing angle of individual characters needs to be adjusted to match the tilt of the plane. Rotation angle, you recall, is handled through the command sequence of the TEXT command. Obliquing angle is set as a text style characteristic using the STYLE command.
Typically text in an isometric drawing will align with one of the three isometric planes. In order to demonstrate how this works, we add single-line text to each of the planes in the bracket, as shown in Figure 11-15. Though we will be drawing in three planes, we can accomplish this with only two new text styles. These will be simple variations of the Standard text style, with the oblique angles we need for isometric alignment. The right isoplane will use a 30° oblique angle, while the top and left planes will use a −30° angle.
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Figure 11-15 Drawing text in isometric view
✓ To begin, you should be in the bracket drawing created in the last section. You should be in isometric snap and grid mode.
✓ Open the Annotation panel extension and pick the Text Style tool at the top left, next to the name of the current style (Standard).
This opens the Text Style dialog box. Our first new text style will be used for drawing text in the right isoplane. If you look at Figure 11-15, you can easily see that this text (the word Right) is rotated along the 30° X-axis of the isoplane. What may be less obvious is that the individual characters are also drawn at a 30° oblique angle. We enter the rotation angle when we draw the text. Here we set the oblique angle for this plane.
✓ Pick the New . . . button.
✓ In the New Text Style dialog box, type isotext30.
✓ Click OK.
✓ Change the Oblique Angle to 30.
✓ Click Apply.
We repeat these steps to create a style with –30° obliquing angle.
✓ Pick the New . . . button.
✓ In the New Text Style dialog box, type isotext-30.
✓ Click OK.
✓ Change the Oblique Angle to –30.
✓ Click Apply.
✓ Highlight isotext30 in the Styles list and pick the Set Current button.
✓ Click Close.
✓ If you see a message saying the current text style has been modified, click Yes.
You should now be back in the drawing with isotext30 as the current text style. We are now ready to add our text.
✓ Pick the Single Line text tool from the Annotation panel.
✓ Pick a start point on the right front side of the bracket, as shown by the placement of the word Right in Figure 11-15.
✓ Specify a text height of .30.
✓ Type 30 <Enter> for the rotation angle.
✓ Type Right <Enter>.
✓ Press <Enter>.
The word Right should be drawn on the bracket, as shown in Figure 11-15. Now draw the word Left on the left isoplane, as shown. This will use the isotext-30 style and a rotation angle of –30°.
✓ Open the Annotation panel extension and pick isotext-30 from the Text Style drop-down list.
✓ Pick the Single Line text tool from the Annotation panel.
✓ Pick a start point on the left side of the bracket, as shown by the placement of the word Left in Figure 11-15.
✓ Press <Enter> for a text height of .30.
✓ Type –30 <Enter> for the rotation angle.
✓ Type Left <Enter>.
✓ Press <Enter>.
Finally, for text in the top isoplane, use isotext-30 with a rotation angle of +30°.
✓ Pick the Single Line text tool from the Annotation panel.
✓ Pick a start point on the top of the bracket, as shown by the placement of the word Top in Figure 11-15.
✓ Press <Enter> for a text height of .30.
✓ Type 30 <Enter> for the rotation angle.
✓ Type Top <Enter>.
✓ Press <Enter>.
Your screen should resemble Figure 11-15.
This completes the present discussion of isometric drawing. You can find more in the drawing suggestions at the end of this chapter.
Now, we go on to explore the nonisometric use of the ELLIPSE command and then introduce the VIEW command for saving named views in a drawing.