AutoCAD 2008 User's
Guide > Annotate
Drawings > Dimensions and
Tolerances > Use Dimension
Styles > Control Dimension
Text >
Control the Location of Dimension Text
You can locate dimension text manually and specify its alignment and orientation.
The program comes with several justification settings that facilitate compliance with international standards, or you can choose your own location for the text.
Many of the settings are interdependent. Example images in the Dimension Style Manager are updated dynamically to illustrate how text appears as you change the settings.
Whether text is inside or outside the extension lines, you can choose whether it is aligned with the dimension line or remains horizontal. The following examples show two combinations of these options.
The default alignment is horizontal dimension text, even for vertical dimensions.
Position Dimension Text Horizontally
The position of the text along the dimension line in relation to the extension lines is referred to as text placement. To place text yourself when you create a dimension, use the Place Text Manually When Dimensioning option on the Fit tab of the Modify/New Dimension Style dialog box. Use the text placement options to automatically place text at the center of the dimension line, at either extension line, or over either extension line.
First and second extension lines are defined by the order in which you specified the extension line origins when you created the dimension. For angular dimensions, the second extension line is counterclockwise from the first. In the following illustrations, 1 is the first extension line origin and 2 the second.
If you place text manually, you can place the dimension text anywhere along the dimension line, inside or outside the extension lines, as you create the dimension. This option provides flexibility and is especially useful when space is limited. However, the horizontal alignment options provide better accuracy and consistency between dimensions.
Position Dimension Text Vertically
The position of the text relative to the dimension line is referred to as vertical text placement. Text can be placed above or below or centered within the dimension line. In the ANSI standards, centered text usually splits the dimension line. In the ISO standards, it is usually above or outside the dimension line. For example, ISO standards permit angular dimension text to appear in any of the ways shown.
Other settings, such as Text Alignment, affect the vertical alignment of text. For example, if Horizontal Alignment is selected, text inside the extension lines and centered within the dimension line is horizontal, as shown in the leftmost illustration above. The text is horizontal even if the dimension line is not itself horizontal.
