TextObject

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Text

The TextObject command draws text-shaped curves, surfaces, or polysurfaces based on TrueType fonts.

Steps

  1. Specify options.
  2. Pick a location.
Add special symbols in the scriptable command, -TextObject

Text containing spaces, to be entered at the Rhino command line, must be enclosed in double-quotes. In addition, some rich text characters cannot be input directly at the Rhino command line; they need to be enclosed in double-quotes or escaped using a single backslash in order to be correctly interpreted. For example:

Symbol

Input

Output

'

(Single quote)

"'xyz'"

'xyz'

"

(Double quote)

""xyz""

"xyz"

!

(Exclamation mark at beginning)

"!xyz"

!xyz

\

(Backslash)

"\\xyz\\"

\xyz\

\n

(New line)

x\ny\nz

x

y

z

{ and }

(Curly brackets)

\{xyz\}

{xyz}

Text Object options

The text string, font, height, italic, and bold settings will be added to the output objects' attribute user text.

Height ___ <units>

Sets the text height in model units.

Font

The text appearance.

  • Click to open the drop-down list, and type the initial letter of a font to find the font quickly.

  • Click the font control twice and scroll the mouse wheel to select a font with preview.

  • If a font used by an annotation is missing on the current system:

    You will be prompted when the model is opened.

    Enable the "Don't show this message again" checkbox in the warning dialog box to stop detecting missing fonts.

    To re-enable missing font detection, enable Rhino.Warnings.MissingFontWarning in Rhino Options > Advanced.

    The annotation displays with a substitute font in viewports.

    The missing font is listed with "(not installed)" in the font list.

Upper case

Changes all letters in the selected text to uppercase.

Lower case

Changes all letters in the selected text to lowercase.

Capitalize words

Changes the first letters of the words in the selected text to uppercase, all the other letters to lowercase.

Invert case

Reverts uppercase and lowercase in the selected text.

Text alignment
Left align text

Sets the horizontal text alignment to the left.

Center align text

Sets the horizontal text alignment to the center.

Right align text

Sets the horizontal text alignment to the right.

Top align text

Sets the vertical text alignment to the top.

Middle align text

Sets the vertical text alignment to the middle.

Bottom align text

Sets the vertical text alignment to the bottom.

B

Sets the font style to bold.

I

Sets the font style to italic.

Toggle stacking brackets

The toggle stacking brackets button is a shortcut to add or remove [[...]] around text selected in the edit box. Stacking brackets will make the text between them stack, so that [[1/2]] will display as a stacked fraction.

Syntax of fraction stacking

The fraction stacking is designed to parse two text strings divided by a forward slash within double square brackets at the start and the end. The syntax is [[x/y]] where x is on the top and y is at the bottom. For example, [[Yes/I do.]] does stack like what you see below.

Degree

Enters a degree symbol (°) into the text.

Radius

Enters a radius symbol (R) into the text.

Diameter

Enters a diameter symbol (Ø) into the text.

Plus/Minus

Enters a plus/minus symbol (±) into the text.

Exponent 2

Enters a superscript 2 (²) into the text.

Exponent 3

Enters a superscript 3 (³) into the text.

Rotation

Sets the rotation angle for the text.

Edit box

  • Type the text in the edit box.

    Right-click in the edit area to cut, copy, and paste text.

Output

Specifies the output object type.

Curves

Creates text using outline curves.

Surfaces

Creates text using planar surfaces.

Solids

Creates text using solids.

Thickness

Specifies the solid thickness.

Group output

Groups resulting text objects.

Each letter or symbol is made a group nested in the entire text group.

Engraving font

Rhino keeps a list of engraving fonts. If one of them is selected (e.g., MecSoft_Font-1), appropriate options will be selected.

This option is only useful for single-line engraving fonts unknown to Rhino. You do not need to enable this option unless the single-line font used has an unexpected look as below.

 

There are three types of engraving fonts:
Single-line
Double-line
Two-line

If an engraving font known to Rhino is selected, Rhino will do the following:

  • Single-line fonts - Remove the closing lines that connect the two ends of every stroke.
  • Double-line fonts - Remove overlapped curves when possible to reduce doubled-up tooling paths.
    When overlapped curves are left, you can use the Make2D command to generate a copy of the curves without overlapping.
  • Two-line fonts are standard outline fonts with a constant width. Engraving font may remove necessary lines.
Lower case as small caps

Displays lower-case letters as small caps. Set the relative text size to a percentage of the normal text.

Add spacing

Adds spacing between letters.

Use text center to position

When placing the text, the cursor will appear at the center of the text.

Single-line fonts installed by Rhino:
MecSoft_Font-1
SLF-RHN Architect.

See also

Use text and dimensions for annotation