Text

Toolbar Menu

Dimension
Drafting

Drafting

Text Block

The Text command creates two-dimensional rich text. Rich text can be formatted on a word-by-word or letter-by-letter basis similar to a word processor.

To create text

  1. Type the text.
  2. Specify the properties.
  3. Pick the location for the text.

To edit text

  • Select the text, and in the Properties panel, click the Text button to access overrides to the style and text content settings.

Or

  • Double-click the text to open the Edit Text dialog box.
Add special symbols in the scriptable command, -Text

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 properties

Text

Style

The used annotation style.

Style menu

Lists the annotation styles available in the model. If an annotation has any settings in its properties different from its style, a menu behind the style name appears.

Remove overrides

Resets all the changed settings to the style defaults.

Update <Style> to match

Applies the changed settings to the annotation style.

Save as new style

Uses the settings in the properties to create a new style.

Edit Style...

Edits the Annotations style used by the selected annotation object.

Height

The text height.

Mask

Surrounds text with an opaque color.

None

Turn off mask.

Background

Sets the mask color to the viewport background color.

Solid Color

Selects the mask color using the Select Color dialog box.

Mask Color

When Mask is set to Solid Color, click to change the color.

Mask margins

The width of the blank area around the text.

Model space scale

The display size is a product of the component's size (like arrow size or text height) and the Model space scale value.

Normally this is the inverse of the print scale. The text height, extension line extension, extension line offset distance, and arrow length are multiplied by this number.

Frame around text

Sets the shape enclosing the dimension text. The Mask margins setting controls the distance between the text and shape.

The shapes with numbers below can extend with the text.

  • No frame
  • Rectangular frame
  • Capsule frame
  • Circle frame
  • Square frame
  • Diamond frame
  • Triangle frame
  • Hexagon frame
  • Hex capsule frame
  • Rounded rectangle frame
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.

U

Sets the font style to underlined.

Text Field

Text fields are formulas that are evaluated while Rhino is running and the result is displayed in the text. All text fields are in the syntax of %<field and options>%. When a formula cannot be evaluated an error string of #### is displayed.

  • If a text field displays a long text string, such as a long file path, you can turn on control points of the text and move the right text point to wrap the text string.
  • Text fields support basic arithmetic operations.
    To double an area, add *2 behind the close parenthesis as:
    %<Area("d90815b8...80c59a")*2>%
    To multiply two text fields, use:
    %<CurveLength("07c73fde...8a5c7b")*CurveLength("296ed593...0472e0")>%
  • When a text field is copied with its referenced object, the copied text field will reference the copied object.
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.

Edit box

The text displays in the text object.

Font size of the edit box can be controlled by command prompt options.

Edit Style...

Edits the Annotations style used by the selected annotation object.

Match

Selects an annotation to apply its properties to the current text.

Unit - Format

The unit and format of the annotation style.

Only for the text created by DimArea or DimCurveLenth, or contains a Text Field of Area, CurveLength, or Volume.

Horizontal to view

Text is always flat to the screen. Uncheck if you need to orient text in viewports.

RTextEdit

Toolbar

Menu

Not on toolbars.

Not on menus.

The RTextEdit command is run by script interface and OnDoubleClick to edit text objects.

 

TextProperties

Toolbar

Menu

Not on toolbars.

Not on menus.

The TextProperties command opens the Properties panel.

Steps

See also

Use drafting tools

Use text and dimensions for annotation

Annotation styles

Text properties