DDCHTEXT.DOC - Documentation file for DDCHTEXT 1.

0 4 March 1996

Contents 1. Introduction 2. Registration 3. DDCHTEXT Features 3.1. Features of the Registered and Unregistered Versions 3.2. Additional Features Provided Only to Registered Users 4. Installation Instructions 4.1. Files 4.2. Installation 4.3. Command Loading 4.3.1. Load it manually 4.3.2. Load it using APPLOAD 4.3.3. Load it using a menu item 4.3.4. Have it load automatically when it is needed 4.3.5. Modify your MNL file 4.4. Toolbar Loading 4.5. Enabling Entity Creation Facilities 5. Command Usage 5.1. Attribute Filters 5.2. Modification Toggles 5.2.1. Properties Section 5.2.2. Settings Section 5.2.3. Search and Replace Section 5.3. Buttons 6. Legal Stuff 7. Contact Details

1. Introduction DDCHTEXT 1.0 by cad nauseam is an add-on program written for AutoCAD Release 12 and 13 on all platforms. A single command is provided: DDCHTEXT. This command provides a dialogue box to control the modification of various types of annotation (text-like) objects: TEXT, MTEXT, ATTDEF and ATTRIBUTE. DDCHTEXT provides several advantages over the facilities provided by standard AutoCAD, and this is discussed below in the Features section. Release 12 users have slightly fewer facilities available to them, but only because Release 12 lacks mtext objects. DDCHTEXT is not free software: it is shareware. This means that you are encouraged to copy and distribute the unregistered version of it to whoever you like, as long as you do so unmodified and with all of the files described below in the installation instructions. You can evaluate DDCHTEXT for a trial period not exceeding 30 days. After evaluation, you should either delete or register (ie. pay for) the program.

The language used in this document is Australian English. The language used in the DDCHTEXT program itself is American English.

2. Registration There are two ways to register DDCHTEXT: by mail or on-line using the CompuServe shareware registration facility. To register by mail, print the file DDCHTEXT.FRM, fill it in and send it off with a cheque (check if you are American) for the appropriate amount. Using this method, no charge is made for postage and handling. To register a single-user version on-line, GO SWREG on CompuServe and use number 10333. For additional licences use number 10334, and for an unlimited site licence use number 10335. The appropriate registration fee will be automatically added to your CompuServe account. For single-user registrations, an additional fee of US$1.50 (US$1.00 in Australia and New Zealand) is charged to cover postage and handling. Registered users receive not only a warm fuzzy feeling, but also a registration certificate and a disk containing the most up-to-date version of the program, enhanced as described below in section 3, DDCHTEXT Features. This will be sent by air mail (the disk and certificate, not the warm fuzzy feeling). Registered users who provide a CompuServe or Internet address will be informed via email of a way in which they can use the registered version of the program immediately. If you have any other queries about registration or payment, please contact Steve Johnson at cad nauseam using the contact details in section 7, Contact Details at the end of this document. Payment in currencies other than US or Australian dollars may be arranged by contacting cad nauseam.

3. DDCHTEXT Features

3.1. Features of the Registered and Unregistered Versions - Many different annotation objects can be modified at once using a single command. You don't have to specify the changes one at a time like you have to if you use standard commands like CHANGE, ATTEDIT or DDMODIFY. - Supports noun/verb selection. Objects can be selected before the command is invoked. If not, a traditional "Select objects:" prompt is provided. Irrelevant objects are filtered out. - Supports global selection. You can tell DDCHTEXT to modify

all text-like objects in the drawing. DDCHTEXT can modify objects off the screen, on layers that are turned off or frozen, or even in a different space if you use paper space in your drawings. It will not modify text or mtext within blocks, or any objects on locked layers. - Allows selective modification by object type. For example, you can restrict your changes to modify only text and mtext. - Allows selective modification to attributes. You can use wildcards for block names and/or attribute tags in order to specify which attributes to change. - Allows changes to layer, colour, height, width factor, mtext frame width, rotation angle, obliquing angle, justification and text style. Some of these settings are not relevant to all entities: see section 5, Command Usage for details. - Allows absolute changes to current settings. For example, you can change the rotation angle of several objects to fortyfive degrees, regardless of their current settings. - Allows relative changes to current settings. For example, you can increase the rotation angle of several objects by five degrees. - When using AutoCAD Release 13 for Windows, a menu file and bitmaps are provided to allow access to the command using a toolbar.

3.2. Additional Features Provided Only to Registered Users - A search and replace facility is provided. You can search and replace text values within text, mtext and attributes. - Full unencrypted, commented AutoLISP source code is provided. - No nag screens. - Documentation provided in Microsoft Word for Windows 2.0 format to allow better control over printing.

4. Installation Instructions

4.1. Files The shareware version of DDCHTEXT is usually supplied as a PKZIP 2.04g compressed file DDCHTX.ZIP which you need to unzip to get at the following files: DDCHTEXT.LSP DDCHTEXT.DCL DDCHACAD.LSP Main AutoLISP program file (unregistered) Dialogue Control Language file Sample ACAD.LSP file for auto-loading

DDCHTOOL.MNU DDCHLOAD.MNL DDCH-16.BMP DDCH-32.BMP DDCHTEXT.TXT DDCHTEXT.REV DDCHTEXT.FRM

Menu file to add toolbars in R13 Windows File to add to existing MNL file Small DDCHTEXT icon bitmap for R13 Windows Large DDCHTEXT icon bitmap for R13 Windows Documentation file for DDCHTEXT (this file) Revision history Registration form

The registered version is provided as individual files on a floppy disk, or as archive file DDCHRG.ZIP, which requires a password before it can be fully unzipped. Registered users are provided with the password which will provide access to the following files: DDCHTEXT.LSP DDCHTEXT.DOC Main AutoLISP program file (registered) Documentation file in Word format

4.2. Installation To install DDCHTEXT, you can unzip or copy the files to somewhere AutoCAD can find them, ie. anywhere in AutoCAD's ACAD search path. One way of finding out where AutoCAD goes looking for things is to attempt to insert a block with a name which does not exist: AutoCAD will tell you the directories it looked in, and the order in which it looked. On a standard AutoCAD installation, one directory you might use is SUPPORT or SUP under your ACAD, ACADWIN, ACADR13\COMMON or R13\COM directory. Wherever you put the files, make sure you have them backed up somewhere safe in case you need to reinstall them. Alternatively, you can put the files in their own directory which is not in the path if you set the environment variable DDCHTEXT. For example in DOS, if you add the following line: DDCHTEXT=D:\PTANG\ to your AutoCAD start-up batch file before the call to AutoCAD, then you can put the DDCHTEXT files into the PTANG directory. Make sure you include the trailing (final) backslash, and make sure you include the path when loading the DDCHTEXT.LSP file as described below.

4.3. Command Loading Once you have copied the files to an appropriate place, you can try the command out in AutoCAD. Before you can use the DDCHTEXT command, the AutoLISP program file DDCHTEXT.LSP needs to be loaded. There are several possible ways of doing this, so choose ONE of the following methods, depending on your preference. If you are using Release 13 for Windows, method 4.3.5 is preferred. This method works well on other versions of AutoCAD, too, so you may wish to skip reading about methods 4.3.1 to 4.3.4.

4.3.1. Load it manually This is done by entering the following at the AutoCAD "Command:" prompt, including the parentheses: (load "DDCHTEXT") If you use this method, you will need to do this every time you start an AutoCAD drawing. If you have placed the files in a directory not in AutoCAD's search path, then you will need to explicitly include the path, thus: (load "D:/PTANG/DDCHTEXT") Note the use of forward slashes, not backslashes.

4.3.2. Load it using APPLOAD Using this standard AutoCAD facility, you can use a dialogue box to load AutoLISP and ADS routines. Follow the AutoCAD documentation on the use of this command to load the file DDCHTEXT.LSP from the directory you placed it. If you use this method, you will need to do this every time you start an AutoCAD drawing.

4.3.3. Load it using a menu item To do this, you need to edit the menu file (eg. ACAD.MNU) that you commonly use with your drawings. You can add a menu item like this, which will cause DDCHTEXT to be loaded (if necessary) whenever you pick DDCHTEXT from the menu: [DDCHTEXT...]^C^C^P(if C:DDCHTEXT (princ) (progn + (load "DDCHTEXT") (princ))) ^PDDCHTEXT Again, if you have not placed the files in the AutoCAD search path, then you will need to include the path, thus: [DDCHTEXT...]^C^C^P(if C:DDCHTEXT (princ) (progn + (load "D:/PTANG/DDCHTEXT") (princ))) ^PDDCHTEXT

4.3.4. Have it load automatically when it is needed To do this, you need to edit a bit of AutoLISP. If you have an ACAD.LSP file, you can add the following line to it. If not, you can create one containing the following line: (defun C:DDCHTEXT () (load "DDCHTEXT") (C:DDCHTEXT)) You can also use this method to create short-form versions of the DDCHTEXT command. For example, to create command DT, add the following line to your ACAD.LSP, too:

(defun C:DT () (C:DDCHTEXT)) This example assumes you have placed the files into a directory in AutoCAD's search path. A sample ACAD.LSP file (DDCHACAD.LSP) is provided, containing more sophisticated versions of the two lines described above. These will work whether or not the files are in the search path. However, your ACAD.LSP file MUST be in the search path or AutoCAD will not be able to find it. If you have no ACAD.LSP file, you can copy DDCHACAD.LSP as ACAD.LSP. Alternatively, you can add the contents of DDCHACAD.LSP to your existing ACAD.LSP. Warning: do not try to edit an existing ACAD.LSP file if it is a protected file. Protected files start with the words: AutoCAD PROTECTED LISP file Registered users may contact cad nauseam for help in working around this problem, which is caused by rather antisocial developers.

4.3.5. Modify your MNL file There is usually a *.MNL file which is associated with your normal menu (eg. ACAD.MNL or ACADFULL.MNL). Remember to back it up first, and then add the contents of the file DDCHLOAD.MNL to the bottom of this MNL file. If you reinstall or update your AutoCAD at a later date, you will need to repeat this process if your MNL file was overwritten. Here is an example of a sequence of DOS commands which backs up your ACAD.MNL file to hard disk and floppy, and adds DDCHLOAD.MNL to it. It assumes you have used C:\DDCHTEXT as the directory location for the DDCHLOAD.MNL file, and you have changed directory to the location of your ACAD.MNL file. You should check the location of these files on your system before using the steps shown below. COPY ACAD.MNL A: REN ACAD.MNL ACADMNL.OLD COPY ACADMNL.OLD + C:\DDCHTEXT\DDCHLOAD.MNL ACAD.MNL Although this method works fine on all releases, it provides a major advantage if you are using AutoCAD Release 13 for Windows. It automates the process of loading not only the commands, but also the toolbar menu. Due to a restriction and a bug in AutoCAD at the time of writing, the automatic menu loading process generates the following message at the start of each AutoCAD session: Unknown MENUGROUP: DDCHTEXT This message is for information only and does not indicate that anything has gone wrong. If you do not use the MNL file method and still wish to use

the toolbar, you will need to load the toolbar menu manually as described below.

4.4. Toolbar Loading If you are using AutoCAD Release 13 for Windows but have still not used loading method 4.3.5 above, you may still wish to access DDCHTEXT using the toolbar menu provided. You can add the toolbar to your existing menu on a temporary basis by following these steps: a) In AutoCAD, issue the MENULOAD command. This is available under the Tools pull-down menu, marked as "Customize menus...". b) Pick the Browse button. c) Change the file type to Menu Template (*.mnu). d) Navigate to the directory in which you installed the file DDCHTOOL.MNU. e) Select that file and pick OK. f) Pick the Load button. g) You may be warned that using the .MNU file will overwrite any changes to the .MNS file. If so, pick OK. h) Pick Close. You should now have a toolbar with both commands in it. These will only work if DDCHTEXT itself is loaded using one of the methods described above.

5. Command Usage Assuming you have loaded the program, use of DDCHTEXT is quite simple. Once you invoke the command, a large dialogue box appears. Along the top is a row of toggles, which are boxes that contain X if something is turned on or nothing if it is turned off. Initially, all of these toggles are turned on. Each toggle represents an entity type on which DDCHTEXT will operate. You can turn the entity types on or off in any combination.

5.1. Attribute Filters Below the Attribute toggle is an Attribute filters section. This section is only available if the Attribute toggle is on. This section allows you to specify which attributes are to be

changed by specifying the block and names in a pair of edit boxes. You can use any of AutoCAD's standard wildcard methods in either edit box, allowing you quite sophisticated control over which attributes are to be modified. See the AutoCAD manuals for details of how wildcards work.

5.2. Modification Toggles The rest of the dialogue box comprises a series of modification toggles in a row down the left, with each toggle having an associated item or items which determine what modifications are to occur. Initially, all of these toggles are off. Only when a given toggle is turned on is its associated items available. For example, you cannot type anything into the Rotation angle edit box until you pick the box or the words Rotation angle to turn on that modification toggle.

5.2.1. Properties Section Starting at the top, the first modification toggles are in the Properties section, to the left of the Attribute filters section. This section provides control over the layer and colour of the objects to be modified. - Layer: This toggle has an associated button and edit box. If you pick the button, you are provided with a small subdialogue box. You can choose from any of the layers currently defined in the drawing (Xref layers are not shown). You can either pick a layer and the OK button, or you can double-click on a layer. That layer will then be shown in the edit box. Alternatively, you can just type the desired layer into the edit box. If the layer does not already exist, it will be created for you. - Color: This toggle has an associated button and edit box. If you pick the button, you are provided with AutoCAD's standard colour selection sub-dialogue box. You must pick a colour and then pick OK, because AutoCAD does not currently support double-clicking in this dialogue. Alternatively, you can just type the desired colour name or number into the edit box. If you enter a standard colour name or its number equivalent, it will be converted to upper case and shown with a leading underscore, for example _BYLAYER or _BLUE. The underscore is there to ensure that DDCHTEXT works in nonEnglish versions of AutoCAD, and can be ignored.

5.2.2. Settings Section The next section contains various modification toggles which can be used to change the settings of the objects to be modified. - Height: This is the height of the text. You can use this

setting to modify any object type except those with Align justification. Such objects' height is determined by AutoCAD using a combination of the distance between the defining points, the amount of text and the width factor. You can change the latter using DDCHTEXT. This toggle has an associated edit box in which you can type the height in drawing units. This defaults to the current text height (usually the height of the last piece of text you created). There is another toggle to the right of the edit box marked "x Current". If you turn this on, the number in the edit box will be used as a scale factor to be applied to the existing height of the objects, rather than an absolute amount. - Width factor: This is the amount that the text is longitudinally "stretched". You can use this setting to modify any object type except mtext and those with Fit justification. On objects with Align justification, increasing this factor decreases the height of the text. This toggle has an associated edit box in which you can type the factor as a ratio. This defaults to 1.0, which gives text the default width as defined in the font file. There is another toggle to the right of the edit box marked "x Current". If you turn this on, the number in the edit box will be used as a scale factor to be applied to the existing width factor of the objects, rather than an absolute amount. - Mtext width: This is the width of the frame used to define the extents of an mtext object. This setting does not apply to any other object type. This toggle has an associated edit box in which you can type the width. This defaults to 0.0, which gives mtext an infinite width. Mtext with zero width does not wrap around, and requires any new lines to be entered explicitly. Using this setting is supposed to improve AutoCAD's performance. There is another toggle to the right of the edit box marked "x Current". If you turn this on, the number in the edit box will be used as a scale factor to be applied to the existing width of the objects, rather than an absolute amount. - Rotation angle: This is the rotation angle of the text. You can use this setting to modify any object type except those with Align or Fit justification. Such objects' rotation angle is determined by the defining points, the amount of text and the width factor. This toggle has an associated edit box in which you can type the angle. This defaults to the angle equivalent to horizontal, which is zero using AutoCAD's default units settings. There is another toggle to the right of the edit box marked "+ Current". If you turn this on, the number in the edit box will be added to the existing rotation angle of the objects, rather than being used as an absolute amount. If you want to rotate the objects in the opposite direction, use a negative angle. - Obliquing angle: This is the angle that the text leans over. You can use this setting to modify any object type except mtext. This toggle has an associated edit box in which you can type the angle. There is another toggle to the right of the edit box marked "+ Current". If you turn this on, the number in the edit box will be added to the existing obliquing angle of the objects, rather than being used as an absolute

amount. If you want to lean the objects in the opposite direction, use a negative angle. If you attempt to modify objects such that their obliquing angle is outside the range of plus or minus 80 degrees, DDCHTEXT will simply ignore the request and not modify the text in that way. - Justification: This is the way that the text expands away from its insertion point. You can use this setting to modify any object type except mtext. This toggle has an associated popup list from which you can choose the justification you require. Align and Fit justification are not available, as these would require additional definition point information which is different for each object. - Style: This is the text style, which in turn determines the font file used. You can use this setting to modify any object type. This toggle has an associated popup list, from which you can choose the style you require. A style must be defined in the drawing before it is available in this list.

5.2.3. Search and Replace Section This section contains a single modification toggle, Replace. This toggle is only enabled in the registered version of the program. You can use this setting to modify any object type except attribute definitions. This toggle has two associated edit boxes in which you can type the text to search for and the text to replace it with. It also has a toggle to determine whether the search is case sensitive. The case of the replace text is always used exactly as you type it. If no search text is provided, the replace text is placed at the start of each item. If no replace text is provided, the search text is deleted from each item.

5.3. Buttons There are three buttons at the bottom of the dialogue box: Select, All and Cancel. - Select: If you pick this button after specifying some modifications in the top part of the dialogue, the dialogue box will be dismissed. If you preselected some objects before starting DDCHTEXT, your modifications will be applied to your selected objects. If not, you will be presented with the standard AutoCAD "Select objects:" prompt sequence and can use any of the standard selection mechanisms to choose which objects to modify. If you wish to use the AutoCAD FILTER command (or any other AutoLISP or ADS utility) to select objects in a special way, you should do this first, then invoke DDCHTEXT and use the Previous option at the "Select objects:" prompt. You need to do this because AutoCAD does not allow the use of one AutoLISP command while another is running. - All: If you pick this button after specifying some

modifications in the top part of the dialogue, the dialogue box will be dismissed and your modifications will be applied to all objects in the drawing which match the entity types you selected.. If you preselected some objects before starting DDCHTEXT, this is ignored. - Cancel: If you pick this button, the dialogue box will be dismissed and no modifications will be made.

6. Legal Stuff The DDCHTEXT programs and all accompanying files are copyrighted software (c) cad nauseam, 1996. All rights reserved. Registration transactions are deemed to occur in the State of Western Australia. Disclaimer: This software is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty. All implied warranties of fitness for any particular purpose and of merchantability are hereby disclaimed. If it eats your drawings, tough luck. Engage brain before use. Permission notice: Permission to use, copy, and distribute the unregistered version of this software for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that it is distributed unmodified and with all supporting files and documentation, including this file. Permission to distribute this software for any fee must be sought from cad nauseam. AutoCAD is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc. AutoLISP is a trademark of Autodesk, Inc. CompuServe is a registered trademark of CompuServe, Inc. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

7. Contact Details The author of DDCHTEXT is Steve Johnson. He may be contacted via CompuServe (he is a regular in the ACAD forum and current Bug ThreadMaster) or by mail. If you use DDCHTEXT, please do the right thing and register. If you have any problems, or there is something you don't like about DDCHTEXT, contact Steve and tell him: he will do his best to fix it. Many of the features in DDCHTEXT are a direct result of feedback from registered users. For registered users, Steve will answer questions and fix serious bugs for a period of twelve months from your initial use. If DDCHTEXT fails to perform its intended function as stated in this documentation, Steve will refund the purchase price on request. Steve's CompuServe address is 100251,2544. Questions about

DDCHTEXT can be sent as email or posted as a message in the Applications section of the ACAD forum. Internet users can send him a message using the following address: 100251.2544@compuserve.com Mail and registrations (see DDCHTEXT.FRM) should be sent to: cad nauseam PO Box 303 Leederville WA 6903 AUSTRALIA