Research: Text and Callouts

[Doug Park]

Having leader lines copy with the text may be possible to do although I would need to analyze the side effects to see if it would be possible.

I would challenge the point that the old leader lines were easier to use. With the new leader line tool I can put in an annotation in fewer clicks and get it positioned right the first time whereas with the old version you needed several clicks and drags to do the same thing and you were virtually guaranteed that it was in the wrong place to start with.

Getting your leaders lined up was nigh near impossible in 9. It was so bad that many were using the arrow tool to do them anyway.

Today you can not only place them faster and more accurately, but you have full control over arrow style, layer, number of segments, they can be curved, splines, there are more options on where they can attach to the text etc.

I haven't seen a case of leader lines disappearing in quite some time, so if you have a reproducible case please send it in to support.

The trainers and power users that I trust have told me that we shouldn't be going back to the version 9 style of leaders as the new ones are much more flexible and usable once you invest the small amount of time required to learn how to use them correctly.

I would suspect that your issues of angles is due to having auto position tail turned on. I recommend turning this off.

Don't create your arrows by clicking the add arrow button in the text dialog. Create them by drawing them either using the leader line tool or using the text arrow tool. The fastest way to draw your arrows is to use the leader line tool.

Start dragging from what you want to point to and click once for each corner in your line. By default the leader line tool has 2 segments. You can set this to any number you would like but setting higher gives you more options. If I typically want 1 to 3 segments in my leader line I could set it to 3. Then if I want a 1 segment arrow I draw the first one then click on the end of the tail to finish it off. Type in my text and it will automatically position the text in what is a very likely to be correct position.

In addition in X1, the arrow attaches to the thing you are pointing to. If you move it, the arrow head will move reducing the need to reposition a lot of arrow heads if you move an object. If you delete either the text or the item it points to the arrow will get deleted.

Given all the advantages, I find it very difficult to believe that V9 arrows are better.

[RMorrison]

I would suspect that your issues of angles is due to having auto position tail turned on. I recommend turning this off.

Doug,
Just an FYI that this default doesn't hold for leader line text. It was reported and confirmed as a bug. Very annoying in the meantime, though.

[WHirsch]

There were some aspects of the ver 9 leaders that were missed in V10, particularly the automatic insertion of a line break in the leader line, and the ability to insert a second leader line at the time of creation. Both of these omissions have been nicely dealt with in the current version, though the the add line option is a bit kludgy. I'm hoping that we move forward in the next release, not backwards!

[WendyWelton]

Huh! I never thought about it, but yes - I always change my text and arrow size in tandem. So - Yes, Please - if we don't get some kind of Annotation Styles (where we don't have to change separate settings at all), my second choice would be that they be linked. The arrow size could be a percentage of the text height maybe?

My first choice is still to be able to collect whole groups of settings into Styles of some kind - text size, arrow size, callout size, default layers for text, dimensions, callouts, cad....

[WHirsch]

In every other cad program that I've worked with (that's a lot of them), a leader is a leader...not a text object with a leader line. You set up a leader style (in AC it's a sub-category of dimension styles), and you go. That would sure be nice, and fast, and it would accomodate individual preferences.

Bryce: Blocks are created on the active layer. If you want to make a text object and leader line a block on the text layer, make that the active layer and then create the block. This makes sense if you consider that objects from multiple layers can be blocked. How could the program deal with that scenario other than the way it does now?

[sutcac]

Yes, that crossed my mind Warren. But it seems to me the program ought to know that all you have selected is text and/or leaders and not something else, which is why I said especially in layout. For instance, if you select several text objects, but then select something non-text the "Open" option disappears, so I assume it "knows" I have now selected something in addition to text.

Of course with CAD details (for just one example) you want the text all blocked in there together with the CAD, etc.. But if text is all you selected in the block, why would you want it on a layer other than text? Changing the active layer just seems like a PITA, more clicks than ought be necessary when only working in with text. And it's even more of a PITA that if I block it, I have to switch out of text mode and into select mode just to select a text block. In text mode, you should be able to select and manipulate (block, explode, copy, paste, etc.) a block of nothing but text. Just my opinion.

[WHirsch]

I hear you Bryce! I imagine, though, that two different block routines would be a big task to develop. A group tool, on the other hand....

[sutcac]

Hey, whatever works!

[Ben Palmer]

Great ideas Mike, thanks for chiming in.

I especially love that multi-leader align and collect. Those would be great time savers and improve the appearance of the document also. Would love to have tools like that.

I would recommend copy/paste your post to the suggestion area to make sure Chief reviews it.

[WendyWelton]

Mike,

I love it. I never would have thought to ask for it. But - I love it.

[sherpa_jones]

I would like to see callouts automatically generated for a saved cross section view and associated with the camera dbx. I would also like to see automatically generated roof plane labels showing roof pitch ratio and pitch direction.