Dissociating Leaders & Text

[SpeakNoEvil]

Hello all,

 

I'm working on CAD sheet set templates for other engineers in my company, and I've hit a snag. All the engineers I talk to want the following out of their Leaders:

 

1. Needs three grip points, at the arrow, kink, and text end. They want to be able to manually make the horizontal line next to the text longer.

2. Should NOT be associated with the text - i.e., when you move the text, the end of the leader doesn't move with it.

 

I've attached an image that shows why they don't like the association. Our office uses a mix of AutoCAD 2007, 2009, and 2010, and I'm on 2007.

 

Any suggestions on how to break that connection so the leader stays put when the text moves? Aside from manually drawing every leader and MText separately? The template has hundreds of leaders, so quicker methods are better...

And if there's a way to do it similar to MATCHPROP to all the existing leaders in a sheet set, I'll bow down before you.

 

Thanks!

Tom

 

P.S. I've tried to encourage different leader methods, but this is what the engineers prefer, so any arguments that they should do it differently, while possibly true, probably aren't very helpful.

[nukecad]

Nasty solution; but you could pick all the texts and EXPLODE them down to dtext rather than mtext.

This leaves the leader as a leader but the text is now separate.

[SpeakNoEvil]

Good thought, nukecad. It does work, but has another nasty side effect; when the mtext has multiple lines, it breaks it into multiple dtext pieces. Then I'd need to use TXT2MTXT to recombine them. Doable, yes, but forgive me for admitting I'm hoping for something better.

[eldon]

If, when you explode the leader, you click on the leader itself, any Mtext remains as Mtext.

[SpeakNoEvil]

Eldon: Right, but that also turns the leader into three separate pieces: two line segments and an arrowhead. I'd prefer to keep the leader as a single piece. Thank you for the tip though!

[eldon]

You must have a very powerful explode. My leader stays as a polyline.

[CadiCad]

Using the dimension leader independent of the text will allow you to click three points without attaching the text to it.

 

Select Dimleader command. Select your three points, when It tells you to insert text press escape. Leaving the dimension leader without entering text, Then create a MLtext.

 

Hope this helps

 

-CadiCad

[nukecad]

.........., but forgive me for admitting I'm hoping for something better.

 

Ah well; thats Autocad for you:lol:

 

Seriously though, I said it was nasty. Maybe someone can help with a script or VBA?

[SpeakNoEvil]

Eldon: you're correct, apologies. It is a polyline, not two separate pieces - but the arrow tip is still a problem.

 

CadiCad: You are absolutely right: that would give me what I want - but takes a lot of steps. I'm trying to get it to be as straightforward as the usual leader/text combo is already, just without the link. Or, I draw all the leaders on a page, then highlight them all and do a XXXX function (whatever that is) and they all dissociate.

I was hoping someone here would just know of that magical function, but it sounds like there isn't one. Strange, because there IS one for the front tip of the leader (DIMDISASSOCIATE), just not the text.

 

nukecad: I know nothing about scripts, so I don't know how possible that would be; maybe an automatic combo of LEADER - EXPLODE - TXT2MTXT would do it? That might also do annoying things with right-pointing arrows, since TXT2MTXT automatically right-justifies the text. Still, it'd be an improvement.

 

Also, I wanted to say it again: thank you all for your suggestions! I really, really appreciate the help.

[rkent]

Why do they want to move the text away from the leader, doesn't that defeat the purpose?

 

Before Mleader I used to use qleader with no text option and then type in the text with the mtext command.

[SuperCAD]

Why do they want to move the text away from the leader, doesn't that defeat the purpose?

 

That's what I want to know.

[BearDyugin]

SpeakNoEvil, Try this macro

^C^C_leader;\\;;_non;_mtext;(getvar "lastpoint");(getvar "lastpoint");

[SpeakNoEvil]

rkent & SuperCAD: Yep, it sure does. I'm with you guys, it seems weird for them to want that - but they're oddly adamant. I think they just want more customization out of the leaders, and as they manipulate them they get annoyed by how it doesn't follow properly (see drawing above). If there was a way to have the horizontal dash length be variable without causing the weird jog, I think they'd be fine with the leader/text link.

At this point I'm either going to do it however I feel it should be done and let them tough it out, or try my hand at LISP and see what comes of it.

 

Geobuilder: Sorry, no idea how to use what you posted.

[BearDyugin]

Geobuilder: Sorry, no idea how to use what you posted.

Here is video how to use a macro, is final there Russian AutoCAD and version 18 (2010), but the same essence

[SuperCAD]

Can you post a picture of what their desired result is? Show us what they "want" to do.

[BearDyugin]

Can you post a picture of what their desired result is? Show us what they "want" to do.

 

Or you have not understood me, or I cannot understand you...

In the previous message I have given the reference to video (the animated image in a format gif), I did not begin to place it am direct here in the message since it of big size (6299 кб), after all for certain is users with slow speed of connection or expensive traffic.

And so in that video it is in detail shown as to use a macro, on an example of particularly mine, in the end it is shown as will be the new command works.

I duplicate once again only as it will work:

[nukecad]

To get back to the problem with the leaders - try teaching them the STRETCH command that should do the trick.

 

Unless of course they are too lazy to click more than twice to get the desired result.

[Strix]

Having done a job which required all drawings to be stuffed full of leaders, I really can't see why they want to make your drawings not only look a hideous mess, but be horribly annoying to use later on

 

there's a setting where you can turn the horizontal bit of line off, and you can have doglegs in a leader, so they can do the whole leader freehand without separating from the text, but if they're insistent on creating such a damned mess, there's no way you'll be able to persuade them to use an ORTHO toggle to ensure they produce the 'tail' uniformly

 

People who naff drawings up for future use really bug me - so long as it's work they're creating for somebody else, do they care?

[BearDyugin]

I has passed the moment about the shelf, here a new variant

^C^C_leader;\\'_cal;t1=@;\\;;_non;_mtext;'_cal;t1;\_j;_bl;@;

People who naff drawings up for future use really bug me - so long as it's work they're creating for somebody else, do they care? :mad:

As a rule designers do not work in naked AutoCAD, and by transfer of the drawings they break all not standard objects. Very often I receive drawings where all was explode and Leaders and the sizes and...

[SpeakNoEvil]

Geobuilder: the macro is good, but it seems to lack some of the advantages of the original leader; making a right-pointing leader, for example, becomes a little messy. This seems like an excellent route to take, though, and I may try making one myself using nukecad's initial EXPLODE-TXT2MTXT suggestion.

 

SuperCAD: See the drawing attached.

 

nukecad & Stix: I agree with both of you. There are a lot of ways the engineers could do a better job of this, and to be honest the more I talk on this forum the more I agree that what they want doesn't really make sense. Creating it that way would merely add to more problems later, as Stix points out. Once the office has all moved to AutoCAD 2009, everyone will use Mleaders anyway.

 

I'm thinking now I may abandon the idea of moving the text independent of the leader. I'll still do the three-grip leader, so the engineers can change the horizontal line length. Then my only concern will be making sure I draw them all the same length initially.

Stix: is there any advantage in turning off the little automatic horizontal bit in this case?

 

Thanks a lot for your help!