2004

526 | Chapter 20 Dimensions and Tolerances
Control the Appearance of Dimension Text
AutoCAD supports a mixture of user-supplied text, prefixes and suffixes
supplied by the dimension style, and AutoCAD-generated measurements. For
example, you could add a diameter symbol as a prefix to a measurement or
add the abbreviation for a unit, such as mm, as a suffix. Text in this context
refers to all dimension text, prefixes and suffixes, primary and alternate
units, and lateral tolerances. Geometric tolerances are controlled
independently.
Dimension text is treated as a single string of text, which you create and
format using your text editor.
Control the Text Style in Dimensions
The appearance of dimension text is governed by the text style selected in the
Dimension Style Manager, Text tab. You can choose a text style while
creating a dimension style and specify a text color and a height independent
of the current text style's height setting. You can also specify the gap between
base dimension text and the box that surrounds it.
The text styles used for dimensions are the same text styles used by all text
created in your drawing.
For more information, see “Work with Text Styles” on page 487.
Supply User Text to Dimensions
In addition to the prefixes and suffixes specified for primary and alternate
units, you can supply your own text as you create a dimension. Because the
prefix, suffix, and user-supplied text form a single text string, you can
represent tolerance stacks and apply changes to font, text size, and other
characteristics using the text editor.
To add user text above and below the dimension line, use the separator
symbol \X. Text that precedes this symbol is aligned with and above the
dimension line. Text that follows the \X symbol is aligned with and below
the dimension line. The space between the dimension line and the text is
determined by the value you enter under Gap in the Annotation dialog box.
Example: User Text in Dimensions
In this example, the primary dimension measurement is 5.08, and the alter-
nate dimension measurement is 2.00. The primary units have the suffix H7/
h6, and the alternate units have the suffix inches.
At the text prompt, while creating the dimension, you enter the following
format string:
<> H7/h6\XSee Note 26\P[ ]