April 06, 2007

Annotative Tags With Leaders in ACA 2008

The image above shows three interior walls drawn in AutoCAD Architecture 2008, with the out-of-the-box wall tag applied. Like all of the tags in 2008, the wall tag makes use of the new annotative scaling, as does the leader that is drawn as part of the tag tool function. These were created with the annotation scale set to 1/8" = 1'-0", as can be seen on the Drawing Window Status Bar. [Click on the image to see a larger version.] So, what happens when you change the annotation scale?
The image above shows the annotation scale being changed to 1/4" = 1'-0".
As you might expect, the tags have reduced to half of their size at 1/8" = 1'-0", maintaining their insertion points. The "arrow head" on the leader has also reduced in size by 1/2, but notice that the tag end of the leader remains stubbornly in the same place it was when it was created for the 1/8" = 1'-0" size of the tag, leaving a gap between leader and tag at 1/4" = 1'-0". Ideally, the leader end would have adjusted to the change in the tag.
Hovering over the leader of the A2 tag, as seen in the image above, causes the annotative icon to appear above and to the right of the cursor. The icon looks like the ends of two three-sided scales.
The end of the leader at the A2 tag has been grip edited to extend the end to the midpoint of the top of the tag at 1/4" = 1'-0". But will that also change the endpoint at 1/8" = 1'-0"?
As you can see in the image above, when the annotation scale is changed back to 1/8" = 1'-0", the end of the leader at that scale remains in its original position, and if you were to change it back to 1/4"=1'-0" again, the edit at that scale will be "remembered," as seen below.
So, while the leader end at the tag will not automatically move to maintain its relative position at the surrounding graphics of the tag as the tag changes sizes for different scales, you can manually edit the leaders and the endpoint location will be retained separately for each scale. This behavior applies to all leaders that have an annotative Dimension Style, which will come in handy when placing a room tag outside of a small room. You can now use a single leader on a single layer and have it work for every scale at which you will show the tag, with a little work to edit the leader endpoint to work with each scale.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could I change the Annotation Tag to different geometrical shapes? Could I change the arrowhead? It could be letters or numbers? Could I give different colors to the text, annotation tag, arrowhead and leader line?

David Koch said...

Annotative Tags are ACA Schedule Tags [which are Multi-View Blocks] that have one or more annotative view blocks [AutoCAD Block] assigned. If you can do it to a Schedule Tag, you can do it to an Annotative Tag.

If you are asking can you have the non-attribute graphics change shape when the annotation scale is changed, the answer is no, the annotation feature only rescales the block. You could set up different view blocks with different geometry and then use different Display Representations to control which one is being seen, but that would be related to the ACA Display System, not annotative scaling.

You can assign whatever colors you want to the attribute definitions and other graphics within the view block, but these will not change with annotation scale. The leaders are AutoCAD leaders, so if you can have differently colored arrowheads and leader lines [not something I have ever needed to do myself] in an AutoCAD leader, then I suppose you could do the same with the leader associated with a Schedule Tag.

David said...

If I change to another viewport with another scale, what steps can I take to ensure that the end of the leader touches the tag BEFORE I create the tag. In oter words, if I have created tags in a viewport at, say 1/8" scale and I to to a veiwport at , say 1/4" scale, what can I do before I create additional tags?