University of Illinois at Chicago / School of Architecture / Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies Program
Arch 220 Computers in Architecture
Introduction to AutoCAD 2000
2D Drawing Annotation: Text, Hatches, Dimensions
CHAPTER 15: Text Annotation
CHAPTER 16: Drawing Hatch Patterns
CHAPTER 17: Productive Dimensioning
CHAPTER 18: Advanced Dimensioning
General Topics and Objectives:
1. Understanding the role of annotation elements in a drawing, and how these affect the drawing's look.
2. Introduction to text and dimension settings, and how to control them to make your drawing look professional.
3. Learning how to enhance a drawing using hatch patterns (poche).
Annotating an architectural drawing is one of the most important aspects of 2D drafting. Annotation in the form of titles, notes, and dimensions serve to clarify what seem to be abstract sets of lines drawn on paper.
Without annotation, a drawing looks flat, incomplete, and worst of all, has no value in terms of communicating specific intentions.
While there are indeed more subtle ways of conveying a message, 2D drafting seeks to eliminate ambiguity, and the use of the different annotation tools serve that purpose. Apart from this, a drawing's aesthetic can be enhanced by the proper use of symbols and text, but as easily can be destroyed by careless insertion of elements. It takes practice to create drawings that are well-organized and look great as well.
TEXT
1. Difference between DTEXT and MTEXT
2. Setting font styles
3. Editing Text
4. Font Heights and other settings
HATCHES
1. Hatch organization (layers, colors)
2. Scaling hatch patterns
3. Associative hatches
DIMENSIONS
1. Units and Scale
2. Aesthetics
3. Dimension Settings
TIPS AND TRICKS
1. Height depends on the desired output; experiment and refer to table for proportions.
2. Be aware of justification of text (left, center, right, etc.)
3. A drawing in CAD is "scale-less" from a visual point of view, unless annotation is placed in the right proportions; text and dimensions provide visual orientation
4. When dealing with different output scales, it is good practice to have different sizes of text on different layers. You can name the layers appropriately, and freeze and thaw them at your convenience. For example, if you intend to plot at both ½"=1'-0" scale and 1/8"=1'-0" scale, you can have 2 different layers called "TEXT_2" and "TEXT_8" which can then indicate which scales they serve.
5. Align text in a drawing whenever possible. In construction documents, aligning titles horizontally/vertically, as well as notes gives the drawing coherence and is visually pleasing.
6. Try to minimize the use of too many fonts; these cause a drawing to look confusing. The same goes for font sizes; try to be consistent.
7. DDEDIT (or ED) is a great command for changing text content only. If you need to change other settings, such as justification, layers, etc, PROPERTIES will do the trick.
1. As with text and dimensions, it's good practice to have a separate layer for different kinds of hatches. Hatches look great if they are set to the thinnest pen settings. You can name them "HATCH_WALL01" or "HATCH_FLOORPATTERN" for example.
2. Be aware and careful of the hatch scale; too small and the hatch is too dense and takes forever to regenerate; too big and the hatch is too lose and doesn't look right. It takes trial and error to get it right.
3. Closed polylines and shapes are easier to hatch ("Select Object" option) because you just have to pick the object to hatch. Unless you are certain that a certain area is closed, picking points in an area can lead to unexpected results.
4. Associative hatches are better left unexploded, and are great to use because you can edit these hatches and not lose the information.
5. Avoid exploding hatches for that matter, as file size can increase dramatically when the hatch gets broken down into its components.
1. When dimensioning, it is highly recommended to use the OSNAPS to get accurate dimensions. Why draw in ACAD if you aren't going to be precise anyway?
2. Set layer(s) for dimensions, and separate dimension layers for different scales. ("DIM_2" for 1/2 " scale drawings, etc.)
3. Using continued dimensions can save a lot of time.
4. Dimensions are interactive, and you can adjust them easily if your drawing changes.
5. Avoid over-dimensioning a drawing. 3 levels of dimensions are sufficient, 2 levels are recommended. Be aware of the scale of the output drawing.
6. Know if you are dimensioning from the face of an object or a centerline. It is important to be aware of the difference between such dimensions.