Annotative entities

Annotations are all entities in your drawing which are not a model or geometry, such as dimensions, texts, symbols, etc. A common problem with annotations is that they are often scale dependent. Some annotations must be scaled to the plot scale, or are meant to be shown at certain scales only.

Annotative styles and entities change the way in which they are displayed (size, location, and orientation) depending on the current scale factor and the viewport.

The following entities can have the annotative property:

  • text and multiline text
  • hatches
  • blocks and attributes
  • dimensions and tolerances
  • leaders and multileaders

The following styles can have the annotative property:

  • text styles (see the STYLE command)
  • dimension styles (see the DIMSTYLE command)
  • multileader styles (see the MLEADERSTYLE command)
Note:
  • Entities that are created using an annotative style, get the current annotation scale assigned automatically.
  • When an annotative style is applied to a non-annotative entity, the annotative property is not assigned automatically.

Commands

ANNORESET: Resets all scale representations of the selected annotative entities to the location of their current scale representation, thus synchronizing all scale representations.

ANNOUPDATE: Updates the selected annotative entities to match their current style definition.

OBJECTSCALE: Adds or removes supported scales for annotative entities through a dialog box.

-OBJECTSCALE: Adds or removes supported scales for annotative entities at the command line.

SCALELISTEDIT: Edits the scale list of a drawing, used in Plot Scale section of the Print and Page Setup dialogs and the Standard scale property of a paper space viewport. Defines the available annotation scales for annotative entities.

-SCALELISTEDIT: Edits the scale list of a drawing at the Command line.

System variables

ANNOALLVISIBLE: Toggles the display of annotative entities that do not support the current annotation scale.

ANNOTATIVEDWG: Specifies whether or not the drawing behaves as an annotative block when inserted into another drawing.

CANNOSCALE: Sets the name of the current annotation scale for the current space. Only scales that exist in the current scale list are accepted. The CANNOSCALE setting is saved with model space and with each layout viewport in the various layouts. When you create an annotative entity the current annotative scale is applied automatically.

CANNOSCALEVALUE: Displays the value of the current annotation scale. E.g. the value of the 1:2 scale is 0.5.

HPANNOTATIVE: Controls whether new hatch entities are annotative.

MSLTSCALE: If ON, linetypes in model space are scaled to the current annotation scale. A regen is needed when you toggle the value of MSLTSCALE. This variable is the equivalent of the PSLTSCALE (Paperspace linetype scale) variable in paper space.

MSOLESCALE: Controls the size of an OLE object containing text when pasted in model space. The MSOLESCALE system variable only affects the initial scaling. Existing OLE objects are not affected if the variable is modified.

SAVEFIDELITY: Controls whether the current display of the drawing is preserved when opened in a program that does not support annotative entities.

SELECTIONANNODISPLAY: Controls whether all scale representations are displayed when an annotative entity is selected.

Setting the current annotation scale

To set the current annotation scale, do one of the following:

  • Click the Annotation Scale field under Misc in the Properties panel, then press the down-arrow button and select a scale in the list.
  • Right click the Annotation Scale field in the Status bar, then select a scale in the list. If the Annotation Scale field is not available, click the down arrow at the right hand side of the Status bar and choose Annotation Scale in the list.
Note: Only scales that exist in the Scale list of the drawing are available. Use the SCALELISTEDIT command to edit the Scale list.

To make an annotation entity annotative

Annotation entities which are created using a non-annotative style can be made annotative using the following procedure:

  1. Select the annotation entity.
  2. In the Properties panel, click the Annotative property.
  3. Select Yes.

    The current annotation scale is applied to the selected entity.