MLine Question/Justification Rant

[kane333]

I'm starting to use the Mline for some of my Pipe drawings and have saved a number of them as Copper, Cast Iron, PVC, etc. My question is, I've saved these files and the justification is the Zero Line....so why is it that when I load the MLine into another drawing, it changes to Top Line jusification by default? Now I have to manually go into the properties and change it back to Zero Line or start a whole new style and resave it. I'm finding that AutoCad has a serious justification problem. No way to set up preferences for text or grip justifications in most of the style editors as default. In Text Editor, my preference would be MiddleCenter....not Top Left which seems to be default. In Dim Style, I want my text to follow the dim line, not stay in place and add a leader when I decide to move the dim to the other side of an object (in '08, I could move the text for our company default dim styles next to, over, in between the ext lines yet if I moved the dim the text would follow, not stay in place as in '09) . And drawing for a mechanical company, we take most of our measurements from the Center of the Pipe, not the edge of the Pipe, and yet, even after saving the file with Zero Line justification, it automatically changes when loaded onto another drawing....how frustrating. I'll definitely be purchasing AutoLine and stop using the limited MLine AutoCad offers. http://www.autodsys.com/purchase.htm#autoline

[Ed Jobe]

mline is useless, as you've found out. The concept is good, but adesk has ignored many wishlist requests to fix it. I've saved an old bonus tool lisp called dline.lsp that I used to use to draw conduits. If you do a lot of it though, you seriously should look into MEP or PID.

They dropped dline from the bonus tools years ago, so I guess its ok to pass along. I haven't used this lisp in years, so it may need some tweaking.

[kane333]

This seems to be another instance of my confusion over default grips. I create a block..any block...Ctrl+Shift+C to copy with base point, open a new template and Paste as Block (Ctrl Shift V). Save as "whatever.dwg"...now when I insert that block using the Menu Bar/Insert/Block command, no longer is the Base Point my default grip...it seems to put the grip into some obscure location. Sometimes, I can't even see the block unless I zoom out. Unless I explode that block to get my base point back. Yet when I "Copy With Base Point" that same block and paste it to my Tool Palette, it inserts that block into the drawing with the base point as the default grip.....go figure....

[jaberwok]

The Dim style issues should be fixable by tweaking some settings and/or changing your methods - for example, the leader issue can be overcome by dragging (with Ortho off) down and to the side then back across.

[Ed Jobe]

Did you try the lisp routine?

As far as text just goes, just create a toolbar button with the macro "^C^Ctext j mc ".