ALIGN TEXT

[Scott D Davis]

Wouldn't it be nice to use the align tool with text? Pick an angled line, pick text, BAM! Text snaps to line at same angle.

Now one step further....pick a arc, then pick text....BAM! Arc-aligned text!

Now that would be cool!

[Taylor A]

Count me in for 100 votes on that one Scott

[Scott Hopkins]

Yes - Revit could use that

[funkman]

salivating salivating salivating

yes yes yes please!!!

better text is a must.

A drawings speaks wonders, but annotation will never die.

[Phillip Miller]

Just another example of Revit copying some features from AutoCAD I know there arn't many!!!

[John K.]

This will likely earn me a "duh" -- I have a growing collection -- but here's my work-around:

Create a generic tag with a single [modifiable] text label. Adjust the spacing according to your needs, eg, the limits at which the text becomes more than one line. Now plunk them down wherever you need them and use the align tool. My biggest use for this is on site plans and the like, where I don't need gobs and gobs of prose: just the occaisional road name or boundary label.

Sounds like a PITA at first but is relatively quick.

[Marek Brandstatter]

-same tired old rant-

Revit needs an API. An API would allow users/developers to address these "nigglies" until they hopefully find themseleves into an official release. I don't know about everyone else but I'm generally flippin' impatient and don't feel like waiting 9 months (or never) to see great productivity features implemented.

Otherwise viva Revit!

[aaronrumple]

In this case I doubt an API would help. The problem is that text doesn't have an edge, centerline or other alignable element (bit of a guess here...). So an API would have no suitable object to expose.

AutoCAD has the same issue With VBA. Try moving the origin of a hatch. This isn't exposed in the VBA object model. So it can't be done with VBA. It can be done with lisp. However an API like lisp lets you get into very low level object and really screw up data. This would be a disaster in Revit as the whole project could be trashed. This extremly low level of data access is why AutoCAD/ADT is such a mess.

You also then get into screwing up the simple interface of Revit. ADT became button heavy. Open all the toolbars and you have no drawing space left. So many buttons for so many tasks. So Palettes were invented. Bad technology on top of bad technology....

Not that Revit shouldn't have an API. Just that a proper API probably won't solve everything everyone wants.

[aaronrumple]

...almost forgot this story. With ADT's custom content, I can make an insertable object that when dragged from the palette to the drawings it:

Erases the drawing.
Deletes the file.
Deletes the backup.
And formats your drives.

All because the lisp is embeded in the file. With Lips we have almost unfettered access to a system - not just the drawing. (I made such an object just to test my theory....)

If someone were to post it to a content site like rugi... eveyone that used it would run the same maco. No virus scanning software I know of can detect this type of malicious code.

Now we don't need that in Revit, do we?

[Phillip Miller]

But Aaron. Would it not be great to have simple things like aligning text to anlgled lines and arc work in Revit? So simple in ADT