Text Styles

When displaying items of text on the screen or printer, n4ce makes use of text styles which define the basic parameters to use such as the font and the size.  When selecting text styles, the dialog box shown to the right will be displayed.

The Text Styles list shows the text styles that have been set up in the current project.  As you highlight a text style, the contents of the Properties group will change to reflect the settings for that text style.  The Save button allows you to save the current text styles so that the next time you start a new project, the text styles are as displayed.  A check is made to ensure that you wish to overwrite the system defaults.  The system default text styles are stored in a file called TSTYLES.INI.

Adding and Removing Text Styles

The Add and Remove buttons allow users to create new text styles and remove existing ones.  There is always a text style called Default.  This text style is used when n4ce cannot find a text style.  For instance, if you remove a text style that is used elsewhere, n4ce will use the default text style instead.

If you wish to create a new text style, select the Add button.  You will be asked to enter a name for the new text style and it will be created.  The new text style will have the same settings as the text style that was highlighted immediately prior to the Add button being selected.  If there is a text style that is like the one that you wish to create, highlight it before using this option.

If you wish to remove a text style, highlight it and select the Remove button. Note that the default text style cannot be removed.  When the default style is selected, this button will be disabled.

Text Style Properties

The Properties group of the text styles dialog box display the properties that can be assigned to any text style. As you change them, an item of text using the current properties will be displayed in a preview window at the bottom of the group.

The Font field defines the font that will be used for a text style.  This list displays the Windows TrueType fonts that have been installed on the computer.  In the past, the situation where a project has been copied from one computer to another uses a font which could not be found on the target machine has occurred.  If this happens, the font in the default text style will be used.  It is advisable to use the standard windows fonts that are always installed rather than fonts which may have been installed by other applications.

The Framing field defines the framing around a given item of text.  As well as the option of no framing, there are seven frames as shown to the right.  When the frames are exported to an AutoCAD DXF file, all apart from the underline are exported as graphic shapes in the same colour and on the same layer as the text to which they relate.  If an underline is exported, this is incorporated into the AutoCAD DXF text object.

The Size and Stretch fields define the size of the text characters.  The size is the height of a capital letter in millimetres when it is printed.  The stretch is the factor that is applied to the characters of the text to change their width.  A value greater than 1.0 makes them wider and a value of less than 1.0 makes them narrower.

The Italic check button allows you to display text in italics.  This skews the text with the angle of skew being defined within the Windows font.  The Bold check button allows you to display text in a bolder format.  The characters will be thicker, again this being defined within the Windows Font.