Specifying and changing line spacing

Sometimes, you need text to have a specific line spacing, to fit into a schedule in your drawing. If you can use the TABLE command, that’s great, because the text automatically fits nicely into the rows of the table.

But sometimes, you need to fit your text into an existing set of lines, like a title block, or just want the lines of text to fit nicely into a certain space. In these instances, you should know how to specify line spacing for multiline text. By using multiline text, you can quickly enter many lines of text and place them exactly where you want.

Follow these steps to set the line spacing:

1. Start the MTEXT command.
2. At the Specify first corner: prompt, pick the first corner of the Mtext bounding box.
3. At the Specify opposite corner or [Height/Justify/Line
   spacing/Rotation/Style/Width/Columns]: prompt, don’t do what you usually do, which is specify the opposite corner. Instead. use the Line spacing option (you can type l).
4. At the Enter line spacing type [At least/Exactly] <At least>: prompt, use the Exactly option.
5. At the Enter line spacing factor or distance <1x>: prompt, enter the line spacing in units. The default, 1x, gives you single-line spacing, which varies with the side of the text. For text that is .5 units apart, enter .5
6. The Specify opposite corner or [Height/Justify/Line spacing/Rotation/Style/Width/Columns]: prompt returns, and now you specify the opposite corner.
7. Enter your text.

The MTEXT command doesn’t allow for easy placement, but once you have the text entered with the right line spacing, it’s easy to move. Now you’ll see the advantage of having all the text as one object; move it and all the lines of text move together.

Note that this setting persists for future MTEXT objects. To set the linespacing back to the default setting, at the Line spacing option, enter 1x. Then set the line spacing type to At Least.

You might not realize that you need to set line spacing until you’ve entered the text and seen that it doesn’t fit properly. In this case, you need to change the line spacing of the existing text. Follow these steps:

1. Select the multline text object.
2. Open the Properties palette.
3. Set the Line Space Distance item to the line spacing you want.
4. Set the Line Space Style item to Exactly

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Ellen Finkelstein

Ellen Finkelstein is the author of the best-selling AutoCAD & AutoCAD LT Bible, which started with R14. Ellen has written extensively on AutoCAD, including articles for Autodesk’s website and features for AutoCAD’s Help system. Ellen’s first book was AutoCAD For Dummies Quick Reference.

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