Command: gtext

Syntax

{<entity> = } gtext {<message> ... }

Description

Create a text graphic entity, or a series of points forming 3-D text.

Parameters

• <entity>
  An entity or gstructure identifier. The gtext entity will be given this name.

• <message>
  One or more values in the form of an output list. Each message constitutes one line of graphic text.

Switches

• -alph=<num>
  An alpha transparency factor between 0 and 1. A value 1 implies fully opaque, 0 means fully transparent (therefore invisible). The default is 1.

• -br=<num>
  A brightness factor between -1 and +1. A value 0 means normal, -1 means very dark (black), +1 means very bright (white). The default is 1.

• -col=<color>
  The color of the text. If included, this will override any color defined in the textstyle (-ts). If omitted, the value no_change is used.

• -fr=<num>
  Define a fragment number for the entity. If omitted, the default fragment def_fragment is used.

• -g=<groups>
  The graphic groups of which the entity is to be a member.

• -h=<num>
  The character height of the text in modeling units. If omitted, the default text height (def_text_height) is used.

• -if=<file>
  A file providing the text value. This will supersede any <message> parameters on the command line.

• -j=<string>
  The text justification, a combination of L,R,T,B and M. If omitted, the default text justification (def_text_just) is used.

• -op=<ident>
  A point identifier into which point co-ordinates formed by the text strokes are to be recorded. This option is not available when an entity is being created. If <ident> does not exist a new point array is created using current scope rules.

• -p=<point>
  The position of the text in 3-D space. If omitted, the current value of graphic control is used.

• -ra=<num>
  Define a rank for the entity. If omitted, the default rank def_rank is used.

• -th=<num>
  The thickness of the text characters. If omitted, the thickness is one.

• -ts=<textstyle>
  The textstyle for the text, including font, aspect ratio etc. If omitted, the default text style (def_ts) is used. The font within <textstyle> must be a scalable font.

• -und
  Underline the text. The default behavior is not to.

• -x=<direction>
  A point phrase yielding a direction for the base line of the text. If omitted, the direction E (the +X axis) is used.

• -y=<direction>
  A point phrase yielding a direction for the height of the text (ignoring slant). If omitted, a direction orthogonal to the x direction is used.

Notes

The gtext command should not be used for general 2-D annotation, for which the glabel command is available.

If the command has the form <entity> = gtext, an entity is always created.

If the command has no entity assignment, then an entity will be created only if the -op option is not used, or the command is not within another entity creation block, e.g. lines, polygon.

Examples

Create an unnamed single line gtext entity.

gtext 'Text (BL) justified', -j='bl'

Create a named gtext entity (two lines).

entity my_text = gtext 'Line 1','Line 2', -h=50

Store gtext points into an array (no entity created).

point textps[ ]
gtext 'A', -op=textps, -ts=stdtext, -h=1

Add text vectors to a route of polygon entities under creation.

route n:1000 {
    gtext 'MARLON BRANDO', -h=50, -x=e, -y=u
}

See Also