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AutoCAD Control Codes and Special Text Characters

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AutoCAD Control Codes and Special Text Characters

CADDManager on July 13th, 2010 It use to be pretty tough to get special characters into your text in AutoCAD. You had to use %% or other tricks to get it done. Some may still use these inline tricks or you could use the menus. Ever use Unicode I have not but When entering text, you can create special characters, including the degree symbol, plus/minus tolerance symbol, and the diameter symbol, by entering the following Unicode character strings: \U+00B0 = Degrees symbol () \U+00B1 = Tolerance symbol () \U+2205 = Diameter symbol Better yet Use %% this is a more standard way of enter special characters In addition to using Unicode characters for entering special characters, you can also overscore text, underscore text, or insert a special character by including control information in the text string. Use a pair of percent signs to introduce each control sequence. You can use this control code with standard AutoCAD text fonts and Adobe PostScript fonts: %%nnn Draws character number nnn. NOTE: You can use these control codes with standard AutoCAD text fonts only: %%o Toggles overscoring on and off.
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AutoCAD Control Codes and Special Text Characters

%%u Toggles underscoring on and off. %%d Draws degrees symbol (). %%p Draws plus/minus tolerance symbol (). %%c Draws circle diameter dimensioning symbol . What if I want the % sign??? %%% Draws a single percent sign (%). This is valid for the TEXT command only. Overscoring and underscoring can be in effect at the same time. Both turn off automatically at the end of the text string. You can use the %%nnn control sequence to display special characters using the PostScript fonts. You can also get most of these off the MTEXT menu now.

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AutoCAD Control Codes and Special Text Characters

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AutoCAD Control Codes and Special Text Characters

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8 Responses to AutoCAD Control Codes and Special Text Characters

1. fatcadjobs
July 14th, 2010 at 9:50 AM

You are very true. In addition to using Unicode characters for entering special characters, you can also overscore text, underscore text, or insert a special character by including control information in the text string. Use a pair of percent signs to introduce each control sequence. Great information! Cha 2. Katie
July 30th, 2010 at 6:05 AM

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AutoCAD Control Codes and Special Text Characters

We just recently started using these to put registered and trademark symbols in. Found the Alt+(number code) works the best for a consitant way of doing things between applications and conditions. Even works in an attribute dialog box that may not have access to symbols like in multi-line text. One downfall is that some characters do not show up depending on what type of font you are using. 3. CADDManager
July 30th, 2010 at 9:09 AM

Katie, Good point on making sure that the special characters print. Also check your PDF files. I have seen some drop off in PDFs also. Mark 4. Katie
August 5th, 2010 at 7:03 AM

Yes we have seen this too. Our pdfs will show up with dots by the text that uses these when created through ACAD. I have narrowed it down to the text width. If you make a pdf with say a tahoma font and text width of 1.0, using the dwg to pdf.pc3 will result in dots in the area of the text that is using the symbol. Change the text width to .999 or smaller and it will show up. So far with testing I have had it work. I have only tested Tahoma font with this though. With the dots, the preview will show up like it will print. But going back and opening your PDF will result in dots. 5. PJ
January 21st, 2011 at 6:56 AM

I would just like to thank you for helping with the PDF-dot issue. I do almost all of my plotting to PDF, and typically use the percent sign, plus/minus, etc. and have never figured out how to get around the dots. Why isnt this something AutoCAD and Adobe get corrected? PS-I use Arial font and the text width works. 6. james
November 28th, 2011 at 1:30 PM

what about the codes for fractions? What are they and where can I locate them? thanks 7. rosalinda
March 27th, 2012 at 12:29 PM
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AutoCAD Control Codes and Special Text Characters

<3 8. mehdi
June 29th, 2012 at 2:23 AM

thanks a lot

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AutoCAD Control Codes and Special Text Characters

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