Drawings consist of a variety of text styles (called fonts) and text sizes. Specific text parameters have been established for use in all CAD files.
Fonts
A Font Library is attached to each design file. The font library provided by the District is called "STFONT.RSC". It should be assigned as the default font library when working on CAD files for the District.
Standard Fonts
The standard font for all drawing text is Font 2. No other fonts shall be used in the body of the drawing. Font 2 is a custom District font, and is not the same as the Font 2 that is supplied with MicroStation software.
Font 30 is used in the drawing border only, for the District name and address. This font is a bit-stream font. The characters are more complex, and the font displays much more slowly than Font 2. Font 30 shall not be used in the body of a drawing. If the consultant does not have the software required to plot a bit-stream font, then it is acceptable to replace the Font 30 characters in the drawing border with Font 2 characters.
Font 126 is a symbol font. This font provides the arrow heads, diameter symbols, and slash symbols that are used in automatic dimensioning. As an alternate, the consultant may use the District's cell library for arrow heads and slashes, and Font 2 for the diameter symbol. See the section on Seed File parameters for the automatic dimensioning setup, and the section on Line Terminators for use of cells as terminators.
Text Standards
Specific text sizes and weights have been established for Facility Drafting. All text shall follow these parameters. Text should never be scaled up or down, stretched, or compressed, to fit a specific situation.
The standard text heights are: 1/10", 1/8", 5/32", 3/16".
Text width is always 80% of the text height.
Line spacing is always 50% of text height.
Text shall be a minimum of 1/10" high, so that it will be legible when a drawing is reduced to half size. Generally, the largest text used is 3/16".
Text Applications
|
SIZE |
HEIGHT, WIDTH |
WEIGHT |
APPLICATION |
|
1/10" |
.1000", .080" |
0 |
Most text in the body of a drawing, dimension, notes |
|
1/8" |
.1250", .100" |
0 |
Electrical equipment callouts, contour labels, column headings on charts and schedules, building callouts on site plans |
|
5/32" |
.1563", .125" |
1 |
The heading "NOTES" for general notes, titles for charts and schedules, subtitles on drawings, match line text |
|
3/16" |
.1875", .150" |
2 |
Titles for plans, sections, details, etc. |
Text Size in CAD Files
Text shall be placed in the file at the appropriate size for the drawing plot scale. Depending on the scale of the drawing, the size of the text placed in the file will vary. Since all CAD files are drawn at full size (1"=1"), the size of the text and cells in the file are adjusted so that the final plot will have the correct size text. See the section on drawing scales for additional information.
EXAMPLES OF 1/10" TEXT SIZES FOR VARIOUS SCALES
|
DRAWING SCALE |
TH= |
TW= |
LS= |
|
full (1"=1") |
0.10" |
0.08" |
0.05" |
|
1/8"=1'-0" |
9.6" |
7.68" |
4.8" |
|
1/4"=1'-0" |
4.8' |
3.48" |
2.4" |
|
3/8"=1'-0" |
3.2" |
2.56" |
1.6" |
|
1"=10' |
1' |
0.8' |
0.5' |
|
1"=50' |
5' |
4' |
2.5' |
Data Fields
Data Fields are used for text placement in the drawing border, and in cells that require text entries. They are also used on charts and schedules. Data Fields provide the set up for the text, including font, size, level, weight, and justification. The Data Field display should be turned ON in all files, so that the user can see where data fields are available. Text should never be placed on top of an enter data field.
Special Characters
Font 2 includes some customized characters that are commonly used on engineering drawings. The keyboard characters shown in the chart below can be used to represent specific engineering symbols. The display on the screen will show the correct appearance of the symbol, providing that the font library is attached and Font 2 is used.
|
CHARACTER |
DESCRIPTION |
|
` |
centerline symbol |
|
~ |
structural steel plate symbol |
|
! |
structural steel angle symbol |
|
^ |
degrees symbol |
|
{ |
plus-minus symbol |
|
} |
diameter symbol |
|
| |
greater than or equal symbol |
|
\ |
less than or equal symbol |
|
? |
delta symbol |