HOW TO

Change the TEXTSYMBOL that has been assigned to annotation

Last Published: April 25, 2020

Procedure

Summary:

Changing the characteristics of the annotation features displayed in Arcplot.

Procedure:

Annotation features have "pseudo items" associated with them. The items are not stored in the attribute table, but with the features themselves. They control how the features will display with commands such as ANNOTEXT. The pseudo item "$SYMBOL" determines what Arcplot text symbol is used.

To find out what the $SYMBOL of the annotation is, do the following in Arcedit:

EDITCOVERAGE COVER
EDITFEATURE ANNO or ANNO.SUBCLASS
SELECT ALL
LIST $ALL

This will list all of the pseudo items for each annotation feature.

For example:

$ID = 0
$SYMBOL = 1
$LEVEL = 1
$SIZE = 50000.00000
$TEXT = MONTANA
$OFFSETX = 0.00000
$OFFSETY = 0.00000
$WORD = 0
$JUSTIFY = CC
$FIT = OFF
$ALIGN =

Notice that the $SYMBOL is equal to 1. When displaying this ANNOTATION in ARCPLOT, TEXTSYMBOL 1 of the current TEXTSET will be used to draw the ANNOTEXT. This means that the appearance of ANNOTEXT can be modified by changing the characteristics of TEXTSYMBOL 1 in the TEXTSET.

To display ANNOTATION with TEXTSYMBOL 14 of TEXTSET FONT.TXT, do the following in Arcplot:
Remember that the $SYMBOL of the ANNOTATION is 1.

MAPEXTENT COVER
TEXTSET FONT.TXT
TEXTSYMBOL 14
TEXTPUT 1
ANNOTEXT COVER

The ANNOTEXT should display with the parameters of TEXTSYMBOL 14 of FONT.TXT. The TEXTPUT command takes all the parameters of the current symbol and places them at the specified symbol location. Color could easily be changed by specifying the TEXTCOLOR before issuing the TEXTPUT command. It is also possible to use the TEXTCOPY command to move the desired TEXTSYMBOL to the symbol location that matches the $SYMBOL.

Notes:

To change ANNOTATION size, use the TEXTSCALE command.

ANNOTATION can also be modified in ARCEDIT to appear as desired in ARCPLOT. This is done by modifying the ANNOTATION pseudo items ($ITEMS). For more information look at the section explaining ANNOTATION in Editing Coverages and Tables with ARCEDIT.

Article ID:000001434

Software:
  • ArcMap 8 x
  • Legacy Products

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