Mirrored Text should Mirror Anchor and Justification

[Karl Ottenstein]

See the attached screenshot, suggestive of what has happened many times working on duplexes and mirroring annotation from one unit to the mirrored one.

IMHO, when a text block is mirrored, the justification should be reversed: that is right justified source text should become left justified target text (and vice versa). Centered text obviously stays the same.

The other thing that should happen IMHO is that the anchor point for the text should be mirrored. (Those 9 little squares you can click on in case this has a different official name.) Only if the anchor point is mirrored will the text behave the same visually on the plan if the scale changes, for example...since the anchor is the coordinate/hotspot that stays fixed in space regardless of the change in size of the text block.

In the screenshot below, you want the anchor to be at the corner (or midpoint) near the annotation spline, so that the text will always be next to the spline regardless of scale.

The current behavior seems like a bug to me ... the mirrored copy of the text is actually the same as a copy.

So: my wish is to mirror anchor points and mirror text justification (if left or right justified) when text blocks are mirrored.

Is it just me?

Thanks,
Karl

PS I realize that rich text blocks can have complex content, with some text justified left, some centered, and some right. There would be cases, then, when mirroring the justification might not be acceptable, so perhaps there could ba a preference setting to enable that aspect. Mirroring anchor points should always happen IMHO.

[Aussie John]

is not you Karl, definitely something that needs improvement

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting thought. My personal feeling is that I agree with you completely on the anchor point (or more correctly, the relation of the text and the leader should remain the same).

But I doubt you would find a typographer or graphic artist who find the justification of the text itself based on which side the leader was on. In other words, they would tell you that the text should be left justified in both cases. ( the "Original" alignment of text does not comply with typographical standards)

So I'm saying the program is handling the mirror operation correctly in maintaining the text justification and incorrectly in moving the text away from the leader.

woodster

[Karl Ottenstein]

woodster wrote:
But I doubt you would find a typographer or graphic artist who find the justification of the text itself based on which side the leader was on. In other words, they would tell you that the text should be left justified in both cases. ( the "Original" alignment of text does not comply with typographical standards)

I see your point, Woody, except that a typographer does not have a mirror command for his text, he only has copy. (I think?)

I intentionally show a white background for the text so that it is clear where the anchor point is. If only the anchor point were mirrored, the text block on the right would have the anchor at the upper right corner of its white boundary. But, would you really use right justified text in that annotation setting...with a gap between the leader and the text? A typographer or graphic artist would, I think left justify text in that situation IMHO.

Also, it is only when the text is justified to the anchor point that text apppears in a reliable location at different scales. For example, centered text should have a centered anchor point. Left justified text should have a left anchor, right a right anchor. In general. IMHO. 😉

Karl

[Aussie John]

I agree with Karl- a graphic designer would never use text and arrow (going to the left) the way ArchiCAD deals with it. Left justified looks the best as far as the text goes but the arrows suck. As far as I am concerned an Archcad user is forced to use right justified for labels which go to the left.

[Anonymous]

Voted essential. The fact that the leader does not always come close to the text is damn annoying.

Perhaps a setting in the Options>Preferences dialogue box that lets you specify whether you want the mirroring of the anchor and justification to be mirrorred too, or not.

Every other CAD package I have used enables you to do this, why not Archicad too.

Roolio

[Anonymous]

I have noticed that SYMB_MIRRORED is always 0, when the label is mirrored (8.1).
Same thing for SYMB_ROTANGLE, in case of rotation.

You have to deal with LABEL_POSITION coordonates to solve the mirroring question.

This should not be too much difficult to implement automatically, for mirroring.
For rotation, difficult to understand the way this label tool works, may be it is the same way.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Maybe the SYMB_MIRRORED and SYMB_ROTANGLE variables do not apply to labels, as the 3 points already pretty well determine its location.
Just guessing.

[Anonymous]

laszlonagy wrote:
Maybe the SYMB_MIRRORED and SYMB_ROTANGLE variables do not apply to labels, as the 3 points already pretty well determine its location.
Just guessing.

Speakink for myself, i will never read too much carefully the existing documentation.
Despite it is printed black on white, i didn't take care to this point.

SYMB_MIRRORED & SYMB_ROTANGLE DON'T apply to labels. My apologies.
The LABEL_POSITION params seems to be the the good and only way to achieve this work.