Rotate Drawing After Labels or Callouts Have Been Placed
Updated on: August 26, 2024
Issue
After placing plant labels or other callouts in a Work Area, you want to twist the Work Area around to keep the labels or callouts leveled horizontally.
Solution
Your solution will vary depending on the type of callouts you need to rotate:
- Multileaders (MLeaders) with Multitext (MText)
- MLeaders with block callouts
- Pipe labels
- All other callouts
Multileaders (MLeaders) with Multitext (MText)
You can use the AutoCAD Select Similar command (right-click one of the problematic callouts, then choose Select Similar from the menu that opens) to select all the labels, then change their Rotation setting in the Properties panel, but the leader lines will inevitably be at unusual angles.
MLeaders with block callouts
AutoCAD does not include a built-in tool to rotate a previously placed MLeader with block to the current UCS. At this time, you'll need to use a LISP file for this purpose. Use the link below to download a text file containing the code for a LISP file we've tested on our plant callouts using blocks in MLeaders.
Right-click the link below and save the file to your desktop.
Wondering where we sourced the LISP code linked above, and how it came to be? See this Autodesk Forum post.
After downloading the file, type C:/Users/username/Desktop/MLEADERCONTENTALIGN.lsp into the AutoCAD Command line, replacing username with your computer name. If you saved the downloaded file somewhere other than your desktop, edit the location in the command above to match where you saved it. After making the necessary edits, press Enter to run the command.
Then type MLEADERCONTENTALIGN in the Command line and press Enter. Select your plant label.
With this basic LISP loading, you'll need to repeat this process whenever you reopen CAD each time you want to use it, and it will remain available for use for that whole CAD session.
Pipe labels
Completing these steps in an irrigation design? When you set the new rotation, you can delete any pipe labels from the drawing. Size your lateral pipes, then size the mainline. The pipe labels should come in properly.
All other callouts
You'll need to redo all other callouts (such as valve callouts) manually. The biggest challenge would be irrigation blocks with nested text in them. It might be best to leave these as is. Otherwise, you may need to open each block definition with the Block Editor and rotate the nested block manually.