Working with Text

Place single-line and multi-line text notes on a drawing, set how they look, and edit or move them afterwards.

A drawing usually needs words as well as lines — a title, a note, a callout. Pingendum 2D places text as notes: annotation that sits on the drawing, plots with it, and can be moved and edited like any other object.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that:

You have a drawing open. Text doesn't depend on any geometry.

Two Text Tools

Both are in the Annotate menu, and in the command search.

Tool	Shortcut	Use it for
Multi-Line Text	`Shift+T`	A paragraph — text that wraps, has line spacing, and aligns inside a box
Single-Line Text	—	One row of text with no paragraph — a label or a title

While either tool is active, a Type control on the Tool Options row switches between Single-line and Multi-line for the next note you place.

Placing a Note

Start Multi-Line Text (Shift+T) or Single-Line Text. The text editor opens straight away — titled Create Multi-Line Text or Create Single-Line Text.
Type into Content. The Insert symbol… list adds characters that are awkward to type: ° degree, ± plus/minus, ⌀ diameter, Ø, and ×.
Set the appearance and placement if you need to (see below). The Preview shows the result, fitted to the box — it isn't drawn at printed size, and its cross marks the insertion point.
Click Place Text. The editor closes and the note follows the cursor.
Click on the drawing to place it. The prompt reads "Click to place text · E to edit · Esc to cancel" — press E to reopen the editor before placing, or Escape to abandon the note.

The note is placed and left selected. A note with no content is discarded rather than placed.

Tip: several notes in a row

Tick Repeat placement in the editor, and after each click the same text is ready to place again — useful for labelling several identical features.

The height, rotation and alignment of the note you just placed become the defaults for the next one, so a drawing's notes stay consistent without resetting them every time.

The Editor's Settings

Appearance

Setting	What it does
Font	The typeface
Bold / Italic	Weight and slant
Paper height	The text height on the plotted sheet, in mm

Placement

Setting	What it does
Rotation	The note's angle, in degrees
Horizontal anchor	Left, Center or Right — which part of the note sits on the insertion point
Vertical anchor	Baseline, Bottom, Middle or Top

Multi-line only

Setting	What it does
Wrapping	Automatic width, or a Fixed width that the text wraps inside
Paper width	The fixed width, in mm on the sheet
Line spacing	The space between lines
Paragraph alignment	Follow attachment, Left, Center or Right

Reset to style puts every setting back to the drawing's text style. Replace line breaks with spaces flattens pasted multi-line content onto one line.

Note: paper height, not model height

Text height is set in paper millimetres, like lineweight. A 3.5 mm note plots 3.5 mm tall whatever the drawing scale, so notes stay readable at 1:1 or 1:20. See Plotting and Printing.

Editing a Note

Double-click any note to reopen it in the editor — titled Edit Multi-Line Text or Edit Single-Line Text — whichever tool is active. Change what you need and click Save Changes. The edit is one undo step.

A note on a locked layer can't be edited; the prompt names the reason instead of opening the editor.

Moving a Note

With the Select tool, drag a note like any other object, or include it in a selection moved with Move, Rotate or Scale (Transforming and Duplicating Sketch Geometry).
With a Text tool active, press on an existing note and drag it. Escape mid-drag puts it back.

Next Steps

You now know how to:

Choose between Single-Line and Multi-Line Text
Place a note, insert a symbol, and set its height, rotation and anchors
Place several copies with Repeat placement
Reopen a note by double-clicking it, and move it

The next part covers precision: putting real numbers on what you've drawn.

Next: Dimensioning a Drawing