Mtext : remove manual formatting

Does anyone know of an easy way of removing the manual formatting of Mtext
inserts in a drawing using AutoCAD 2004/5?

I have just discovered that an untrained user has manually modified lots of
MTEXT's in a whole series of drawings and I now need to change all the text
back to a 'standard' style. I thought that this would be easy with Quick
Select and Object properties, but manual formatting appears to 'trump'
changes to the Text style. I have also tried the Match Properties tool but
this does not remove manual formatting either.

The only way I have found so far is to explode the Mtext to Text, change the
style and then re-Mtext with the Express Tool, but this is painful! What am
I missing?

Any help really appreciated.

 

Edit with MTEXT editor > select the text to remove format from > right click

 

I was looking for a way I could remove the manual formatting of (say) 50
Mtext instances in a single drawing in one operation, but thanks anyway.

 

Dean,

As with the other post, I am really looking for a way to remove the manual
formatting of (say) 50 Mtext instances in a single drawing in one operation.
Having to select each one in turn, then highlight the text and then change
the style is really tedious.

Thanks anyway.

 

I had this problem recently. There is a way. Firstly change your text editor to notepad (MTEXTED;[path].notepad.exe) having done this you'll notice that when you edit any of this text you can read the properties as a code. i.e. {\C2;sample text} would display yellow text (C2 = yellow) to remove this you need to use the CHGTEXT.lsp and replace {\C2; with nothing. This will remove the colour property and allow you to change colour using normal properties. I hope I'm explaining myself here. The limitations are that you can onyl change one colour at a time. Remember to use the correct case in the search and replace. And you might want to remove all the spare }s from the end of the text as well. Hope you can figure this out.

 

I had this problem recently. There is a way. Firstly change your text editor to notepad (MTEXTED;[path].notepad.exe) having done this you'll notice that when you edit any of this text you can read the properties as a code. i.e. {\C2;sample text} would display yellow text (C2 = yellow) to remove this you need to use the CHGTEXT.lsp and replace {\C2; with nothing. This will remove the colour property and allow you to change colour using normal properties. I hope I'm explaining myself here. The limitations are that you can onyl change one colour at a time. Remember to use the correct case in the search and replace. And you might want to remove all the spare }s from the end of the text as well. Hope you can figure this out.

 

Thanks for that - however I managed to track down a LSP utility called
STRIPMTEXT which does exactly what I needed.

This is a free utility found at www.users.qwest.net/~sdoman and the only
thing I found was that it had to be in the same folder as BASE.DCL and this
folder needed to be added to the support file search path - other than this
it seems to be superb.

Thanks again to everyone who posted.

Here it is anyway:

 

I just tried this in a smaller example, if you select all (in the entire
dwg), you can use the properies box to then change the properties. Even
better, use the quick select command and specife mtext the change the style
in the properties box.

Paul

 

Get Steve Doman's STRIPMTEXT, it does what you want.

http://www.users.qwest.net/~sdoman/

 

Thanks Tom - see post 2 above, I did just that!!

 

I would have the "untrained user" go back on his own time and modify them
back...

 

<<I would have the "untrained user" go back on his own time and modify them back... >>

If the employee is "non-exempt", the labor board would frown upon such requirement, while the kid's lawyer would smile.

Besides, we are well trained and use manual formatting frequently. So it's more a matter of understanding the problem better to find the proper solution. The STRIPTEXT function works well, but CHGTEXT should work as well, depends on what formatting needs to be stripped.