About Leaders

General Information

You can add a leader only to one annotation at a time, so, you need to select only one annotation before selecting the Add Leader context menu command. Any multiple selections are cleared.

Creating Numerous Leaders

To create as many leaders as required for an existing text, select Me > Preferences > Customize and create the Add Leader command in a separate action bar. You can then double-click the Add Leader command and click to locate the leaders to be created.

Snapping the Leader on Privileged Directions

When adding a leader to an annotation, or an extremity to a leader, you can snap the orientation of the corresponding segment on the following privileged directions:

• Horizontal and vertical directions:
  • Computed in the sheet for annotations oriented in the sheet.
  • Computed in the view for annotations oriented in the view.

• Reference normal and tangent directions: The reference can be a geometry or an annotation.

The leader attachment point or the leader breakpoint, from which the new extremity is created, is considered as a fix point. However, you can move the leader so that the new leader is snapped on the privileged direction. When the leader extremity is snapped on any of the privileged directions, it turns to cyan color.

You can activate or deactivate the Snap on Privileged Direction option from the Annotation section of the action bar.

The following commands provide the snapping on privileged directions:

• Text with Leader
• Datum Target
• Geometrical Tolerance
• Coordinate Dimension
• Welding Symbol
• Flag Note
• NOA

The following points are considered when snapping a leader extremity on its privileged directions:

• The orientation is associative only if the leader is snapped on the perpendicular direction with respect to the reference.

• The selection of a geometry or an annotation: If an annotation providing attachment points is selected as a reference, the annotation position is snapped on the selected attachment point and its leader is removed.
• The snapping on the paper grid: If Snap by default (SHIFT toggles) check box is selected in Me > Preferences > App Preferences > 3D Modeling > Mechanical Systems > Drafting > Handles expander, under Paper Grid, and no reference is selected, the position is first snapped on the privileged direction and then on the closest grid point or grid line (if no grid point is located on the privileged direction).

Important: If Text check box is selected in Me > Preferences > App Preferences > 3D Modeling > Mechanical Systems > Drafting > Annotation and Dress-Up expander, under Create leader extremity normal to reference (Ctrl toggles), the text leader is oriented perpendicularly to the reference, by default. In this case, the snapping on privileged directions is no more available when selecting a reference. Though in this case, the orientation link is created, because Snap on privileged directions check box is selected.

Snapping Using Shift

• If you press Shift when a leader is snapped on a privileged direction, the leader stays snapped on this privileged direction, whatever the position of the mouse pointer is till you release Shift.
• If you press Shift when the leader is snapped on more than one direction, the leader cannot be moved anymore.
  
  

In this case, Shift no more toggles the snapping on the paper grid.

• If the Snap by default (SHIFT toggles) check box is selected, the position is snapped on the privileged direction and then on the closest grid point or grid.
• If the Snap by default (SHIFT toggles) check box is cleared, the position is snapped only on the privileged direction.

Positioning the Leaders

You can keep the leaders at the standard positions with respect to the specific text frame using the Allow only standard positions context menu command. Note that if you do not select this option, you can position the leaders with respect to the anchor point (for example, top left, top right, middle left, etc.).

When you position an annotation that on an existing annotation using an attachment point, an associative positional and orientation link is created, and the leader is automatically removed.

While creating an annotation, using the Leader extremity normal to reference option from the tools palette, you can create a leader perpendicular to the reference geometry. The tools palette option is available for both semantic and non-semantic annotations. Press Ctrl to toggle between the free leader and perpendicular leader.

The orientation of the various segments of a leader can be snapped while moving:

• An extremity of a leader:
  • If the extremity position is constrained by a positional link but can still move, the corresponding segment orientation is snapped.
  • If the extremity is constrained by an orientation link, it cannot be moved.
  • If the extremity is not constrained, the corresponding segment orientation is snapped on horizontal and vertical directions.
• A breakpoint of a leader:

  All segments attached to the breakpoint are snapped based on their order of creation.

  The following segments are ignored:

  • Terminal segments whose extremity is constrained by an orientation link.
  • Terminal segments that are defined as rigid.
  Note: When you press Ctrl, the breakpoint is placed so that both the segments to the breakpoint and the first segment from that breakpoint are vertical and horizontal or vice versa.

  Before

  Ctrl pressed

  After

• An annotation has one or several leaders:

  The leader segments that are directly attached to an annotation that have their orientation snapped when moving this annotation. The leaders are snapped according to their order of creation. That is, first created segment is snapped first.

  The following leaders are ignored:

  • The leaders with no breakpoint and whose extremity is constrained by an orientation link.
  • The leaders with no breakpoint and which are defined as rigid.
  Note: If several annotations are selected, the snapping is done only on the annotation is currently under manipulation. The other annotations are moved independently of their leaders.

  You can position the leader by specifying its extremity out of the current annotation plane. To do so, switch the 2D leader to 3D leader and then manipulate the extremity to the required position.

When the annotation plane is not parallel to the referenced curved geometry, the curve tangency on the leader extremity is used to determine the perpendicular orientation of the leader.

Adding an Extremity Link

It is possible to add an extremity link to a leader.

If the leader extremity does not have a link, the Add Extremity context menu command is available. To add an extremity, right-click the yellow control point and select Add Extremity. It creates a positional link to the selected reference. If you press Ctrl, an orientation link is created.

When the extremity is added, you can remove, replace, or make the extremity perpendicular using the following context menu commands:

• Remove: Removes the extremity link.
• Perpendicular: Makes the extremity link perpendicular with respect to the reference.

Adding a 3D Leader

You can add 3D leader for the annotations with existing leaders in the 3D area or switch the current 2D leaders to 3D to position them outside the annotation plane. To do so, you can do either of the following:

• Right-click the annotation, select Add Leader and then in the Tools Palette select the 3D or 2D/3D. For more information, see Adding Leaders and Using Breakpoints.
• Right-click the arrow end of the leader and select Switch to 3D Leader. When you switch to the 3D leader, the diamond symbol at the extremity of the leader displayed parallel to screen.

You can add 3D leaders for following annotations:

• Annotations:
  • Text with Leader
  • Flag Note with Leader
  • Datum Feature
  • Datum Target
  • Datum Target
  • Note Object Attribute
  • Note Object Attribute instantiation
  • Geometrical Tolerance
  • Welding Symbol
  • Roughness
  • Coordinate Dimensions
• Annotation created using Tolerancing Advisor :
  • Text with Leader
  • Flag Note with Leader
  • Datum Feature
  • Datum Target
  • All Geometrical Tolerances
  • Roughness

You can select preferences to specify the positions of the annotation body and the arrow end of the leader. For more information, see Dimension Default Position Along View Normal.