Create Leader Lines

You can create a leader line from any point or feature in a drawing and control its appearance. Leaders can be straight line segments or smooth spline curves. Leader color is controlled by the current dimension line color. Leader scale is controlled by the overall dimension scale set in the active dimension style. The type and size of the arrowhead, if one is present, is controlled by the arrowhead defined in the active style.

A small line known as a hook line usually connects the annotation to the leader. Hook lines appear with multiline text and feature control frames if the last leader line segment is at an angle greater than 15 degrees from horizontal. The hook line is the length of a single arrowhead. If the leader has no annotation, it has no hook line.

You create a leader by creating an instance of a Leader object. When you create an instance of a Leader object, its constructor does not accept any parameters. The AppendVertex method is used to define the position and length of the leader created.

Create a leader line

This example creates a leader line in model space. There is no annotation associated with the leader line.

VB.NET

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.Geometry

<CommandMethod("CreateLeader")> _

Public Sub CreateLeader()

  '' Get the current database

  Dim acDoc As Document = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument

  Dim acCurDb As Database = acDoc.Database

  '' Start a transaction

  Using acTrans As Transaction = acCurDb.TransactionManager.StartTransaction()

      '' Open the Block table for read

      Dim acBlkTbl As BlockTable

      acBlkTbl = acTrans.GetObject(acCurDb.BlockTableId, _

                                   OpenMode.ForRead)

      '' Open the Block table record Model space for write

      Dim acBlkTblRec As BlockTableRecord

      acBlkTblRec = acTrans.GetObject(acBlkTbl(BlockTableRecord.ModelSpace), _

                                      OpenMode.ForWrite)

      '' Create the leader

      Dim acLdr As Leader = New Leader()

      acLdr.AppendVertex(New Point3d(0, 0, 0))

      acLdr.AppendVertex(New Point3d(4, 4, 0))

      acLdr.AppendVertex(New Point3d(4, 5, 0))

      acLdr.HasArrowHead = True

      '' Add the new object to Model space and the transaction

      acBlkTblRec.AppendEntity(acLdr)

      acTrans.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(acLdr, True)

      '' Commit the changes and dispose of the transaction

      acTrans.Commit()

  End Using

End Sub

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Geometry;

[CommandMethod("CreateLeader")]

public static void CreateLeader()

  // Get the current database

  Document acDoc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;

  Database acCurDb = acDoc.Database;

  // Start a transaction

  using (Transaction acTrans = acCurDb.TransactionManager.StartTransaction())

      // Open the Block table for read

      BlockTable acBlkTbl;

      acBlkTbl = acTrans.GetObject(acCurDb.BlockTableId,

                                   OpenMode.ForRead) as BlockTable;

      // Open the Block table record Model space for write

      BlockTableRecord acBlkTblRec;

      acBlkTblRec = acTrans.GetObject(acBlkTbl[BlockTableRecord.ModelSpace],

                                      OpenMode.ForWrite) as BlockTableRecord;

      // Create the leader

      Leader acLdr = new Leader();

      acLdr.AppendVertex(new Point3d(0, 0, 0));

      acLdr.AppendVertex(new Point3d(4, 4, 0));

      acLdr.AppendVertex(new Point3d(4, 5, 0));

      acLdr.HasArrowHead = true;

      // Add the new object to Model space and the transaction

      acBlkTblRec.AppendEntity(acLdr);

      acTrans.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(acLdr, true);

      // Commit the changes and dispose of the transaction

      acTrans.Commit();

VBA/ActiveX Code Reference