Merging Text to a Point

Merge Text can also be used to position a copy of a selected text object—a caption, measurement, calculation or function—at a location determined by a geometric point in your sketch.

1. Select one text object and one point.

2. While holding down the Shift key, choose Merge Text To Point from the Edit menu.

A merged copy of your selected text appears, centered on the point you selected. As you cause the point to move (by dragging it, animating it, or dragging or animating its parents), the merged text moves with it; and as you drag the merged text, the point moves with it. (You may wish to hide the point to make the text more legible.)

A caption merged to a point can be used to provide a richer description of the point (or the object on which the point is constructed) than can be entered in a label, because you can use the style buttons and Symbolic Notation tools from the Text Palette. A measurement merged to a point can provide a useful visualization of measured properties. For instance, you can merge the measure of an angle to that angle's vertex; or the length of a segment to a (hidden) point on that segment. Note that the copy of your original text merged to the point is not the measurement itself, however. It's only a display copy of your original measurement. If you want to use the original measurement elsewhere in your sketch, you should not hide it after merging its text to a point.