You type a two-line note, press Enter halfway, and then discover the two lines are two separate objects: select one and the other stays behind, move one and the drawing goes crooked. That is when people go looking for how line breaks in AutoCAD are supposed to work.
The cause is not the Enter key. It is which command you used to write. This article measures four routes on AutoCAD 2027 at the Institute. For a proper grounding in annotation and drawing presentation see our AutoCAD for Construction course.
Two text commands, and only one of them breaks lines
AutoCAD has two commands for writing text, and this is exactly where they part company.
| Command | Alias | A paragraph of several lines |
|---|---|---|
MTEXT | MT, T | yes, the whole paragraph is one object |
TEXT | DT, DTEXT | no, every line is its own object |
That difference is not the software being capricious. It sits in the data structure. We read back a TEXT object we had just created: it stores exactly one string, in group code 1. A box that holds one string has nowhere to put a second line.
So every time you press Enter inside the single line text command, AutoCAD has to close the object it was writing and open a new one. On screen it looks just like two lines of one paragraph; only selecting it gives the game away.
Where to start the mtext command
Read straight out of the acad.cuix interface file of the 2027 release on the machine.
| Route | MTEXT | TEXT |
|---|---|---|
| Alias | MT, T | DT, DTEXT |
| Ribbon | Annotate → Text → Multiline Text | Annotate → Text → Single Line Text |
| Classic menu | Draw → Text → Multiline Text | Draw → Text → Single Line Text |
| Toolbar | Draw → Multiline Text | Text → Single Line Text |
The alias T is the one worth remembering, because it is a single keystroke. Plenty of long-time users still reach for DT out of habit, and that habit is where the one-object-per-line problem comes from.
Three ways an MTEXT breaks a line
Once you are in MTEXT there are three ways of making line breaks in AutoCAD, and all three leave you with one object.
The first is simply pressing Enter inside the editor. It is the natural way and it is the right one.
The second is letting the text wrap to the box width. Drag the arrow on the editor's ruler to widen or narrow the box and the text re-wraps as you go.
The third is typing the paragraph code, which is for the places that give you no editor at all — covered below.
The mtext box width decides where it wraps
This is worth measuring, because it explains the complaint that a note "runs on for ever and refuses to wrap".
We took the same long sentence and built two MTEXT objects differing only in box width, then measured the bounding box of each.
| Box width | Measured bounding box | Result |
|---|---|---|
0 | 17400 × 400 | one long line, no wrap anywhere |
4000 | 3000 × 3400 | wraps into several lines inside the box |
A width of zero means no limit, so the text runs straight on. Zero is what you usually get when you create an MTEXT by clicking a single point and typing, rather than dragging out a box.
The fix is easy: select the object, open Properties, and put a number in the width field. Or drag the arrow on the editor's ruler.
This single setting accounts for most complaints about line breaks in AutoCAD. A note created by clicking one point inherits width zero, and nothing you do inside the editor will make it wrap until that number changes.
Converting text to mtext, and the trap in the combine command
If a drawing arrives with a pile of loose TEXT lines, Express Tools has a command to gather them: TXT2MTXT. On the ribbon it sits at Insert → Import → Combine Text; on the classic menu it is Express → Text → Convert Text.
The prompts, copied verbatim from the 2027 release:
Select text objects to combine ...
Select objects or [SEttings]:We built two TEXT lines sitting one above the other and ran it. AutoCAD reported:
2 Text objects removed, 1 MText object added.
One MTEXT object, exactly as hoped. The contents are another matter. Reading the string back gives:
Dong mot Dong hai
The two lines were joined into one running line separated by a space, not kept as two lines. This is where people blame the command for wrecking their notes.
The reason is that the command treats those lines as one paragraph that had been broken up, so gathering them returns the paragraph whole. To keep the individual lines, go into the SEttings option before selecting, or accept the join and put the breaks back yourself.
One distinction worth drawing: converting text to mtext and combining several lines are two different jobs. Converting a single TEXT line loses nothing at all. Only combining two or more brings the joining behaviour described above.
Writing text, changing its height and editing it in bulk are covered in our article on text in AutoCAD.
The paragraph code, for places with no editor
A few places in AutoCAD give you a one-line input box where Enter closes the box rather than breaking the line: the Value field of a block attribute, the Text override field of a dimension, and the Contents field in Properties.
These fields are worth knowing about before you need them, because the symptom is confusing: you press Enter, the box shuts, and whatever you had typed is committed as a single line with no warning that a break was ever refused.
The commonest case is a block attribute: a title block with a long address line that you want split in two, in a field that only takes one line. Creating and editing blocks is covered in our article on blocks in AutoCAD.
In those places you type the paragraph code. Autodesk's Format Codes for Alternate Text Editor gives it as \P, described in two words — "Ends paragraph" — with the example Autodesk\PAutoCAD producing two lines.
We measured it back on the machine by building two MTEXT objects differing only in that code.
| String inside | Measured bounding box |
|---|---|
Dong mot\PDong hai | 2300 × 900 — two lines |
Dong mot Dong hai | 4800 × 400 — one line |
Two things to remember when typing it, because a small slip makes it appear as literal characters. The P must be upper case, and there must be no spaces around the code.
The same table holds one more useful line: \~ inserts a non-breaking space, for when two words must never fall onto different lines. A familiar case is a figure and its unit: write 30\~kN and the number never parts from the unit when the box narrows.
One last note on the code: it only means anything to MTEXT and to fields that accept MTEXT formatting. Type \P into a single-line TEXT object and it appears as literal characters, because TEXT does not read the format table.
Three things people say that are not true
| What people say | What the 2027 release actually does |
|---|---|
| Enter breaks a line, whichever command you use | With TEXT each Enter makes a new object; that object can hold only one string |
| Text that will not wrap means a broken text style | It means the box width is zero; put a number in and it wraps |
Combining TEXT into MTEXT keeps the lines | It reports 2 Text objects removed, 1 MText object added. but the contents come out as one running line |
Frequently asked questions
How do I break a line and still keep one object?
Use MTEXT, aliased MT or T, and press Enter normally inside the editor. The whole paragraph stays one object, which is what makes line breaks in AutoCAD behave the way people expect from a word processor.
What if I have already written it with DT?
Combine with TXT2MTXT, remembering that the contents will join into one running line. Or delete and retype with MT if the note is short.
A note runs out past the title block; how do I make it wrap?
Select it, open Properties, and put a number in the width field. Measured on the machine: the same sentence runs 17400 units long at width zero, and folds into 3000 at width 4000.
I typed \P and it shows as literal characters.
Two common slips: a lower-case p, or spaces around the code. It must be upper case and closed up.
How do I get two lines in a block attribute?
Type the \P code into the value field. Or open the attribute manager and tick the option for multiple lines, which turns the field into a multi-line editor.
Does the code work in a dimension text override?
Yes, with the same \P. That is one of the fields with no multi-line editor, so pressing Enter there only closes the box.