TEXTFRAME draws a rectangular polyline box around selected Text and MText, at an offset proportional to the text height, optionally with rounded corners. It is equivalent to the Express Tools TCIRCLE command, but with a fillet option and without needing Express Tools installed.
What TextFrame does
The offset is a factor, not a distance. You give a multiplier of the text height rather than an absolute value, so one setting produces visually consistent boxes across a selection containing several different text sizes.
A factor of 0.35 — the default — puts the frame just over a third of a character height clear of the text.
How to use it
- Load the routine with
APPLOAD, or put it on your support file search path. - Type
TEXTFRAME. - Select the Text and MText to box.
- Give the offset factor, or press Enter to reuse the last one.
- Choose whether to fillet the corners.
How it works
The factor and the fillet preference are remembered between sessions, held in AutoCAD’s environment settings rather than in memory, so they survive closing and reopening the program — not just reloading the file.
Each frame inherits the layer, linetype, lineweight, colour and thickness of the text it surrounds, so boxes land on the same layer as their text without any further tidying. Box thirty labels spread across six layers and every frame is on the right one.
Works with text at any rotation and in any UCS.
Notes and limits
- The offset is proportional, so one factor suits a mixed-size selection.
- Frames inherit the text’s properties, including its layer.
- The frames do not follow the text if it is edited. Change the wording and the box stays the old size.
- Settings survive restarts, being kept in the environment rather than in memory.
Download and details
| Name | TextFrame — draw a box around text at an offset proportional to its height |
| Download | TextFrame.lsp — 14.4 KB, plain AutoLISP source. Downloads directly; no zip to unpack. |
| Type | AutoCAD AutoLISP routine |
| Command | TEXTFRAME |
| Requires | the ActiveX layer (loaded automatically by the routine with vl-load-com). |
| Source size | 14.4 KB, 348 lines |
| Error handling | Yes — a *error* handler restores every system variable it changed, on cancel as well as on error. |
| Undo | The whole operation is wrapped in a single undo group, so one U reverses all of it. |
| Compatibility | AutoCAD (any release with AutoLISP), BricsCAD, ZWCAD, GstarCAD, ProgeCAD and other IntelliCAD-based platforms. AutoCAD LT needs a LISP enabler. No .NET, no ObjectARX, no installer. |
| Author | YZ, August 2026 |
| Licence | Free to use, supplied “as is” with no warranty. |
References
- BACKDROP LISP — masking behind text rather than framing it
- RULE1 LISP — strikethrough and underline for the same text types
- SHRINKWRAP LISP — outline a whole group rather than box each item
- More free AutoLISP routines on this site
- Wisey’s Steel Shapes — free structural steel section drawing program