VIEWLABEL places the title under a drawn view — VIEW A-A, SECTION B-B, DETAIL C — with the pair of rules beneath it and an optional scale note.
What ViewLabel does
It is a small job done many times per sheet, and doing it by hand is how sheets end up with titles at three different heights and rules of four different lengths.
How to use it
- Load the routine with
APPLOAD, or put it on your support file search path. - Type
VIEWLABEL. - Choose view, section or detail, and give the identifying letter.
- Add a scale note if you want one.
- Pick the point the title should be centred on — normally directly below the middle of the view.
How it works
VIEW and SECTION titles repeat the identifying letter either side of a dash, because they are cut on a line marked at both ends: a section marked A at both ends is SECTION A-A. A DETAIL is called out at one point only, so it takes a single letter.
The rules are measured from the title, not fixed per type. The routine this replaces carried a hard-coded half-width for each of the three types, so “SECTION AA-AA” ran past its own underline while “DETAIL A” sat in the middle of one far too long for it.
Here the width comes from the length of the text actually being written, plus a margin, so it is right for any identifier.
Two rules rather than one, the lower slightly wider than the upper, which is the conventional treatment and reads as deliberate rather than as a doubled line.
Everything scales from DIMSCALE, so the title matches the dimensions on the same sheet. Title text is DIMTXT × DIMSCALE × 1.35 — titles are set slightly larger than dimension text — and the scale note is smaller again at 0.7 of the title.
Notes and limits
- Rules fit the title, whatever the identifier.
- Set
DIMSCALEfirst — everything follows it. - The scale note is optional.
- One undo group covers the title.
Download and details
| Name | ViewLabel — place a view, section or detail title |
| Download | ViewLabel.lsp — 7.3 KB, plain AutoLISP source. Downloads directly; no zip to unpack. |
| Type | AutoCAD AutoLISP routine |
| Command | VIEWLABEL |
| Requires | nothing beyond a CAD platform with AutoLISP. |
| Source size | 7.3 KB, 184 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
- VIEWFRAME LISP — framing the view the title belongs to
- HIDESECTION LISP — the section it refers to
- LEVELTAG LISP — another small annotation done many times a sheet
- More free AutoLISP routines on this site
- Wisey’s Steel Shapes — free structural steel section drawing program