MultiLeader

The MULTILEADER entity (DXF Reference) represents one or more leaders, made up of one or more vertices (or spline fit points) and an arrowhead. In contrast to the Leader entity the text- or block content is part of the MULTILEADER entity.

AutoCAD, BricsCAD and maybe other CAD applications do accept “MLEADER” as type string but they always create entities with “MULTILEADER” as type string.

Because of the complexity of the MULTILEADER entity, the usage of factory methods to create new entities by special builder classes is recommended:

add_multileader_mtext() returns a new MultiLeaderMTextBuilder instance
add_multileader_block() returns a new MultiLeaderBlockBuilder instance

The visual design is based on an associated MLeaderStyle, but almost all attributes are also stored in the MULTILEADER entity itself.

The attribute MultiLeader.dxf.property_override_flags should indicate which MLEADERSTYLE attributes are overridden by MULTILEADER attributes, but these flags do not always reflect the state of overridden attributes. The ezdxf MULTILEADER renderer uses always the attributes from the MULTILEADER entity and ignores the override flags.

All vertices are WCS coordinates, even those for BLOCK entities which are OCS coordinates for regular usage.

See also

Subclass of	`ezdxf.entities.DXFGraphic`
DXF type	`'MULTILEADER'`
Factory functions	`ezdxf.layouts.BaseLayout.add_multileader_mtext()` `ezdxf.layouts.BaseLayout.add_multileader_block()`
Inherited DXF attributes	Common graphical DXF attributes
Required DXF version	DXF R2000 (`'AC1015'`)

class ezdxf.entities.MultiLeader

dxf.arrow_head_handle: handle of the arrow head, see also ezdxf.render.arrows module, “closed filled” arrow if not set

dxf.arrow_head_size: arrow head size in drawing units

dxf.block_color: block color as raw-color value, default is BY_BLOCK_RAW_VALUE

dxf.block_connection_type

0	center extents
1	insertion point

dxf.block_record_handle: handle to block record of the BLOCK content

dxf.block_rotation: BLOCK rotation in radians

dxf.block_scale_vector: Vec3 object which stores the scaling factors for the x-, y- and z-axis

dxf.content_type

0	none
1	BLOCK
2	MTEXT
3	TOLERANCE

dxf.dogleg_length: dogleg length in drawing units

dxf.has_dogleg

dxf.has_landing

dxf.has_text_frame

dxf.is_annotative

dxf.is_text_direction_negative

dxf.leader_extend_to_text

dxf.leader_line_color: leader line color as raw-color value

dxf.leader_linetype_handle: handle of the leader linetype, “CONTINUOUS” if not set

dxf.leader_lineweight

dxf.leader_type

0	invisible
1	straight line leader
2	spline leader

dxf.property_override_flags: Each bit shows if the MLEADERSTYLE is overridden by the value in the MULTILEADER entity, but this is not always the case for all values, it seems to be save to always use the value from the MULTILEADER entity.

dxf.scale: overall scaling factor

dxf.style_handle: handle to the associated MLEADERSTYLE object

dxf.text_IPE_align: unknown meaning

dxf.text_alignment_type: unknown meaning - its not the MTEXT attachment point!

dxf.text_angle_type

0	text angle is equal to last leader line segment angle
1	text is horizontal
2	text angle is equal to last leader line segment angle, but potentially rotated by 180 degrees so the right side is up for readability.

dxf.text_attachment_direction

defines whether the leaders attach to the left & right of the content BLOCK/MTEXT or attach to the top & bottom:

0	horizontal - left & right of content
1	vertical - top & bottom of content

dxf.text_attachment_point

MTEXT attachment point

1	top left
2	top center
3	top right

dxf.text_bottom_attachment_type

9	center
10	overline and center

dxf.text_color: MTEXT color as raw-color value

dxf.text_left_attachment_type

0	top of top MTEXT line
1	middle of top MTEXT line
2	middle of whole MTEXT
3	middle of bottom MTEXT line
4	bottom of bottom MTEXT line
5	bottom of bottom MTEXT line & underline bottom MTEXT line
6	bottom of top MTEXT line & underline top MTEXT line
7	bottom of top MTEXT line
8	bottom of top MTEXT line & underline all MTEXT lines

dxf.text_right_attachment_type

0	top of top MTEXT line
1	middle of top MTEXT line
2	middle of whole MTEXT
3	middle of bottom MTEXT line
4	bottom of bottom MTEXT line
5	bottom of bottom MTEXT line & underline bottom MTEXT line
6	bottom of top MTEXT line & underline top MTEXT line
7	bottom of top MTEXT line
8	bottom of top MTEXT line & underline all MTEXT lines

dxf.text_style_handle: handle of the MTEXT text style, “Standard” if not set

dxf.text_top_attachment_type

9	center
10	overline and center

dxf.version: always 2?

context: MLeaderContext instance

arrow_heads: list of ArrowHeadData

block_attribs: list of AttribData

property has_mtext_content: bool: True if MULTILEADER has MTEXT content.

get_mtext_content() → str: Get MTEXT content as string, return “” if MULTILEADER has BLOCK content.

set_mtext_content(text: str): Set MTEXT content as string, does nothing if MULTILEADER has BLOCK content.

property has_block_content: bool: True if MULTILEADER has BLOCK content.

get_block_content() → dict[str, str]: Get BLOCK attributes as dictionary of (tag, value) pairs. Returns an empty dictionary if MULTILEADER has MTEXT content.

set_block_content(content: dict[str, str]): Set BLOCK attributes by a dictionary of (tag, value) pairs. Does nothing if MULTILEADER has MTEXT content.

virtual_entities() → Iterator[DXFGraphic]

Yields the graphical representation of MULTILEADER as virtual DXF primitives.

These entities are located at the original location, but are not stored in the entity database, have no handle and are not assigned to any layout.

explode(target_layout: BaseLayout | None = None) → EntityQuery

Explode MULTILEADER as DXF primitives into target layout, if target layout is None, the target layout is the layout of the source entity.

Returns an EntityQuery container with all DXF primitives.

Parameters:: target_layout – target layout for the DXF primitives, None for same layout as the source entity.

transform(m: Matrix44) → MultiLeader

Transform the MULTILEADER entity by transformation matrix m inplace.

Non-uniform scaling is not supported.

Parameters:: m – transformation Matrix44
Raises:: NonUniformScalingError – for non-uniform scaling

class ezdxf.entities.MLeaderContext

leaders: list of LeaderData objects

scale: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.scale

base_point: insert location as Vec3 of the MTEXT or the BLOCK entity?

char_height: MTEXT char height, already scaled

arrow_head_size: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.arrow_head_size

landing_gap_size

left_attachment: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.text_left_attachment_type

right_attachment: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.text_right_attachment_type

text_align_type: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.text_attachment_point

attachment_type

BLOCK alignment?

0	content extents
1	insertion point

mtext: instance of MTextData if content is MTEXT otherwise None

block: instance of BlockData if content is BLOCK otherwise None

plane_origin: Vec3

plane_x_axis: Vec3

plane_y_axis: Vec3

plane_normal_reversed: the plan normal is x-axis “cross” y-axis (right-hand-rule), this flag indicates to invert this plan normal

top_attachment: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.text_top_attachment_type

bottom_attachment: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.text_bottom_attachment_type

class ezdxf.entities.LeaderData

lines: list of LeaderLine

has_last_leader_line: unknown meaning

has_dogleg_vector

last_leader_point: WCS point as Vec3

dogleg_vector: WCS direction as Vec3

dogleg_length: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.dogleg_length

index: leader index?

attachment_direction: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.text_attachment_direction

breaks: list of break vertices as Vec3 objects

class ezdxf.entities.LeaderLine

vertices: list of WCS coordinates as Vec3

breaks: mixed list of mixed integer indices and break coordinates or None leader lines without breaks in it

index: leader line index?

color: leader line color override, ignore override value if BY_BLOCK_RAW_VALUE

class ezdxf.entities.ArrowHeadData

index: arrow head index?

handle: handle to arrow head block

class ezdxf.entities.AttribData

handle: handle to Attdef entity in the BLOCK definition

index: unknown meaning

width: text width factor?

text: Attrib content

class ezdxf.entities.MTextData

stores the content and attributes of the MTEXT entity

default_content: content as string

extrusion: extrusion vector of the MTEXT entity but MTEXT is not an OCS entity!

style_handle: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.text_style_handle

insert: insert location in WCS coordinates, same as MLeaderContext.base_point?

text_direction: “horizontal” text direction vector in WCS

rotation: rotation angle in radians (!) around the extrusion vector, calculated as it were an OCS entity

width: unscaled column width

defined_height: unscaled defined column height

line_spacing_factor: see MText.dxf.line_spacing_factor

line_spacing_style: see MText.dxf.line_spacing_style

color: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.text_color

alignment: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.text_attachment_point

flow_direction

1	horizontal
3	vertical
6	by text style

bg_color: background color as raw-color value

bg_scale_factor: see MText.dxf.box_fill_scale

bg_transparency: background transparency value

use_window_bg_color

has_bg_fill

column_type

unknown meaning - most likely:

0	none
1	static
2	dynamic

use_auto_height

column_width: unscaled column width, redundant data width

column_gutter_width: unscaled column gutter width

column_flow_reversed

column_sizes: list of unscaled columns heights for dynamic column with manual heights

use_word_break

class ezdxf.entities.BlockData

stores the attributes for the Insert entity

block_record_handle: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.block_record_handle

extrusion: extrusion vector in WCS

insert: insertion location in WCS as Vec3, same as MLeaderContext.base_point?

scale: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.block_scale_vector

rotation: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.block_rotation

color: redundant data: MultiLeader.dxf.block_color