About Revision Cloud Tools

Revision cloud annotations are used for marking up to-be-revised areas in a drawing. Formerly available as content blocks in DesignCenter, these annotations are now available through tools on the tool palettes and in Content Browser.

Revision cloud tools

If a revision cloud has a tag, the tag symbol is a block reference which can be controlled by annotative scaling. The polyline representing the cloud shape does not participate in annotation scaling.

Attention: If you have legacy drawings with old DesignCenter-based annotation symbols in them, then the old block definition will continue to be used for new tool-based blocks if the blocks are identically named. In such a case, either change the Annotative setting manually by using BEDIT, or rename the old block before inserting new tool-based annotation symbols into the drawing.

You can find revision cloud tools in these locations in a default US install of AutoCAD Architecture 2023 toolset:

• In the Annotation tool palette
• In Content Browser in these catalogs:
  • Stock Tool Catalog
  • Sample Palette Catalog (Imperial or Metric), under \Document\Annotation
  • Documentation Tool Catalog (Imperial or Metric), under \Revision Clouds

These properties of Revision Cloud tools can be customized:

Property Category/Name	Description
General/Layer key	Specifies the layer key for the layer to which the revision cloud is assigned. To change, click the current value to access the Select Layer Key worksheet. The default layer key is ANNREV.
General/Layer overrides	Specifies one or more layer key overrides. Click the worksheet icon to access the Select Layer Overrides worksheet.
General/Symbol	If the revision cloud tool contains a tag, this line specifies the block-based symbol to be used for the tag. If the revision cloud tool does not contain a tag, the symbol is undefined.
General/Symbol location	The location of the drawing file containing the specified tag symbol. Click the property and use the Browse option from the drop-down list to locate and enter the path to the file. If this property is unspecified (--), then only those blocks in the current drawing file are listed. Symbol blocks shipped with AutoCAD Architecture 2023 toolset are by default located in %AECCONTENT_DIR%\Styles\Imperial\AEC Annotation Symbols (Imperial).dwg or %AECCONTENT_DIR%\Styles\Metric\AEC Annotation Symbols (Metric).dwg.
General/Line width	Specifies the line width of the cloud polyline. Note: This setting uses paper size, not model size.
General/Arc length	Specifies the arc length of each cloud segment. Note: This value is in paper space units.
Text/Attribute text style	This property specifies whether attribute text within the symbol uses the text style of the current drawing (Target drawing text style) or the style defined by the attribute tag (As defined by content).
Text/Attribute text angle	Specifies the angle for attribute text. The choices are Right reading (which keeps the text right-side up regardless of rotation angle), As inserted (which sets text rotation at the angle of the last leader segment), and Force horizontal (which keeps the text horizontal regardless of the match line rotation angle).