Users may use the plug-in by running the "TEXTANALYZE" command or clicking on the plug-in icon located in the "Add-ins" tab.

Once that is done a window should appear. You may resize this window to suit your needs and may dock it in order for it to better fit in to your workflow. It is recommended to size it and dock it as shown in the screenshots. Once a certain window size and location are set you will not have to make those changes again in the future.

The plug-in is centered around creating Categories which are composed of a set of rules. Each rule is associated with a List and each List contains a number of allowed words/characters/digits. Therefore, when the analysis is run, the text in the drawing is analyzed to see if its general structure matches the pattern of a particular category. Please refer to the below example usage scenarios (found in the Additional Information section) to gain a better understanding as well as the screenshots and videos.

When the window appears, you will find in the top left, 3 tabs labeled "Categories", "Lists" and "Analyze".

Clicking on the "Categories" tab provides you with all functionality to deal with handling a Category. You can:

1. Add a Category (provided its name does not already exist). Simply click on the Add button in the top right, fill in a name and click Ok. The name may denote the pattern to match with e.g. a Category named "D.DD" to denote a Category matching with text that consists of a digit followed by a decimal point followed by 2 more digits.
2. Remove a Category. Select a Category from the box on the left and click remove (top right).
3. Edit a category. When you click on a Category name from the left box, you will notice the contents on the right-hand side of the window reflect the information of this category. You can then click on the rules shown in the box on the right and change the List associated with them (using the Edit button located just above the box on the right), or select a rule from the box on the right and remove the rule all together (using the Remove button located bottom right), or you could click on the Add button (found bottom right of the window).
4. Save all categories. This is done by clicking the Save button at the bottom right. This saves all Categories as they currently exist. Note: if you do not click on save then all categories created during your session will be lost.
   
   

Clicking on the "Lists" tab provides you with all functionality to deal with handling a List. You can:

1. Add a List. Click on the Add button (top right) and enter a list name. The name may denote what is contained in the list e.g. list name "0 to 9" for a list containing all digits between 0 and 9
2. Remove a List. Select a List name from the box on the left and then click on the Remove button (top right). Note: you cannot remove a List currently being used by a Category's rules.
3. Edit a List. When a List name is selected from the left box you will notice the contents on the right-hand side of the window reflect the contents of the List. Once the List's contents are shown you can click on the Add button (bottom right) to add a new word/character/digit (which must not already exist in the List's contents as shown by the right box). Note: if you add a space character it will be represented as "<<space>>" and it will still function as intended. You can also select a word/character/digit from the right box and click Remove (bottom left) to remove the selected item.
4. Save all Lists. Clicking on the Save button (bottom right) will save all Lists as they currently exist. Note: if you do not click on save then all Lists created during a session will be lost and cannot be retrieved for future use.

A warning on saving: If Lists are not saved but Categories using these Lists are saved, you may find that your categories will not be loaded in future. You must ensure you save Lists alongside your Categories. 

Clicking on the "Analyze" tab provides you with all functionality to Analyze the drawing. You will generally follow these procedures when using this tab; Select "Current Drawing" from the drop-down box located at the top center of the window. Then click the "Analyze" button. The window will then show you the total number of texts found and number of matches made. You will also be presented with all the texts found and any information on which Category each text belongs to (if any). Matches are shown as green rows, while text that does not meet the rules for any category are shown as orange rows. Double clicking a row will zoom to the text and bring up a dialog box showing additional information about the text and how it was matched with a given category (if there was a match). Note: zooming in to text is not always possible depending on the specific settings of a given drawing.

The installer that ran when you downloaded this app/plug-in from Autodesk App Store will start installing the app/plug-in. OR, simply double-click the downloaded installer to install the app/plugin.

You may need to restart the Autodesk product to activate the app/plug-in.

To uninstall this plug-in, exit the Autodesk product if you are currently running it, simply rerun the installer, and select the "Uninstall" button. OR, click Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features (Windows 7/8/8.1/10) and uninstall as you would any other application from your system.

Users should note that when saving their created Categories and Lists, respective files are created, 1 for categories and 1 for lists. These files are stored in: My Documents\AutoCAD\SmatCad Text Analyzer Data. These files should never be modified from outside the application so as to avoid any data loss.

Example Scenario 1:

A user would like to analyze their drawings to find all measurements in meters. The user knows that all measurements in meters are written like "1.23 m" (i.e. a digit followed by decimal point followed by 2 more digits then a space and finally a letter). In this case the user could:

1. Create Lists. The first list can be called "0 to 9" and the user will add each digit from 0 to 9 to this list. Afterwards, create a List called "decimal" with "." in this List. Then create a List called "space" with a single space character in this list. Finally, create a list called "meter symbol" with letter "m" in this List. Save all the Lists.
2. Create a Category. It can be called "D.DD m" (to denote its format). For this category the first rule should have the "0 to 9" List applied. The second rule should have the "decimal" List applied. The third and fourth rules should both the "0 to 9" List applied. The fifth rule will have the "space" List applied. Finally, the sixth rule will have the "meter symbol" List applied. Remember to save your Categories.
3. Click Analyze and find all texts that match the pattern for the "D.DD m" Category. Text such as "10.1m", "100.0 M", 1.67m" will not match while text such as "1.23 m", "9.00 m", "8.54 m" will match.

 The analyze tab now has 2 checkboxes. The case sensitive checkbox ensures that letters meet the given case (upper or lowercase). If you want to match any text regardless of characters being uppercase or lowercase then uncheck this box before clicking analyze. Additionally, checking the ignore spaces checkbox means that any spaces between characters will be ignored so "AB C" will be the equivalent to "ABC" (space between AB and C is ignored) when analyze texts.

In the event you do not close the plug-in window when switching between drawings you will be required to close it (the plug-in window) and open it again in the drawing you would like to analyze.