Mtext justification problem with LT 2006

I have come across a strange text problem and hope someone can remember seeing a fix for it.

I have a set of drawings that were created by a colleague using LT2010.

When I open the drawing in 2006 the mtext (and leader text) will not display in the correct position, it will display correctly in LT2008 and 2010.

If I open the drawing in 2008 or 2010 and LIST the text I get-

Command: list

1 found

 

MTEXT Layer: "TEXT"

Space: Paper space

Layout: Layout1

Handle = 14522

Style = "ROMANS"

Annotative: No

Location: X= 609.0011 Y= 460.4777 Z= 0.0000

Width: 0.0000

Normal: X= 0.0000 Y= 0.0000 Z= 1.0000

Rotation: 0

Text height: 3.5000

Line spacing: Multiple (1.000000x = 5.8333)

Attachment: TopLeft

Flow direction: ByStyle

Contents: \pxqc;SCALE 1:5

However if I open the same drawing in 2006 and list the same text I get-

Command: list 1 found

 

MTEXT Layer: "TEXT"

Space: Paper space

Layout: Layout1

Handle = 14522

Location: X= 609.0011 Y= 460.4777 Z= 0.0000

Width: 0.0000

Normal: X= 0.0000 Y= 0.0000 Z= 1.0000

Rotation: 0

Text style: "ROMANS"

Text height: 3.5000

Line spacing: Multiple (1.000000x = 5.8333)

Attachment: TopLeft

Flow direction: ByStyle

Contents: \pi-13.333;SCALE 1:5

Note the difference in the control characters in front of the text contents.

This is the same text on the same drawing, just opened in different versions.

Apparently the \pxqc is a justification control in 2008+

\pxqc = centered

\pxqr = right

\pxql = left

I am assuming that the \'pi-13.333' stands for 'paragraph indent -13.333' in 2006.

It looks like this control code is being changed when opening the drawing in 2006 but not being done correctly and leaving the mtext misplaced.

If I select the problem text in 2006 it is justified Top Left, changing its justification from Top Left to Middle Centre then it moves to the correct position.

I have found out that is not just my LT 2006 but other 2006 users at our company offices across the UK are having similar problems with drawings done in 2010, if I can find a fix then it will save us thousands of pounds upgrading everyone to 2011.

Anybody seen this before?

More to the point anybody know what is causing it and how to fix it?

Anybody help????

This is affecting all the 2006 machines in our company.

I have a copy of 2000i on a machine at home and am going to try one of the drawings on that.

I have not seen anybody else shouting about a similar problem anywhere.

I am now wondering about a virus, although as we have a world wide intranet that is even linked up to ships at sea our IT guys are well on the ball with virus checking and systems protection, and I cant see somthing getting through to all the offices without being noticed.

If you have even seen any kind of similar problem it might help me find a soloution.

The Bosses are talking about upgrading ALL our machines to 2011.

Found more on this issue:

It appears that the problem is with the mtext "embeded justifications" that are available in 2008+.

Obviously versions earlier than this can't handle them.

For some reason Autodesk did not feel it necessary to strip-out or replace these embeded justifications when doing a saveas to an earlier version.

So when opened in the earlier version it takes its best guess at where the text should be justified and positioned.

(At least it dose'nt just crash).

The only option seems to be not to use the embeded justification if you are going to be saving to an earlier version.

You could try using a lisp like striptext to remove the codes yourself but how sucessful this would be I dont know.