Increment: overview

Increment numbers a selection. Pick what needs numbering, set the counter and what goes around it, choose the order to sweep in, and check the list of changes before anything is written. Apply writes the whole run as one undo step.

Three ways to run it

• Ribbon: the Number panel on the MD Automation tab.
• Right-click: select objects, right-click, and open the Number submenu.
• Command line: type MDINCREMENT.

Command reference

Command	What it does
MDINCREMENT	Opens the numbering window on the current selection. Works pick-first: select the objects, then run it.
MDINCREMENTSETTINGS	Walks the preferences the window does not show, each defaulting to its current value.

The counter, prefixes and suffixes → · Order, paths and what gets skipped →

What it numbers

One run can cover all four at once:

• Text (DBText) and mtext
• Block attributes: pick which tag to write when the blocks carry several
• Mleaders, including mleaders whose content is a block

What it does, in order

1. 1Counter: the number style, where it starts and how it steps.
2. 2Value: text around the number, and which text it writes to.
3. 3Order: the sequence the objects are numbered in.
4. 4Changes: every object found, with its current and new value.
5. 5Apply writes the new values.

1. Select the objects first, then run MDINCREMENT. There is no selection prompt: a selection holding no text is refused with a message rather than opening an empty window.
2. The window opens with the counter, the value and the order in their own sections.
3. Set the counter: number or letter, where it starts, what it steps by, how many digits to pad to.
4. Type what goes around it: a prefix, a suffix, or both.
5. Choose the order: a reading sweep from a corner, the order you selected in, or a path you draw through the drawing.
6. Read the changes list. Every object appears with its current value beside the new one, including the ones that will be left alone and why.
7. Apply. The whole run is written in one operation.

The changes list

Tip

Nothing is written until you click Apply, and one Ctrl+Z undoes the whole run. Read the list first: it is the drawing as it will be.

1. 1A marker means the row has something to tell you; hover it for the sentence.
2. 2Each row: what is written, the current value, then the new one.
3. 3The footer counts what Apply will change.

Every target the run found is listed, not just the ones that will change. An object that already holds the right value is marked ⓘ and left alone instead of being written again, and an object that cannot be written safely stays in the list, greyed, with the reason. A run that touches fewer objects than you expected always tells you why; nothing is dropped silently.

Apply, and every row it wrote is marked ✓. A row still waiting carries no marker: marking all of them would bury the ones worth looking at.

One undo

A whole run is a single undo record. Press Ctrl+Z once after applying, or click the Undo arrow on the Quick Access Toolbar, and the drawing goes back the way it was, not one object at a time, forty times.

That is also why the numbering happens when you press Apply rather than as you type: the window edits a plan, and the drawing changes once.

Settings

MDINCREMENTSETTINGS walks the preferences the window does not surface, each prompt defaulting to its current value and writing once at the end, so abandoning the command changes nothing.

Setting	Controls	Default
Replace formatted MTEXT	Whether an mtext that carries formatting is written anyway. Writing one discards its formatting, and closing the drawing makes that permanent; left off, the object is listed in the changes list with its reason instead.	No
Leave field-bound text alone	Whether text that comes from a field is skipped. Writing one swaps a self-updating value for a fixed one that reads identically.	Yes
Keep the numbered objects selected after Apply	Whether the objects stay selected once the run commits, so the next command already has them.	Yes
Continue each row from where the last ended	Whether the sweep snakes back along every other row instead of restarting from the same side. Applies to the row and column patterns, not to As selected or a drawn path.	No

Everything else is set in the window itself and remembered for the next run: the counter’s style, case, start, step and padding, the prefix and suffix, what gets written, and the order. Those are covered on the counter and order.