Here’s a quickie
If you have text that is overlapping objects and you don’t want these objects intruding your text space….
<TEXTMASK> will start the command. Simply select the text objects that you want to have a mask. And when you’re done, hit <enter>.
<TEXTUNMASK> will start the unmask command. Select the text objects that have masks and hit <enter> and this will remove them.
(these tools are located in the express tools)
There are other settings that can be applied to these masks as seen in the command line. But more importantly is how to control the mask if you need to move it. If you use the move command to move the text after you have applied the text mask, the text will move but the mask will remain in its place. To counter this, there is a toggle that controls groups. The text mask is created as a group with your text but it is turned off by default. To turn on & off the group: hold Shift+Ctrl+A. This does not allow the same type of text-move that you are used to, where you select the text and grab the grip to move it around. This works with the move command.
ABOVE: Text Mask applied
ABOVE: Text UnMask applied
AutoCAD Tips 
Hi… I tried making a mask for text that is on a hatched background and instead of masking the hatch, it masked the text (the text disappears and looks like it is hidden behind the hatch)… any suggestion on how to try and fix this? Thanks!
I know that text masking has issues with annotative text and when the text box that is around mtext is smaller than the text (sounds impossible, i know but i have experienced it at work..).
the first thing to check is if it is annotative and if it is, them select the text object and in the properties palette turn off the annotative feature.
Great posts by the way.
Thanks for stopping by and making use of it
~Greg
Hi! Great post. Thank you for the grouping toggle. I thought it was a system variable, but don’t recall anymore/ can’t find it.
Gabriella might want to include the text object into her hatch pattern boundary to have it go around the text on it’s own without a mask. Additionally, sortents system variable may be set wrong and the latest aren’t displaying as ‘on top’. So, set sortents to 127 and regen maybe?