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11/28/2006 - 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm Room:Murano - 3303 (ISD Campus

Controlling Civil 3D Labels

In this course, we will drill down into the process of managing and creating custom label styles withinCivil 3D. Learn to harness the powerful dynamic and intelligent labeling capabilities within Civil 3D aswell as the concepts and procedures behind Civil 3D label styles. Youll learn how to control defaults,gain control of labels, and create standards. Using pipes, profile and parcel labels to illustrate theprocesses and procedures necessary to fully utilize Civil 3Ds labels, youll smooth the learning curveand become more productive faster.

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About the Speaker:

Kevin Breslin - Sterling Systems

Kevin has been working with AutoCAD along with civil/survey applications since the early 1990s andhas been in the civil engineering/survey industry since the mid-1980s. With several years of fieldsurveying experience and over 15 years' experience working with surveying and engineering softwarein a variety of disciplines, Kevin has the ability to convey software knowledge from a "real-world"prospective. In addition to providing training services, Kevin is also Sterling Systems' training andsupport manager and manages the company's technical services, ranging from technical support to

ATC training. Kevin has also received Autodesk's award for excellence for civil engineering andsurveying.

Stay Connect to AU all year at www.autodesk.com/AUOnline

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Civil 3D Overview

Civil 3D is the latest land development technology from Autodesk designed for surveyors, civilengineers and others in the land development industry that allows users to work in an object-

oriented AutoCAD based environment. In Civil 3D, intelligent objects have the ability to react to

design changes from related objects and update accordingly thus giving users unparalleled abilityto change and explore what if scenarios in a highly efficient and accurate way. The objectrelationships within Civil 3D allow users to work in ways never possible before and have the

potential to allow users to work faster, more accurately and more efficiently.

Within Civil 3D there are several different object-oriented entity types:

Object Styles Controls the appearance of the object itself. For example, with surfaces this iswhere the choice is made to display contours, tin lines, elevation banding, slope shading, etc.Also, this is where the appearance of the entities physical color, layer, linetype, lineweight, etc.

is controlled.

Label Styles Controls how the objects are constructed and appear graphically in the drawing,what information is contained within the label, and the behavior of the label.

Table Styles Many types of data can be displayed in special table objects. These styles controlthe appearance and behavior of the tables.

Commands This is where defaults can be set for specific commands and actions, includingdefault object styles and behaviors.

It is worth noting that with all of the automation associated with objects, and more specifically

labels, there are obvious advantages but these advantages come at a price which is the reducedamount of total control. It is reasonable to expect to have to unlearn some old processes

regarding labels to make the most of the tools available within Civil 3D. Remember, Civil 3D is adifferent program and it needs to be treated differently to take full advantage of its power andabilities.

The basic principles of styles in Civil 3D work very much in the same way, making it easy to infer

what is learned by working from one entity type to another.

One of the most daunting aspects of Civil 3D is understanding, managing and using styles. In thissession we will be focusing on label styles and how you can learn to harness the power of the

labels in Civil 3D to not only display information in your drawings but to display information the

way you want it to appear.

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Styles Hierarchy

In Civil 3D it is important to understand not only the relationship between objects but also therelationship between the different facets of the program that manage and control styles. Styles

can be managed at the drawing level, the object level, the label style category level, command

level and the label style level. The top level of this hierarchy is the DrawingSettings.

While at a first glance, it may seem that there are an overwhelming number of places where styles

can be managed, the structure and logic of the program really gives the users a great deal of

flexibility and control over styles and how they can be used within Civil 3D.

In the Drawing Settings dialog you control a variety of general settings that will affect globalsettings throughout the drawing as well as child styles at a lower level in the program and

determine settings for the following categories:

Unit and Zone: The overall scale of the drawing, the coordinate system (zone). Transformation: Used to transform the drawing coordinate system to a local system. Object Layers: Used to set default layers for objects as well as defining layer prefix and suffix

values for automated layer creation (ala-Land Desktop).

Abbreviations: Geometric value abbreviations are defined for things such as: Curve Coefficient= K, beginning of curve = BC, Left = L, profile vertical intersection = PVI

Ambient Settings: Generic settings such as decimal precision, tool tip display, Event Viewer,area unit, slope or grade and some basic label-related settings such as label prompt method.

Parent styles and settings maintain a higher level of control within Civil 3D and can be passed on to

child (subordinate) styles and settings. A child override is created when a child style deviates fromthe settings of the parent style.

To access the Drawing Settings, right click on the drawing name in the Settings tab of the

Civil 3D Toolspace and choose Edit Drawing Settings.

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In addition to settings values you can also view and lock override settings of subordinate objects.

In the Override column you can see if there is a child style at a subordinate level that hasdeviated from the settings defined at this level by a down arrow in the Child Override column.

At this point you have the ability to reset the child style to the parent setting by clicking on theoverride down arrow which will create a new icon with an x superimposed over the arrow

indicating that the settings has been reset. From this dialog you also have the ability to lock thesetting at the parent level by clicking on the lock/unlock icon for the setting in the row in question.

Note: The locking of styles at the parent level does not prohibit users from unlocking the samesetting. Locked settings in Civil 3D are not password protected nor are the locks based on

permissions.

Generally, in the case of labels, the parent/child relationship starts with the Drawing Settings

level of settings then the ObjectCategory level, next the Command Level settings then theobject/label level. With different objects there are different relationships. With Point objects

for example there are also description keys that can affect the relationship of the parent and

related child label styles.

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Settings at the Object Category Level

From within the Settings tab of the Toolspace, right click on the object category level and pickEdit Features Settings to control category settings or pick Edit Label Style Default to

control general label-related settings.

To edit general label settings that will effect the settings from this level down, choose Edit Labels

Style Defaults. From here you can control settings in the same way as in the DrawingSettings dialog but in this case only settings that relate specifically to the selected category.

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In the Edit Features Settings dialog you can manage other label-related settings such as

default styles and precision, along with parameters that will control the creation of objects in thiscategory.

Values can also be set within the object and label styles that will by default take on the settings of

the parent object unless changed at the child level.

Default Styles

Depending on the intent of the user, different styles can be associated to different actions or

commands within a given category or can be set to a global value which is the same regardless ofthe action or command. For example, when working with a profile, you may want to use a specific

label style as a default regardless of how the profile is created. To do this, set the value at the

Edit Feature Settings.. level from the Profile category.

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If the intent is to ensure that the selected style would not be modifiable at a lower level

(command), you could choose to lock the setting at this level.

If however, the intent is to use a different style automatically based on a specific command or

action, set the style at the Commands level. As with the Feature Settings, at the group

level, right click on the command in question from within the Commands collection and chooseEdit Command Settings.

As with the settings at the parent level (Profile>Edit Command Settings) you have the ability to

choose a style, but in this case, the style will only be used for this specific action/command.

Remember, when you make a change at this level it will be considered a Child Override at the

parent level.

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Creating Styles

Creating a new object or style within Civil 3D is quite easy and as with many other aspects of the

way the program functions, the methods are similar, which makes it easy to learn and remember.To create a new label style it is simply a matter of drilling down to the label level you wish to work

with, right click on the category and choose New from the menu.

From this point, you are ready to create a new style from scratch. If however the intent is tocreate a modified version of an existing style, simply right click on the style in question and choose

Copy. By default, the copied style will have a name indicating the style from which the copycame.

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Object Labels

In this section we will look at a few examples of common object labels and the settings that effect

their appearance and behavior.

Profile Labels

Profile labels are labels found in a profile view and are associated to the profile object and are used

to display information such as grade, elevation, K value, curve length, etc. As with other label

styles there are many common aspects and many of the properties and settings will be the samefrom one style to another. Profile labels are categorized by the different types of segments found

in a profile object thus allowing for a great deal of detail in the definition of the labels.

Some label style categories will have subsets that further allow for detail definition and control of alabel. For example, the Station category has three subcategories that allow you to control the

labels based on Major Stations, Minor Stations and Horizontal Geometry Points.

As noted previously, the method used to create a new style or copy an existing style is the same.

In the Label Style Composer you will find tabs that allow you to set values to the different

aspects of a label object. As different label objects will have different applicable settings based onthe object and how labels are applied, all will have a few common components such as the

Information and Summary tabs.

The Information tab is where the style name and description are defined. The General tab is designed to specify whether the label displays as a label or tag, the label

visibility, and label orientation.

The Layout tab is where the actual label component contents are defined.

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The Dragged State tab is where the label properties are defined when a label is draggedfrom its default insertion point.

The Summary tab may differ by style type but in each case allows users to access all of thesettings of the style from a single spreadsheet-like interface and is an alternative to addressing

style settings from their respective categorized tab.

One of the most important aspects of working with a label style is the Contents value which is a

part of the Text property of the Layout tab. To access the contents, select in the Value cell

in the Contents row and pick the button.

Once in the Text Component Editor you can specify the actual properties and value of the label

object.

There are two tabs in this dialog, Properties and Format.

The Format tab controls the physical properties of the text such as color, font andjustification.

The Properties tab is where values are set and where the label is constructed.o From the Properties pull-down, you choose from the applicable object properties

that can be used in a label object. Note: Properties will vary by object type.

o The Value column cells control the specifics of the selected/current property.o The Text Editor window is where the formatted property string is displayed.

When editing a label it is important to remember that you must first select/highlight the formatted

string in the Text Editor window before making any changes to the Properties values. It is alsonecessary to pick the arrow (insert) button so that the changes will be applied to the selected

string.

When creating a new label, you must first select the property that you want to use, set the valuesand then pick the insert button.

Mental note: It is important to remember these steps to successfully create or modifylabels!

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Applying Labels to a Profile

Profile labels are added when the profile/profile views are created and the label style can be set inthe Create Profile View dialog.

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Pipe Labels

Pipes and structure label styles are managed in a similar way as profiles but there are settings that

are specific to pipes and structures that have to be treated differently. One of the most importantdifferences is the Edit Feature Settings dialog where default values are set pertaining to labels.

They are not in the Pipe or Structure categories as you might think, but rather under thePipe Network category.

One of the most useful collections of settings for the Pipe and Structure settings is the ability tocontrol the label anchor options which determine how labels are associated to pipes and structures

as well as the justification.

For example, if you wish to have Structure Labels associated to the bottom of the structures in theprofile view, you can set the Dimension Anchor Options for Structures to Graphview

bottom. This way, once labels are added to your pipes the location will be fixed.

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If however you wish to have the ability to use two different label styles in a profile view, where one

label style is associated to the top of the structures and a different type of label is associated to thebottom of the structures you will need to make changes to the Commands settings that control

the label placement under the Pipe Networks Commands section. There are two differentsettings that control the label placement of pipe and structure settings based on the method used

to apply the labels to the pipes.

With regard to specifically adding the labels as the pipes and structures are created or as a group,

the command setting AddNetworkPartProfLabel allows you to set the defaults as well as theplacement settings.

When adding labels to pipes and structures one at a time, the command

AddNetworkProfLabels controls the defaults and the placement settings.

Using different values in these two different commands allows you to apply one set of labels thatwould attach to the top of the structures (i.e. rim elevation, structure ID) and apply another set of

labels to the bottom of the structures (i.e. inverts, sump) by using a different command to add the

labels.

Applying Labels to Pipes and Structures

Pipe and structure labels can be applied in two different ways: all at once or one at a time. From

the Pipes pull-down, choose Add Labels From the Add Labels dialog you can choose theLabel Type and the Pipe Label Style:. From the Label Type pull-down you can choose the

method that applies to all applicable objects at once (Entire Network) or one at a time by picking(Single Part).

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As different object types have the ability to label different types of data there are new and slightlydifferent methods specific to pipes and structures that you need to be aware of. With regard to

pipe data displayed with respect to their associated structures, there is an additional component

that you can add to the label that gives you the ability to label each instance of an object ratherthan a fixed number of objects. For example, if there are three different pipes connected to a

single structure and you did not created a label style based on that number of pipes, some of thedata would be missing. To keep this from happening, there is a Text for each text component

that will accommodate the variable number of pipes that may be attached to a structure.

The properties for pipes and structures also contain a few very useful options such as ConnectedPipe Flow Direction which will add the pipe direction to the label.

Parcel Labels

Parcel labels are managed very much like the other label types we have visited during this session.

One of the notable differences is the available method for which the labels can be created.

There are basically two different types of labels, parcel labels and segment labels. The label that is

created when a parcel is defined is generally the Area label and can contain information such asthe parcel area, parcel ID, name, perimeter and user-defined fields such as assessed value or

anything you wish to add to the parcel. This label is usually added to the parcel object when it is

created.

The second type of labels are for the line and curve segments of parcels. The segment labels can

be added either after the parcel has been created or at the time of creation.

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To add parcel perimeter information at the time the parcel is created you can choose the

Automatically add segment labels check box in the Create Parcels dialog.

If you wish to add the labels after the parcels have already been created, choose Add Labels

from the Parcels pull-down.

User-Defined Properties

Creating, editing and adding User-Defined Properties (UDP) requires a few special steps and

processes. To create a new UDP you first need to create a new classification. Next, expand the

Parcel tree and right click on User-Defined Property Classifications and choose New.

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Once you have created a new classification, you will need to create a new value.

In the New User-Defined Properties dialog you can set the properties of the UDP.

Once the UPD has been defined, you can edit the settings in the Toolspace.

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Once the UDP has been created it is necessary to add it to the parcel site before you can use the

data in a label or in the properties of the parcel collection. From the Prospector tab of theToolspace, right click on the Parcels collection under the site you are working with and chooseProperties. From here you specify the User-defined property classification you will be

using or choose the All option to use all UDPs that are available.

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In order to use the UDP data it is necessary to save, close and reopen the drawing. Once this is

done, to add the data to a label from the Settings tab go to Parcels > LabelStyles >Area and right click on the label style you wish to edit. Then add the UDP to the label as you

would any other available property.

To edit the UDP data that is associated to your parcels, select the Parcels collection in the

Prospector tab of the Toolspace and from the edit window you can edit values.

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Conclusion

Hopefully this session has been useful as a guide and has provided insight to some of the easy-to-learn and some not-so-easy-to-learn facets of how labels work within Civil 3D. As when working

with any new technology, it is important to receive good training to become proficient. I feel it is

also important to spend time experimenting with the software to become highly knowledgeable andan expert-level user. Take time to try different things and explore deep into the program to really

gain a true understanding of the software.

Resources

Civil 3D resources on the web are plentiful, and in many cases it is the fastest and best way tosolve a problem. Here are a few of the sites I have found to be useful.

(Autodesk Civil 3D Discussion Groups)

http://discussion.autodesk.com/forum.jspa?forumID=66

www.autodesk.com/auonline

www.autodesk.com/support

http://c3dpavingtheway.blogspot.com/

http://civilcommunity.autodesk.com/

http://www.civil3d.com/

Documents

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