Civil 3D Point Styles

This article was written c.2010 by Richard 'Sinc' Sincovec and was posted, with images, to the Edward-James Surveying website. We have copied the text portion of that commodity here and will try to reproduce the images (I don't know exactly what they were depicting) before long. Jeff, Dec. 2019

Like virtually everything in Civil 3D, styles are used to determine how Cogo Points are displayed.  Just as with everything else in Civil 3D, attempting to determine how these styles should be setup tin be confusing.  The most-confusing elements include the typical stumbling blocks for Styles, such every bit how Layer 0 should exist used, when to fix Style settings to "ByLayer" or "ByBlock", and how to define the components.  Merely with Cogo Points, things are made even more disruptive by the fact that Point brandish is controlled by Two different styles, a Signal Style and a Point Label Style, and the appearance and beliefs of Points can also be affected past Point Groups and Description Keys.

With all of the possible variations, it is possible to manage display of Cogo Points in many different ways.  However, subsequently trying a diverseness of configurations, we've discovered that nosotros tin can limit all these possible variations to only two singled-out methods of configuring Cogo Points.  Betwixt these two methods, we have found that we can exercise everything nosotros want with Points, and however go along our setup relatively simple, with a minimum number of styles required.

This article describes these point configurations.  The techniques here are not the only way to control the display of points, and they may non work for everyone.  Merely in our experience, they provide a powerful, flexible, yet simple fashion of managing point display.  And once you understand the techniques described here, information technology should be easy for you lot to alter the styles to suit your item needs, should you find that these techniques are insufficient for your purposes.

The Point Label Style

Note that the Layer for the Indicate Label Mode is set to Layer "0".

The first aspect of Bespeak Display is the Point Label Style.  When moving to Ceremonious 3D from Country Desktop, many people immediately wish to use the Betoken Label styles to mimic a common Land Desktop usage, and place the Point Number, Top, and Description on different layers.  However, that is non possible - all components in a Indicate Characterization manner will ever appear on the same layer.  So with Civil 3D, nosotros must apply a different technique.

We take discovered that we get the optimal results if nosotros ALWAYS set our Betoken Label styles to Layer 0, as shown in the diagram to the correct.In our experience, this gives u.s. all the flexibility we need, even so keeps things elementary.  In general, we constitute that using other layer settings in the Point Label Manner was unnecessary, led to many more styles, and created a lot of confusion in full general.  So we at present go along all of our Point Characterization Styles set to Layer 0.

In Civil 3D Styles, Layer 0 functions in much the aforementioned way as it functions for standard Autocad Blocks.  With a standard Block, if the linework inside the Block is fix to Layer 0, then the linework gets its brandish characteristics from the overall block.  Similarly, when the Layer setting in a Civil 3D Mode is set to Layer 0, the brandish characteristics may be controlled by some other method - for Cogo Points, this "other method" may be either the Point Characterization or the Point Layer.  (We'll discuss that in a moment.)

Now the rest of the style may exist configured however you wish.  The style shown in the prototype is set to brandish the Indicate Number, Top, and Description.  Other Signal Label styles may be created for the other labels that yous want to display, such as a fashion that contains only the Indicate Number and Description, or one that contains only the Bespeak Number, or i that contains only the Description, and and so forth, until you have a style for every type of label y'all volition want to display.  In Ceremonious 3D, this is the way we control our Point Labels.  Information technology is not similar the old days of State Desktop, where we might carve up the betoken labels between PTNUM, ELEV, and DESC layers, and then used the layer commands to freeze and thaw the layers.

Also, since labels car-calibration depending on the viewport scale or the drawing scale, nosotros have found it helpful to ascertain TWO sets of labels.  For our purposes, nosotros have found that having one set of styles with all text fix to 0.10" high, and another ready with all text set to 0.05" loftier, nosotros get plenty styles to suit all our purposes.  The styles using the 0.05" height text are useful for creating staking diagrams for sending to the field with the survey crews - they are withal readable for people with average eyesight, yet pocket-size enough that a fair number of points can fit onto a small exhibit.

Every bit i concluding note, you lot may likewise control the color, lineweight, and linetype of each of the text components in the label seperately.  So it is possible to practice things like set the Point Number to 1 color or lineweight, the Tiptop to some other, and the Description to a third, using the settings in each component. In our piece of work, we find that nosotros become the all-time results for our purposes by setting all of these settings to "ByLayer".  This lets us employ the layer settings to control things like lineweight and color, which we find more-useful.  Yous may demand to do some experimenting to decide what works best for you lot.

The Point Style - Mark Tab

The Point Style Brandish tab.

The Point Style is the master control for point display.  The symbol to utilize for the Indicate Mark is specified on the Marker tab of the Indicate Manner backdrop, along with various properties that control the orientation and scaling of the betoken.

The image to the right shows ane possible way to setup a Point Style for a lite pole.  Note that the style is gear up and so that the Drawing Calibration determines the size of the symbol.  Next to the sizing choice is a text box for the symbol acme, which is set to 0.1200" inches in the image to the right.

This is possibly the almost-confusing aspect of Civil 3D point styles.  The value specified in this field determines the peak of the symbol, as information technology should appear on newspaper.  The actual tiptop in the block definition does non impact the Point Style.  Instead, if you lot imagine a "bounding box" fatigued around your symbol, the block is scaled automatically by any value is required, so that it will impress on paper with the specified tiptop.

This fact does not have much bear on for a symbol like the lite postal service seen to the right, but information technology becomes very of import for symbols such as sign posts, which are considerably longer in one direction than the other.  Typically, if y'all just retrieve that the value in this dialog box is thesummit of the block, you lot tin can figure out how to get the cake scaled correctly.


Define blocks then that the paperspace height is the same as the top in the Betoken Style.

Nosotros notice it best to define this value so that it is equal to the height of the block (i.e., the distance along the Y-centrality) when the cake is inserted into paperspace with a calibration factor of 1, as shown in the prototype to the left.  This way, yous may use the block with no scaling (i.e., inserted at 1:1 scale into paperspace) in your Legend (assuming your Legend is in paperspace), and it will impress at exactly the same peak every bit in the plan view, regardless of the cartoon calibration or viewport scale.  In other words, if you want your symbol to print 0.12" high on paper, define the block so that it measures 0.12 cartoon units along the Y-centrality, and ascertain the Point Mark Style and so that information technology uses 0.12" as the pinnacle.

The Betoken Style - Display Tab

The Indicate Mode may be used to place the Marker and Label on different layers.

On the Display tab of the Bespeak Manner, we may specify the various settings for the Point Style, including the layer.

At that place are quite a number of possible ways to utilise this tab.  But we accept institute that we get the best results by limiting usage on this tab to i of just two methods.  For both methods, we ready ALL other values to "ByLayer", and so we may use layer controls to change the color, lineweight, and plot fashion.  For many Point Styles, we also like to turn the Visibility "off" for the Label in the 3D-view, so we come across only the Betoken Marker in 3D-orbits.

After that, we must determine how to use the layer settings.  The commencement method is shown to the right.  Nosotros employ this method for all Point Styles that incorporate their own special markers, such as the Lite Pole point manner seen to the right.  Note how the Marker is placed on one layer, while the Label is placed on the other.  We may now use those layers to command visibility of the points.  We may even practice things like set the Label layer to "No Plot", so we tin see both the point marker and betoken label on-screen, but but the point marking will appear when we print to paper.  Nosotros have a lot of command, simply past changing the layer settings in the Layer Managing director.

At present we have a special caveat for users of Civil 3D 2008 and earlier.  When using this method of displaying points, the Point itself must be on Layer 0, or the characterization volition have on the display characteristics of the Indicate Layer.  With Civil 3D 2009, point brandish has been simplified, and the Indicate Marking and Label will appear on the layers selected in the style, fifty-fifty if the Bespeak itself is on some layer other than 0.

The second method of specifying Indicate Styles is to gear up both the Mark and the Characterization to Layer 0, then use the Bespeak Layer to control the display.  When the layer settings in the Style are set to Layer 0 and all the Brandish settings are set to "ByLayer", nosotros may simply move the Point to a different layer to change the display.  This may be done via Description Keys, or when using the manual point creation tools, the points may simply be created on the appropriate layers.

The primary benefit to this method is that a single Point Style may be used over and over again, for many unlike purposes.  This cuts down the number of styles that are required.  For instance, in the epitome below, the EOA, EOC, TOP, TOE, and CLPV points are all using the same Point Style.

The prototype above too illustrates another handy play a joke on.  Notice that the diverse points are displayed with varying amounts of information.  For some points, the just thing displayed is the clarification.  This results in a less-cluttered display, which can be easier to read.  Each point in the prototype in a higher place has its Point Manner and Bespeak Label Style gear up to an appropriate value; these points used the Description Keys to utilize the advisable styles to each point, based on the description.  Most of the time, we leave the display as-shown above.  Still, from time to fourth dimension, we may wish to encounter more information; for example, nosotros may wish to see the superlative of all the points in the above drawing.  To do that, we tin can utilise the Point Label override in the Point Group.  Then, when we no longer demand to see all the elevations, nosotros tin turn the signal group override back off, and the brandish reverts back to the less-chaotic display seen above.