To Theme a Drawing Layer

Themes for drawing layers vary the stylization of drawing objects based on object properties or data associated with the objects.

To create a theme for a drawing layer

  1. In Display Manager right-click a drawing layer Add StyleTheme.
  2. In the Thematic Mapping dialog box, in the Theme Type list, choose the type of theme to create.
    • A Set Of Specific Values — Select this option if the data has a few distinct values, such as pipe material, land use, or pavement type.
    • A Range Of Numeric Values — Select this option if the data can be any value along a continuum, such as property value, temperature, or population. When you display this type of data, you define ranges for the values.
  3. Next to the Theme Type list, click Values to specify the data to use for the theme.
  4. In the Thematic Values dialog box, under Data Values, specify the data to use. For Obtain From, click to choose from a list of data sources.
  5. To ignore or exclude certain values in the data, specify them in the Ignore box.

    These values, while present in the data, may be inappropriate for use in the theme. Examples include null or empty data values.

  6. To normalize the data relative to some other data value, for Normalize By, enter a value or an expression. Click to choose from a list of data sources.
  7. Click Read Data.

    AutoCAD Map 3D reads the values in the selected data source.

  8. If you are not working with ranges, select the values to include in your map.
  9. If you are creating a theme with ranges, under Data Ranges, choose how to divide the values into ranges.
  10. Click OK to close the dialog box.
  11. Under Thematic Details, specify how to style objects in the theme, and the text labels to use in the legend.
  12. Click Done.

To edit a theme for drawing data

To change the thumbnail used in the Display Manager

  1. Select the layer.
  2. Click Display to open Properties palette.
  3. On the Display tab of the Properties palette, select the thumbnail preview.

    For example, choose the polygon icon for parcels or the arc icon for pipes.