Use symbols to represent and display point features. Your style options vary, depending on whether you are using enhanced styles or standard styles. See Using Enhanced and Standard Styles.
If precise placement of labels is important, you can display labels instead of symbols at feature point locations. To add labels to features, see Adding Labels to Features and Displaying Labels at Point Locations. You can also specify whether other labels should obscure symbols on this layer. For more information, see Allowing Label Overposting.
Set default size context and units in Options. For more information, see Setting Layer Editor Options.
Using Enhanced Styles
Enhanced styles are available only for newly created layers or layers from AutoCAD Map 3D that were styled using enhanced styles. In order to use enhanced styles, you must set an option on the Layer Editor tab of the Options dialog box. See Using Enhanced and Standard Styles.
To style points using enhanced styles
- Open the layer to edit by doing one of the following:
- Create a new layer.
- Double-click an existing layer.
- Click the layer’s tab if the layer is already open.
For information about creating a new layer, see Creating New Resources. For information about associating a data resource with a new layer, see Specifying the Data Resource for a Layer.
- In the Style pane of the Layer Editor, under Scale Ranges, select the scale range to style.
For more information about scale ranges, see Understanding Scale Ranges.
- In the Point Style area for the selected scale range, for Style Of The Geometry, click […].
- In the Style Point dialog box, specify the size context and units of measurement for the style.
These settings are used for all elements in the style, not just for selected ones.
Select Device to specify label widths and heights in screen units. Available units are Points, Inches, Millimeters, or Centimeters. Select Map to specify label widths and heights in Mapping Coordinate System (MCS) units. Available units are Inches, Feet, Yards, Miles, Millimeters, Centimeters, Meters, and Kilometers. - Add any desired symbols to the point style and use the graphical area to adjust their positions.
Click Add Symbol to add elements to the style. Symbol elements can include both text and graphics. You can include multiple symbol elements in a single style.
For compound symbols, click + to see the simple symbols that comprise it. You can format each simple symbol. You can reposition compound symbols, but not the simple symbols within them.
The graphical area shows the elements and the order in which they will appear. Elements at the bottom of this area are at the bottom of the draw order. Select an element in the graphical area to change its position, appearance, and content. Use the arrow keys to change the position of the selected item. To delete an item, select it and click X.
For compound symbols, click + to see the simple symbols that comprise it. You can format each simple symbol. You can reposition compound symbols, but not the simple symbols within them.
- Select each element in the point style and use the options below the graphical area to change its appearance.
When a symbol element is selected, use the style options below the graphical area to specify the graphical symbol to use and its fill, outline style, line color, size, and rotation. If the symbol graphic includes text, text styling options are also available. You can specify whether to maintain the aspect ratio when changing the height or width of symbols.
Note: You can use an expression to specify most styling options. If you use an expression to specify width, height, or repeat interval, a scaling factor is included in the expression. This scaling value converts your expression to a value that can be used as width, height, offset, or interval. The factor is calculated and inserted automatically. Do not change or delete it in the expression. - Click Advanced to control how point symbols are positioned relative to the point feature they represent.
This setting is applied after is scaled and rotated.
- Click OK.
Using Standard Styles
All existing layers that were styled with standard styles originally will continue to use standard styles. For standard styles, Infrastructure Studio provides six mark symbols: square, circle, triangle, star, cross, and X. You can also use font symbols and build Infrastructure Studio symbol libraries.
In symbol libraries you can use Bitmap (BMP), Device Independent Bitmap (DIB), Enhanced Metafile (EMF), TrueType Fonts (TTF), Windows Metafile (WMF), Portable Network Graphics (PNG), and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPG/JPEG). Create your own symbols in AutoCAD Map 3D or another application and then import them into Infrastructure Studio. For information on creating symbol libraries, see Creating a New Symbol Library.
Symbols can contain four types of elements:
- Images
- Text
- Lines
- Polygons
You cannot modify images. However, you can override the fill colors of polygon elements, the color of line elements, and the color of text elements. If a symbol element contains multiple colors (for example, a line element with three segments, each a different color), overriding applies the same color to all parts of the element.
To apply styles to points using standard styles
- Open the layer to edit by doing one of the following:
- Create a new layer.
- Double-click an existing layer.
- Click the layer’s tab if the layer is already open.
For information about creating a new layer, see Creating New Resources. For information about associating a data resource with a new layer, see Specifying the Data Resource for a Layer.
- In the Style pane of the Layer Editor, under Scale Ranges, select the scale range to style.
For more information about scale ranges, see Understanding Scale Ranges.
- In the Point Style area for the selected scale range, for Style Of The Geometry, click […].
- In the Style Point dialog box, select the Style A Point Symbol checkbox.
- For Symbol, do one of the following:
- Select a mark symbol from the list.
- Select Font Symbol […]. In the Font Symbol dialog box, from the Font list, select a font. Click a symbol. Click OK.
- Select Symbol Library […]. In the Select A Symbol dialog box, click […]. Specify a symbol library. Click Open. Click a symbol. Click OK.
- For Size Context, specify the type of units:
- Select Device Space to specify symbol widths and heights in screen units. Available units are Points, Inches, Millimeters, or Centimeters.
- Select Map Space to specify symbol widths and heights in Mapping Coordinate System (MCS) units. Available units are Inches, Feet, Yards, Miles, Millimeters, Centimeters, Meters, and Kilometers.
- For Units, select the type of units to use.
- For Width, enter the symbol width or specify the width using a number expression.
For more information, see Building Number Expressions.
- For Height, enter the symbol height or specify the height using a number expression.
For more information, see Building Number Expressions.
- To maintain width-to-height proportions when you change the width or height of the symbol, select the Maintain Aspect Ratio checkbox.
- For Reference, specify the reference point for the symbol. See Changing a Symbol’s Reference Point.
The reference point of a symbol controls the position of a symbol over a feature in a map. The default reference point is the center of the symbol. X specifies a value for the horizontal center of the symbol. Y specifies a value for the vertical center of the symbol. You can change the reference point position.
- For Rotation, do one of the following:
- Enter the amount to rotate the symbol.
- Click Any Angle. Specify the angle using the slider or enter an angle in the box. Click OK.
- Click Expression. Specify the rotation using a number expression.
For more information about creating a number expression, see Building Number Expressions.
- For mark symbols, do either or both of the following:
- To apply a fill to the symbol, select Apply Fill To The Symbol. For Fill Pattern, select a solid or pattern fill. Specify a foreground color and for patterned fills, a background color or transparency.
- To apply a border to the symbol, select Apply A Border To The Area. Specify border pattern, thickness, and color. Note:
Select 0 thickness to draw the border as thinly as possible.
- For font symbols, specify a format and text color.
- For symbols from a Symbol libary, you can override the fill colors of polygon elements, the color of line elements, and the color of text elements, use the Fill Color, Line Color, and Text Color lists.
If you do not specify overrides, the default colors from the symbol are used.
- Click OK.
- Click File menu
Save.