Styling Lines

Specify the thickness, color, and pattern of polyline features. Style a single line or build a composite line with several components and then style each component. For example, to illustrate a highway, create a thick black line and add a thinner, dashed, yellow line. Your style options vary, depending on whether you are using enhanced styles or standard styles. See Using Enhanced and Standard Styles.

Note:

To add labels to features, see Adding Labels to Features.

Note:

Set default 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 lines using enhanced styles

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. In the Line Style area for the selected scale range, for Style Of The Geometry, click […].
4. In the Style Line dialog box, specify the size context and units of measurement for the style.

   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.These settings are used for all elements in the style, not just for selected ones.

5. For a composite line style, add another line symbol.

   The lines are displayed in their draw order, with the line lowest in the draw order at the bottom.

6. Add any desired symbols to the line style and use the graphical area to adjust their positions.

   Use Add Symbol to add any type of line: one with a pattern or one with a repeating symbol. Items at the bottom of the graphical area are at the bottom of the draw order.

   For a compound symbol, 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.

7. Select each element in the line style and use the options below the graphical area to change its appearance.

   The options change, depending on what is selected. If you select a symbol that supports text, text styling options are also available. Specify the line pattern, thickness, width, height, color, and join and cap styles. Specify whether to maintain the aspect ratio of any symbols in the style when you change line size settings.

   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.

   Scroll to the bottom of the list of symbols to see a Load option. Use this option to add a symbol library (.layer), line style (.lin), or a vector symbol (.xml).

   You can also use expressions for styling. For example, use an expression to determine which directional symbol displays on a line, based on its directional properties.

   Note: If you use an expression to specify width, height, offset, 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.
8. Click Advanced to specify settings for the following:
   • Offset From Start/End: The offset of the symbol from the start or end of the line.
   • Repeat Interval:The interval at which symbols will repeat. The value uses the units you specified above.
   • Angle Control: Whether symbol orientation is determined by the feature geometry or by the angle you specify.
9. Click OK.

Using Standard Styles

All existing layers that were styled with standard styles originally will continue to use standard styles.

You can create symbol libraries that contain custom line styles. 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 lines using standard styles

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. In the Line Style area for the selected scale range, for Style Of The Geometry, click […].
4. In the Style Line dialog box, select the Apply Styles To The Line checkbox.
5. To style a single line, do the following:
   • For Size Context, select Map Space to specify the size in standard real-world units (inches, feet, yards, miles, milimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers) or Device Space to specify the size in screen units (points, inches, milimeters, centimeters).
   • For Units, select the type of units to measure line thickness.
   • Use the lists to specify polyline thickness, color, and pattern.
     Note:

     Select 0 thickness to draw the line as thin as possible.

6. To build a composite line, do the following:
   • Click Create Composite Lines to expand the Style Line dialog box.
   • Style the first line in the composite.
   • Click New to add a new component to the line.
   • Style the new component as desired.
   • Control the position of the selected component in the overall composite line by clicking the up and down arrows.
7. Click OK.
8. Click File menu Save.