Label Styles

This section describes best practices for working with label styles.

Editing Label Styles

The ability to edit labels within the drawing eliminates the need to locate the styles on the Settings tab. Select the Edit Label Style option for quick access to the label style editing tools.

To use the Edit Label Style option

  1. Select a label, right-click and click Edit Label Style.
  2. This opens the <Object> Label Style dialog box as shown in figure 12 from which you can perform multiple commands to either create a new style, copy the existing style or child style, or edit currently selected style.
    Note:

    The Label Style Composer is accessed when you select Edit Current Selection.

Figure 12: Dialog box for accessing label style editing tools

You can drag and drop styles between drawings using the Settings tab Master View. You should not copy labels themselves from drawing to drawing.

If you drag a label style into the current drawing along with a label that refers to that label style and you overwrite it, you will lose the style.

Note:

You can use a crossing selection to change multiple labels. Draw a crossing selection window over labels that you want to edit, and then select Label Properties. Then use the Properties palette to edit the properties of the selected labels.

Label Appearance

In your final production drawings use as few labels as possible for best performance.

Displaying Surface Elevation Cut/Fill Labels with Colors

You can create label styles for different Autodesk Civil 3D features. The use of expressions to calculate data can greatly enhance your annotation. An example of this is the use of an expression to create a label style that uses color to distinguish between surface cut and fill volume labels. In this example, the cut volume labels are red, and the fill volume labels are green.

To display cut/fill labels with distinguishing colors

  1. Create a volume surface from the two surfaces you are comparing.
  2. Create an expression for Surface Spot Elevation labels. Name it “Negative Value.” Use this expression: -1 * {Surface Elevation}.

    This expression takes a value, and multiplies it by negative one, changing a positive integer into a negative, or for this example, taking a negative and turning it into a positive.

  3. Create a Surface Spot Elevation label style named “Cut Fill.” In the Label Style Composer dialog box, on the Layout tab, change the Name property of the label component to “fill.” Change its color to Green. Edit the text component and change the Sign Modifier to Hide Negative Value.
  4. Make a new component for the Cut value by copying the Fill text component and renaming it to Cut. Change the color to red. Edit the text component, and replace with the Negative Value expression. Change the Sign Modifier to Hide Negative Value.
  5. Use the Spot Elevations On Grid command to add labels to the volume surface, using the Cut Fill style. All the spot elevations in a cut area (where the volume surface is negative) will be labeled with the red label, and all the spot elevations with a fill area (where the volume surface is positive) will be labeled with the green label.

    Since the negative values are hidden, and the expression is used to convert a negative into a positive (the cut), the labels automatically display the appropriate spot elevation.

Labeling High and Low Points for a Profile View Curve

Experiment with label styles to display critical information in your drawings. A good practice with profiles is to label high and low points on a profile view curve.

To label high and low points on a profile view curve

  1. In Toolspace, click the Settings tab.
  2. Expand ProfileLabel StylesCurve.
  3. Right-click the Curve collection and click New to create a new label style with the name Low Point.
  4. Right-click Low Point and click Edit.
  5. Click the Layout tab.
  6. Create a new component for text by clicking Create Text Component.
  7. Click on the value column for Contents and open the Text Component Editor dialog box.
  8. In the Properties drop-down list, select Low Point Elevation. Click the arrow icon to add it to the label.
  9. In the Text Component Editor, click at the beginning of the Low Point Elevation text properties. Press ENTER. In the Properties drop-down list, select Low Point Station. Click the arrow icon to add it to the label. The properties appear as follows: <[Low Point Station(Uft|FS|P2|RN|AP|Sn|TP|B2|EN|W0|OF)]<[Low Point Elevation(Uft|P3|RN|AP|Sn|OF)]>. Click OK to close the Text Component Editor.
  10. Click the General tab and set the visibility to True.
  11. Click OK to close the Label Style Composer dialog box.
  12. Click a curve in a Profile View and right-click.
  13. Click Edit Labels to display the Profile Labels dialog box.
  14. Locate Sag Curves in Type and set Profile Sag Curve Label Style to Low Point.
  15. Repeat steps 4 to 14 to create a High Point label style and assign it to a crest curve.
Parent topic: Using Styles