About Creating Point Groups

You create a point group by defining its properties.

Point groups organize and identify points that share common characteristics. Use point groups to assign point styles and point label styles for all the points in a point group instead of assigning styles individually.

Important: The highest point number allowed in Civil 3D is 4,294,967,295. You can use point names or User Defined Properties to reference numbers greater than 4,294,967,295.

Use the tabs on the Point Group Properties dialog box to define the properties of a point group. The tabs you use depend on which method you use to define a point group:

• The Basic Method. Use this method to easily define the properties for many point groups. Use the Point Groups, Raw Desc Matching, Include, and the Exclude tabs of the Point Group Properties dialog box. Also, use this method when you want to identify points that belong to a point group by selecting points in a drawing.
• The Query Builder Method. Use this advanced method to create point groups by combining expressions, which allows you to use a single tab, the Query Builder tab, to build a point group based on combinations of point properties or point groups. When you create a point group using the query builder method, the Point Groups, Raw Desc Matching, Include, and Exclude tabs are not available.

Note: You should understand how to create a point group using the basic method before using the query builder.

After you create a point group, do not try to interchange the two methods to make changes to a point group. You can create a point group using the basic method and then change the point group properties using the Query Builder tab. However, you will lose the changes you made on the Query Builder tab if you then change the point group using the Point Groups tab, the Raw Desc Matching tab, the Include tab, or the Exclude tab.

You can always access the Information tab, the Overrides tab, the Point List tab, and the Summary tab regardless of the method used to define or change the point group’s properties.

Because the list of points that belong to a point group (the point list) is updated dynamically, you can create point groups either before or after you create points in the drawing. If you create the points first, and then create the point group, the point list of the newly created point group is immediately updated with the existing points that match the criteria for inclusion in the point group. If you create a point group before you create points that qualify for inclusion in the point group, the point group is marked as out-of-date on the Prospector tab as points are created. You can easily update the point list to include the new points.

Also, you can create a point group when you import points. In the Import Points dialog box, specify the name of the point group to be created.