Understanding Point Groups

Reasons to Use Point Groups

Point groups provide a flexible and convenient way to identify points that share common characteristics or that are used to perform a task, such as creating a surface. You can use point groups to create groupings of points using point number, point name, point elevation, raw (field) or full description, and other characteristics.

Point groups also play a fundamental role in controlling how a point displays in a drawing. If you have a set of points that share common display characteristics, you can use a point group to identify the point style and point label style for all the points in the point group, instead of assigning a point style and a point label style to each individual point. Also, using a point group you can quickly change the style or label style for all the points in a point group at once, instead of changing each point individually.

The point group display order, the point group default styles, and the point group override styles can all affect how a point is drawn. For more information, see Controlling the Appearance of Points in a Drawing.

Point Group Properties

A point group is defined by properties which describe the criteria that a point must match to belong to a point group, such as its point number, its name, its raw or full description, or its elevation. Points that match the specified criteria are added to the point group’s point list.

You can create a point group either before or after you create the points that belong to it. The point list is maintained dynamically, which means you are notified whenever a change occurs that could affect the point list. For more information, see Out-of-Date Point Groups.