Label

12/2/2008 - 3:00 pm - 4:40 pm Room:Delfino 4102 (AEC)
AutoCAD® Civil 3D® Labels Inside and Out

Kevin Breslin - Director of Professional Services, Avatech Solutions
CV114-5 In this session, we will look at the fundamentals of Civil 3D label styles, and review the process
of creating, managing and standardizing labels. We will learn how to gain control of label styles
so that you will not only understand the process and logic behind using labels, you will also
learn how to make them look and behave the way you want them to.
About the Speaker:
Kevin has been using AutoCAD® with civil/survey applications since the early 1990s. At Avatech, he is the
director of professional services for the Infrastructure Solutions Division and heads up the National Technical
Civil/Survey Team. Kevin is an Autodesk® Civil 3D® Certified Implementation Expert, and is also certified in
Land Desktop, AutoCAD, Autodesk Map®, Autodesk MapGuide®, and Raster Design programs. Kevin is also a
CTT+ certified professional, a two-time recipient of the Civil Award of Excellence from Autodesk, and a previous
presenter at Autodesk University.
Stay Connect with AU all year at www.autodeskuniversity.com

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Civil 3D Overview
In its 5th release, Civil 3D is the premier model-based land development technology
from Autodesk designed for surveyors, civil engineers and others in the land
development industry which allows users to work in an object-oriented AutoCAD-based
environment. In Civil 3D, intelligent objects have the ability to react to design changes
from related objects and update accordingly, thus giving users unparalleled ability to
change and explore “what if” design changes in a highly efficient and accurate way.
The object relationships within Civil 3D allow users to work in ways never possible
before and have the potential to allow users to work faster, more accurately and more
efficiently.
It’s all about the styles…..
Within Civil 3D there are several different object-oriented entity types:
• Object Styles – Controls the appearance of the object itself. For example, with
surfaces this is where the choice is made to display contours, tin lines, elevation
banding, slope shading, etc. Also, this is where the appearance of the entities’
physical color, layer, linetype, lineweight, etc. is controlled.
• Label Styles – Control how the objects are constructed and appear graphically in the
drawing, what information is contained within the label, and the behavior of the
label.
• Table Styles – Many types of data can be displayed in special table objects. These
styles control the appearance and behavior of the tables.
• Commands – While not a true physical object, this is where defaults can be set for
specific commands and actions including default object styles and behaviors are
controlled.
The heart of Civil 3D’s power comes from the intelligent objects. The objects such as
alignments, surfaces, pipe networks, labels, etc., have the unique ability to be aware of
their dependencies as well as their peers and descendants. This awareness gives the
program the ability to react to changes automatically (an important distinction from
anything else on the market today).
At the heart of the objects are styles. Styles are the properties and rules that the
objects associate with to control the appearance and behavior of the objects. Just like
a text style in AutoCAD determines the font, width, oblique angle, etc., of the text
objects that reference the style, Civil 3D objects work with their respective styles to
control their behavior. For example, a surface object can display itself as contours or as
TIN lines depending on the properties of the style. Same surface object, different
display options based on the style applied to the object.
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The same principles that control surfaces also apply to label objects in Civil 3D. If you
understand how text objects relate to a text style and you can understand how a
surface object is displayed based on its style, the same goes for label objects.
It is worth noting that with all of the automation associated with objects, and more
specifically labels, there are obvious advantages, but these advantages come at a price
which is the reduced amount of total/manual control. It is reasonable to expect to have
to unlearn some old processes regarding labels to make the most of the tools available
within Civil 3D. Remember, Civil 3D is a different program than AutoCAD, Land Desktop
or anything else available on the market, and it needs to be treated differently to take
full advantage of its power and abilities.
The basic principles of styles in Civil 3D work very much in the same way making it easy
to infer what is learned by working with one entity type to another.
One of the most daunting aspects of Civil 3D is understanding, managing and using
styles. In this session we will be focusing on label styles and how you can learn to
harness the power of the labels in Civil 3D to not only display information in your
drawings but to display information the way you want it to appear.
Styles Hierarchy
In Civil 3D it is important to understand not only the relationship between objects but
also the relationship between the different facets of the program that manage and
control styles. Styles can be managed at the drawing level, the object level, the label
style category level, command level and the label style level. The top level of this
hierarchy is the “Drawing Settings”.
While at a first glance, it may seem that there are an overwhelming number of places
where styles can be managed, the structure and logic of the program really gives the
users a great deal of flexibility and control over styles and how they can be used within
Civil 3D.
In the “Drawing Settings” dialog you control a variety of general settings that will
affect global settings throughout the drawing as well as child styles at a lower level in
the program and determine settings for the following categories:
• Unit and Zone: The overall horizontal scale of the drawing, the coordinate system
(zone).
• Transformation: Used to transform the drawing coordinate system to a local system.
• Object Layers: Used to set default layers for objects as well as defining layer prefix
and suffix values for automated layer creation (ala-Land Desktop).
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• Abbreviations: Geometric value abbreviations are defined for things such as:
Curve Coefficient = K, beginning of curve = BC, Left = L, profile vertical
intersection = PVI.
• Ambient Settings: Generic settings such as decimal precision, tool tip display,
Event Viewer, area unit, slope or grade and some basic label-related settings
such as label prompt method.
Parent styles and settings maintain a higher level of control within Civil 3D and it is
where settings can be made that will be passed on to child (subordinate) styles and
settings. A child override is created when a child style deviates from the settings of
the parent style.
To access the Drawing Settings, right click on the drawing name in the Settings tab
of the Civil 3D Toolspace and choose “Edit Drawing Settings…”.
In addition to settings values you can also view and lock override settings of
subordinate objects. In the “Override” column you can see if there is a child style at a
subordinate level that has deviated from the settings defined at this level by a down
arrow in the “Child Override” column. At this point you have the ability to reset the
child style to the parent setting by clicking on the override down arrow which will create
a new icon with an “x” superimposed over the arrow indicating that the setting has
been reset. From this dialog you also have the ability to lock the setting at the parent
level by clicking on the lock/unlock icon for the setting in the row in question.
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Note: The locking of styles at the parent level does not prohibit other users from un-
locking the same setting. Locked settings in Civil 3D are not password protected nor
are the locks based on permissions.
Generally, in the case of labels, the parent-child relationship starts with the “Drawing
Settings” level of settings then the “Object Category” level, next the “Command
Level” settings then the “object/label” level. With different objects there are
different relationships. With Point objects for example, there are also Description Keys
which can affect the relationship of the parent and related child label styles.
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Settings at the Object Category Level

From within the Settings tab of the Toolspace, right-click on the object category level
and pick “Edit Features Settings…” to control category settings or pick “Edit Label
Style Default…” to control general label-related settings.
To edit general label settings that will affect the settings from this level down choose
“Edit Labels Style Defaults…”. From here you can control settings in the same way
as in the “Drawing Settings” dialog but in this case only settings that relate
specifically to the selected category.
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In the “Edit Features Settings” dialog you can manage other label-related settings
such as default styles and precision, along with parameters that will control the creation
of objects in this category.
Values can also be set within the object and label styles that will by default take on the
settings of the parent object unless changed at the child level.
Default Styles
Depending on the intent of the user, different styles can be associated to different
actions or commands within a given category or can be set to a global value which is
the same regardless of the action or command. For example, when working with a
Profile, you may want to use a specific label style as a default regardless of how the
profile is created. To do this, set the value at the “Edit Feature Settings..” level from
the Profile category.
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If the intent is to ensure that the selected style would not be modifiable at a lower level
(command), you could choose to lock the setting at this level.
If however, the intent is to use a different style automatically based on a specific
command or action, set the style at the “Commands” level. As with the “Feature
Settings…”, at the group level, right-click on the command in question from within the
“Commands” collection and choose “Edit Command Settings…”.
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As with the settings at the parent level (Profile>”Edit Command Settings”) you have the
ability to choose a style, but in this case, the style will only be used for this specific
action/command.
Remember, when you make a change at this level it will be considered a “Child
Override” at the parent level.
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Creating Styles
Creating a new style within Civil 3D is quite easy and as with many other aspects of the
way the program functions, the methods are similar, which makes it easy to learn and
remember. To create a new label style it is simply a matter of drilling down to the
label level you wish to work with, right-click on the category and choose “New…” from
the menu.
From this point, you are ready to create a new style from scratch. If however the
intent is to a modified version of an existing style, simply right-click on the style in
question and choose “Copy”. By default the copied style will have a name indicating
the style from which the copy came.
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Object Labels
In this section we will look at a few examples of common object labels and the settings
that affect their appearance and behavior.
Profile labels
Profile labels are labels found in a profile view and are associated to the profile object.
They are used to display information such as grade, elevation, K value, curve length,
etc. As with other label styles there are many common aspects and many of the
properties and settings will be the same from one style to another. Profile labels are
categorized by the different types of segments found in a profile object thus allowing
for a great deal of detail in the definition of the labels.
Some label style categories will have subsets that further allow for detailed definition
and control of a label. For example, the “Station” category has three subcategories
that allow you to control the labels based on Major Stations, Minor Stations and
Horizontal Geometry Points.
As noted previously, the method used to create a new style or copy an existing style is
the same.
In the “Label Style Composer” you will find tabs that allow you to set values to the
different aspects of a label object. As different label objects will have different
applicable settings based on the object and how labels are applied, they all will have a
few common components such as the “Information” and “Summary” tabs.
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• The “Information” tab is where the style name and description are defined.
• The “General” tab is designed to specify whether the label displays as a label or
tag, the label visibility, and label orientation.
• The “Layout” tab is where the actual label component contents are defined.
• The “Dragged State” tab is where the label properties are defined when a label is
dragged from its default insertion point.
• The “Summary” tab may differ by style type but in each case allows users to
access all of the settings of the style from a single spreadsheet-like interface and is
an alternative to addressing style settings from their respective categorized tab.
One of the most important aspects of working with a label style is the “Contents”
value which is a part of the “Text” property of the “Layout” tab. To access the
Contents, select in the “Value” column and in the “Contents” row and pick the “…”
button.
Once in the “Text Component Editor” you can specify the actual properties and value
of the label object.
There are two tabs in this dialog, “Properties” and “Format”.
• The “Format” tab controls the physical properties of the text such as color, font and
justification.
• The “Properties” tab is where values are set and where the label is constructed.
o “Properties” from this pull-down you choose from the applicable object
properties that can be used in a label object. Note: Properties will vary by
object type.
o The “Value” column cells control the specifics of the selected/current
property.
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o The “Text Editor” window is where the formatted property string is

displayed. Note: This is a simple sample and may not accurately reflect
the actual label object.
When editing a label it is important to remember that you must first select/highlight the
formatted string in the Text Editor window before making any changes to the
“Properties” values. It is also necessary to pick the arrow (insert) button so that the
changes will be applied to the selected string.
When creating a new label, you must first select the property that you want to use, set
the values and then pick the insert button.
It is important to remember these steps to successfully create or modify
labels!
Applying Labels to a Profile

Profile labels are added when the profile/profile views are created. The label style as
well as the profile styles can be set in the “Profile Display Options” section in the
“Create Profile View” wizard. Note: The “Labels” column is several columns to the
right, which means you will likely have to scroll to get to it.
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Pipe Labels
Pipes and structure label styles are managed in a similar way as profiles but there are
settings that are specific to pipes and structures that have to be treated differently.
One of the most important differences is that the feature settings you would ordinarily
think to be in the “Pipe” or “Structure” categories are actually found under the “Pipe
Network” category instead.
One of the most useful collection of settings for the Pipe and Structure settings is the
ability to control the label anchor options which determine how labels are
associated/oriented to pipes and structures as well as the justification.
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For example, if you wish to have Structure labels associate to the bottom of the
structures in the profile view you can set the “Dimension Anchor Options for
Structures” to “Graph view bottom”. This way, once labels are added to your pipes
the location will be fixed.
If however you wish to have the ability to use two different label styles in a profile view,
where one label style is associate to the top of the structures and a different type of
label is associate to the bottom of the structures, you will need to make changes to the
“Commands” settings that control the label placement under the “Pipe Networks”
“Commands” section. There are two different settings that control the label
placement of pipe and structure settings based on the method used to apply the labels
to the pipes.
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With regard to specifically adding the labels as the pipes and structures are created or
as a group, the command setting “AddNetworkPartProfLabel” allows you to set the
defaults as well as the placement settings.
When adding labels to pipes and structures one at a time, the command
“AddNetworkProfLabels” controls the defaults and the placement settings.
Using different values in these two different commands allows you to apply one set of
labels that would attach to the top of the structures (i.e. rim elevation, structure ID)
and apply another set of labels to the bottom of the structures (i.e. inverts, sump) by
using a different command to add the labels.
Applying Labels to Pipes and Structures

Pipe and structure labels can be applied in a few different ways such as all at once, one
at a time, or in groupings. From the “Pipes” pull-down, choose “Add Pipe Network
Labels” and choose the method you would like to use to create the labels.
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As different object types have the ability to label different types of data there are
slightly different methods specific to pipes and structures that you need to be aware of.
With regard to pipe data displayed to their associated structures, there is an additional
component that you can add to the label that gives you the ability to label each
instance of an object rather than a fixed number of objects. Example: If there are
three different pipes connected to a single structure and you did not create a label style
based on that number of pipes, some of the data would be missing. To keep this from
happening, there is a “Text for each” text component that will accommodate the
variable number of pipes that may be attached to a structure.
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The properties for pipes and structures also contain a few very useful options such as
“Connected Pipe Flow Direction” which will add the pipe direction to the label.
Xrefs and Civil 3D Labels

With the 2009 release of Civil 3D, one of the many significant improvements is the new
ability to label Civil 3D objects from an externally referenced (Xref’d) drawing. This new
label ability allows users to label objects without any type of data reference, via Vault or
Data Shortcuts. Also, just like labels applied to drawings where the objects originate,
they will automatically update based on the changes made to the labeled objects (Note:
Xref reload or reopening the drawing will be necessary for the updates to take effect).
To utilize this functionality all you need is a drawing containing Civil 3D objects
(surface, alignment, parcel, etc.). Simply attach the source drawing to another drawing
as an AutoCAD external reference (Xref) and apply your labels.
When labeling Xref’d objects, the specific methods of how the labels are applied are
almost the same as if the labeling was being done within the drawing containing the
objects, with a few exceptions. Most objects can be labeled using the respective
objects label options found in the pull-down menus.
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Some objects however such as Alignments, Sections, and Profiles will require you use
the “Add/Edit . .” label commands to add the object labels to the Xref’d objects.
Some objects such as Points do not have a method to add labels to Xref’d objects.
Also, drawings that are referenced and scaled at a non 1:1 ratio or are of different unit
types (i.e. Metric and Imperial) will not work properly.
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Another Xref related Civil 3D label aspect to be aware of is in the case of when a
drawing containing both the Civil 3D objects and object labels that are then Xref’d into
another drawing. The behavior in the Modelspace instance of the label objects is
different than the labels’ behavior in a Layout view.
For example, if you create a drawing with Parcel objects and add labels to the parcels,
save said drawing with the Modelspace scale set to 1”=50’ where the labels style is set
to a height of 0.10 (resulting in a label with a height of 5.0). When you create a new
drawing and Xref the first drawing, you will see that the Modelspace scale has no effect
on the size of the labels from the Xref’d drawing.
However, if you switch to a Layout view and create a Viewport, you will see that the
Viewport scale does affect the size of the labels in the viewports. When plotting from
Layouts, this will likely work well for you, but, if you plot from Modelspace, you may
have some label size related issues.
To remedy this issue, we thankfully now have the ability to add labels to the Civil 3D
objects via an attached Xref so not only can you control the size and placement of the
labels in each respective drawing, we can also control the individual, drawing specific,
placement needs you may have.
Parcel Labels
Parcel labels are managed very much like the other label types we have visited during
this session. One of the notable differences is the available method for which the labels
can be created.
There are basically two different types of labels, Parcel labels and segment labels. The
label that is created when a parcel is defined is generally the area label and can contain
information such as the parcel area, parcel ID, name, perimeter and user-defined fields
such as assessed value or anything you wish to add to the parcel. This label is usually
added to the parcel object when the Parcel is created.
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The second types of labels are for the line and curve segments of the parcels. The
segment labels can be added either after the parcel has been created or at the time of
creation of the Parcel.
To add Parcel perimeter labels at the time the Parcel is created you can choose the
“Automatically add segment labels” check box in the “Create Parcels” dialog.
If you wish to add the labels after the Parcels have already been created choose “Add
Parcel Labels” from the Parcels pull-down and choose the method you would like to
use.
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User-Defined Properties
Creating, editing and adding User-Defined Properties requires a few special steps and
processes. To create a new UDP (User-Defined Property) you first need to create a
new classification. Next, expand the “Parcel” tree and right-click on “User-Defined
Property Classifications” and choose “New”.
Once you have created a new classification, you will need to create a new value.
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In the “New User-Defined Properties” dialog you can set the properties of the UDP.
Once the UPD has been defined, you can edit the settings in the Toolspace.
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Once the UDP has been created it is necessary to add it to the Parcels Site before you
can use the data in a label or in the properties of the Parcel collection. From the
Prospector tab of the Toolspace, right-click on the “Parcels” collection under the Site
you are working with and choose “Properties”. From here you specify the “User-
defined property classification” you will be using or choose the “All” option to use
all UDP’s that are available.
In order to use the UDP data you need to either save the drawing or refresh the
Toolspace. Once this is done, to add the data to a label from the “Settings” tab go to
“Parcels” > “Label Styles” > “Area” and right-click on the label style you wish to
edit. Then add the UDP property to the label as you would any other available
property.
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To edit the UDP data that is associated to your Parcels, select the Parcels collection in
the Prospector tab of the Toolspace and from the edit window you can edit values.
Note: To choose which fields are visible in the Data View grid in the Toolspace, right-
click on the header of the column names and choose the items you wish to view from
the pop-up list.
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Creating a Civil 3D Template

Unlike Civil 3D’s cousin Land Desktop, creating a template containing all of your
settings, styles, parts lists, etc., is very simple. One of the most effective methods of
creating a template is:
• Create a new drawing from a clean AutoCAD template file (i.e. Acad.dwt,
“_AutoCAD Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS Extended.dwt”).
• Create objects to exemplify the styles you wish to use.
• Create the objects and label styles you will need to exist in your company
standards.
• Set the Feature Settings and Drawing Settings you wish to use as defaults.
• Erase the objects created to exemplify the Civil 3D styles and purge any
unwanted blocks, shapes, layers, etc.
• Use the “Saveas” command and from the “Files of type:” pull-down, choose
the “AutoCAD Drawing Template (*.dwt)” file type.
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• When this is done, the destination folder will be changed to the AutoCAD
Template folder location. This may vary depending on the paths chosen during
the installation of Civil 3D.
• Give the file a logical name (i.e. “EngStd.dwt”).

• In the “Template Options” dialog, give the template a meaningful description
and choose the option to “Save all layers as reconciled” so the template’s
layers are recognized as up to date and not recently added.
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Note: If you need to add legacy content from earlier standards (layers, blocks, text
styles, etc.) be careful to not contaminate your new drawing with corrupted data.
Also, be sure to Audit/Recover any existing drawings before harvesting data into the
new drawing. Design Center is a good tool to harvest AutoCAD content in a clean
way.
Important: Using the “Insert” command and bringing whole drawings into your new
drawing may cause contamination and is not recommended.
Conclusion
Hopefully this session has been useful as a guide and insight to some of the easy-to-
learn and some not-so-easy-to-learn facets of how labels work within Civil 3D. As when
working with any new technology, it is important to receive high-quality training to
become proficient with the software as quickly as possible. I also feel it is important to
spend time experimenting with the software to become an expert-level user. Take time
to try different things and explore deep into the program to really gain a true
understanding of the software. And as always, before you experiment, be sure to back
up your data and/or system just in case.
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12/2/2008 - 3:00 pm - 4:40 pm Room:Delfino 4102 (AEC)

AutoCAD® Civil 3D® Labels Inside and Out

About the Speaker:

Stay Connect with AU all year at www.autodeskuniversity.com

Settings at the Object Category Level

o The “Text Editor” window is where the formatted property string is

Applying Labels to a Profile

Applying Labels to Pipes and Structures

Xrefs and Civil 3D Labels

Creating a Civil 3D Template

• Give the file a logical name (i.e. “EngStd.dwt”).

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