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Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Add a label to an item within your Civil 3D drawing, apply and adjust the label style, and share a label style across drawings.
Type:
Tutorial
Length:
3 min.
Transcript
00:03
In Civil 3D, labels provide annotations that display dynamic information about objects within your drawing.
00:11
You can customize label styles to meet project standards and to provide the relevant information
00:17
based on your project needs or lifecycle.
00:20
Additionally, sharing label styles between drawings can help to facilitate the design process.
00:27
Begin with your drawing open in Civil 3D.
00:30
When you draw objects, if they are not automatically labeled, you can easily add labels.
00:36
To add a label, select the object; for this example, select the surface.
00:43
Then on the contextual ribbon, in the Labels and Tables panel,
00:47
expand Add Labels to select a label.
00:51
Under Add Labels, select Contour Multiple.
00:55
Then, in the drawing, draw a line across the contours you wish to label.
01:00
A label is applied to each contour that the line crosses, which you can see by zooming in.
01:07
You can change how labels are displayed by adjusting the style of the label.
01:13
In Toolspace, on the Settings tab, expand Surface > Label Styles > Contour.
01:22
Then, right-click Existing Major Labels and select Edit.
01:28
The Label Style Composer dialog opens.
01:32
The Information tab provides the name and description of the label,
01:36
as well as who the label was created and last modified by, and when.
01:41
The General tab controls the text style; whether the label is visible;
01:46
the layer and orientation of the label; and whether the label is plan readable.
01:52
The Layout tab allows you to adjust the properties for the label components.
01:58
In this case, there is only one component, Surface Elevation.
02:04
If needed, you can add another component by clicking Add,
02:09
and then selecting Text, Line, Block, or Directional Arrow.
02:16
To edit a component property, click in the Value cell, such as the Contents Value,
02:22
and then click More (…).
02:24
In the Text Composer Editor dialog, expand Properties to select the property to insert.
02:31
Here, Surface Elevation is chosen.
02:35
Then, edit the appropriate modifiers.
02:40
In this case, set the Unit to foot, with a Precision of 1.
02:46
Click the Add Properties arrow to place the property in the component display.
02:51
Here, there is already a surface elevation, so you see this existing property.
02:58
Rather than adding a new property, it is easiest to select and adjust the existing property to a Precision of 1.
03:06
Notice that P2 still appears in the component display, but when you click Add Properties,
03:11
it adjusts to P0 to reflect the change in precision.
03:16
Remember that you must click Add Properties for edits to be applied.
03:21
Click OK twice.
03:23
The label style adjusts in the drawing and now excludes the trailing zeros.
03:29
Once you create a label style, you can use or share it across drawings.
03:35
Start a New drawing using a template.
03:38
From the Manage tab, Styles panel, you can choose to Import styles or Reference them in from a specific drive,
03:45
so that you always have the most up-to-date styles available.
03:49
In this case, click Import, select the template to import from, and then click Open.
03:58
In the Import Civil 3D Styles dialog, you can select or deselect the specific styles to be imported,
04:05
with options to Deselect All or Select All.
04:09
Additionally, expand the different styles to view additional details.
04:15
In this case, click Select All, and then click OK.
04:21
In the warning dialog, click OK to confirm the import.
04:26
When it is complete, a dialog displays the results, including the number of styles imported and deleted.
04:35
Click OK.
04:38
As mentioned previously, the alternative is to Reference the styles, so that they update dynamically.
04:45
In the Attach Referenced Template dialog, click Add.
04:50
Then, in the Open Template File dialog, set the Files of type to Drawing Template (*.dwt).
04:59
Select a template, and then click Open.
05:04
In this case, because a metric template is selected,
05:08
a warning alerts you that the drawing units do not match the current drawing. Click Continue.
05:14
In the Attach Referenced Template dialog, you can now expand and select the styles you wish to reference in your drawing.
05:22
In this example, click Select All, and then OK.
05:28
This creates a reference to the selected template file that keeps the chosen styles up to date.
Video transcript
00:03
In Civil 3D, labels provide annotations that display dynamic information about objects within your drawing.
00:11
You can customize label styles to meet project standards and to provide the relevant information
00:17
based on your project needs or lifecycle.
00:20
Additionally, sharing label styles between drawings can help to facilitate the design process.
00:27
Begin with your drawing open in Civil 3D.
00:30
When you draw objects, if they are not automatically labeled, you can easily add labels.
00:36
To add a label, select the object; for this example, select the surface.
00:43
Then on the contextual ribbon, in the Labels and Tables panel,
00:47
expand Add Labels to select a label.
00:51
Under Add Labels, select Contour Multiple.
00:55
Then, in the drawing, draw a line across the contours you wish to label.
01:00
A label is applied to each contour that the line crosses, which you can see by zooming in.
01:07
You can change how labels are displayed by adjusting the style of the label.
01:13
In Toolspace, on the Settings tab, expand Surface > Label Styles > Contour.
01:22
Then, right-click Existing Major Labels and select Edit.
01:28
The Label Style Composer dialog opens.
01:32
The Information tab provides the name and description of the label,
01:36
as well as who the label was created and last modified by, and when.
01:41
The General tab controls the text style; whether the label is visible;
01:46
the layer and orientation of the label; and whether the label is plan readable.
01:52
The Layout tab allows you to adjust the properties for the label components.
01:58
In this case, there is only one component, Surface Elevation.
02:04
If needed, you can add another component by clicking Add,
02:09
and then selecting Text, Line, Block, or Directional Arrow.
02:16
To edit a component property, click in the Value cell, such as the Contents Value,
02:22
and then click More (…).
02:24
In the Text Composer Editor dialog, expand Properties to select the property to insert.
02:31
Here, Surface Elevation is chosen.
02:35
Then, edit the appropriate modifiers.
02:40
In this case, set the Unit to foot, with a Precision of 1.
02:46
Click the Add Properties arrow to place the property in the component display.
02:51
Here, there is already a surface elevation, so you see this existing property.
02:58
Rather than adding a new property, it is easiest to select and adjust the existing property to a Precision of 1.
03:06
Notice that P2 still appears in the component display, but when you click Add Properties,
03:11
it adjusts to P0 to reflect the change in precision.
03:16
Remember that you must click Add Properties for edits to be applied.
03:21
Click OK twice.
03:23
The label style adjusts in the drawing and now excludes the trailing zeros.
03:29
Once you create a label style, you can use or share it across drawings.
03:35
Start a New drawing using a template.
03:38
From the Manage tab, Styles panel, you can choose to Import styles or Reference them in from a specific drive,
03:45
so that you always have the most up-to-date styles available.
03:49
In this case, click Import, select the template to import from, and then click Open.
03:58
In the Import Civil 3D Styles dialog, you can select or deselect the specific styles to be imported,
04:05
with options to Deselect All or Select All.
04:09
Additionally, expand the different styles to view additional details.
04:15
In this case, click Select All, and then click OK.
04:21
In the warning dialog, click OK to confirm the import.
04:26
When it is complete, a dialog displays the results, including the number of styles imported and deleted.
04:35
Click OK.
04:38
As mentioned previously, the alternative is to Reference the styles, so that they update dynamically.
04:45
In the Attach Referenced Template dialog, click Add.
04:50
Then, in the Open Template File dialog, set the Files of type to Drawing Template (*.dwt).
04:59
Select a template, and then click Open.
05:04
In this case, because a metric template is selected,
05:08
a warning alerts you that the drawing units do not match the current drawing. Click Continue.
05:14
In the Attach Referenced Template dialog, you can now expand and select the styles you wish to reference in your drawing.
05:22
In this example, click Select All, and then OK.
05:28
This creates a reference to the selected template file that keeps the chosen styles up to date.
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