Question about Alignment labels

[ammobake]

I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to stretch alignment labels in a label group once they're already in the drawing - straight out from the origin point in a straight line.

 

There is a stretch option for the labels but instead of stretching the label straight out in a linear way, it flips the text 90 degrees and adds a leader with an arrow.  But we can't use that since it's not what DOT wants.

 

You could obviously explode the entire group and adjust everything manually.  But trying to avoid that.

 

It seems odd that it would flip the text 90 and add a leader with an arrow.  There must be some setting built in to civil3d that tells the program how to do this.

 

Is this an option that can be tweaked though?  Is this a feature embedded within the label group settings somewhere?

 

We just want to be able to stretch individual labels straight out from the origin point in a straight line without flipping the text -  in cases where individual labels overlap key features and lines on the plan sheet.

 

Thanks!

 

ChriS

[CyberAngel]

Just to eliminate the obvious, have you checked the Dragged State settings for the appropriate label? Have you drilled down to the text component properties? You can eliminate the leader, but I'm not sure what that does to the location of the text.

 

I remember being frustrated many times by getting close to the location of a value I needed to change--and then not finding any tools there to let me change it.

[BIGAL]

I am 80% through the degree in Civ3D styles.  Its only a 4 year degree. 

Edited June 20, 2019 by BIGAL

[tombu]

13 hours ago, BIGAL said:

I am 80% through the degree in Civ3D styles.  It's only a 4 year degree. 

I'm maybe about 50% and less than 4 years from retirement.  Now the 2020 version has switched to a new database type requiring conversion for the files we've been using for years.  My only shot may be an AA degree.

[ammobake]

Thanks guys.  From CyberAngel's response I was able to research and find a solution.  I also shared it with everyone at my office so they are aware.

BUT it appears our template from DOT that contained the standard styles - those label styles were never set up properly to begin with in the standard DOT template we are using.

 

There may be another solution also.  But this works for us.

It comes down to the fact that our DOT label styles never had the "dragged state" settings specified by DOT so they were defaulted.

The default is set up that when you adjust an individual label "node" it' throws in a closed/filled leader and flips the entire label 90 degrees.

 

The people in my office knew this was a common problem (not being able to adjust the labels on the plan sheets) and people were basically exploding DOT's label style for PC and PT geometry points just to get the drawings done. 

 

From there they could adjust the locations manually so they don't overlap important lines or other features on the plan sheets.  This works as long as the information is all correct but it destroys the dynamic ability of the software to give you accurate data if something changes.  So at that point you can't be certain the data is accurate at all.

 

You start by browsing to the affected style in your Toolspace settings tab.

 

TOOLSPACE > Settings tab > Alignment > Label Styles > Station > Geometry Point > Right click label style for PC and PT geometry points > click edit > in composer click “dragged state” tab

 

 You can double click it, or right click and select "edit".

From there I was able to set the dragged state settings as follows...

 

After applying this change, you can then drag the labels around wherever you need and the labels will always display "as composed".

 

There are a couple things with this that may have a better solution.  For example, a coworker sais once you stretch a label you can't flip it.  So, this requires you to flip the label first (to the other side of the alignment) and stretch it after.  There is also a resultant gap between the leader and the label since our DOT style settings require a gap from the origin point.

 

But these are more minor problems that can be worked out later.

 

You can change this in individual drawings if you need.  But since they are drawing specific, it makes sense to do this in whatever template you are using so you don't have to do this step every time you start a new project.

 

After discussing this with coworkers, it sounds like changing the template isn't an option though - Mainly because it's produced by DOT and we are directed to use that and that alone for DOT work.  So we're still hashing out the best way forward in that regard.  So for now we'll have to do this for all of our plan sheets.  But, fortunately, it is pretty easy to fix.

 

Thanks all!

 

-ChriS

CB_X01.bmp

[BIGAL]

You may be able to use importstyles and steal this style out of another drawing. 

[ammobake]

Thanks, Bigal.  That crossed my mind.  I'm just not sure if it was ever set up properly so I'm not sure which drawing we could import from. It sounds like for a while everything was being exploded and readjusted as needed.   We really aren't allowed to alter their standard template in any way so, technically, DOT should fix their template and everything would be fine.  Setting it up in a project drawing only takes a minute though.  So we'll just plan on doing that until DOT fixes the label style in their template.

 

-ChrIS