Civil 3D: May the Forced Label Be with You

The Issue: 

Civil 3D labels have historically been dependent on the direction of the base object to orient themselves.  Looking in at the sample General Line Label style the Bering is set to be Anchored to the Middle of the line, and the Attachment point to Bottom Center.

The known classic behavior shown below:

• Left linework: drawn counterclockwise.  Bearings placed on the inside, that is the bottom but really referencing what would be “top” or “left” side.
• Right linework: drawing clockwise.  Bearings placed on the outside, per the direction still would be considered “top” or “left” side.

This would require multiple styles to force left (top) and right (below) or manually flip labels to fit our needs.

THE FIX: 

To avoid creating multiple styles or manually flipping created labels a NEW feature was added a few releases ago:  From the Label Style Composer > General tab > Behavior section > Forced Insertion option.

Selecting the “Top” option (as shown above) will Force bearing to the top or outside as shown in the figure below, regardless of the direction of the drawing objects.

This idea can be applied to many other Civil 3D label style configurations like Parcels, Pipes and Alignments.

About the Author

Civil Applications Expert<br><br>As an Applications Expert, Leo is responsible for supporting, training and implementation of software for survey and civil engineering professionals. He has more than 17 years of experience helping large and small, public and private clients in the eastern United States.

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