Understanding Civil point Symbols and Labels

About Civil point Symbols and Labels

You can assign a unique label and symbol style to each Civil point in a drawing. The point label and symbol styles are specified in the basic blocks, in the Symbol Block (1) and Label Block (2).
Figure 1. Figure 1: Default Point Symbol and Label Style
The predefined label style specified by the Label block, shown on the picture below, includes the following attributes:
  • Point number, which is defined in the Label block by Text: <Number>.
  • Elevation, defined by Text: <Elevation>.
  • Full Description, defined by Text: <FullDescription>.
Figure 2. Figure 2: Point label style with associated attributes specified by text in the Label Block

You can define the attributes in the Label Block either by Texts (3) or by the Attribute Definitions (4) (see Figure 3). In the latter case, the desired attribute name needs to be written with the appropriate code in the <Value> field. In the figure below, using the Attribute Definition, the Full Description attribute is defined by entering the <FullDescription> (5) code in the Attribute Definition properties.

Figure 3. Figure 3: Attributes in the Point Label Block are defined by Texts and by ATTDEF

The advantage of the approach described above is that you can create your own libraries in a well-known and simple way using CAD blocks. For each point or point group, you can select the appropriate label or symbol style from the Symbol block (1) & Label block (2) drop-down list (see Figure 1). You can set the Civil point so that it does not contain any labels or symbols. You can do this by selecting the <None> option from the drop-down list for the Symbol or Label block.

Note: If <None> is selected for point Symbol block, the symbol style is set with the PDMODE variable.

Symbols and Labels settings

You can specify various settings for the selected Symbol and Label blocks.
Figure 4. Figure 4: Symbols and Labels settings
Symbols
  • In the Symbol block field, there is a list of all point symbols (markers) that are defined by the blocks.
  • The Symbol rotation parameter specifies the point symbol rotation angle.
  • The Symbol size type parameter determines how the point symbol is scaled. The following methods are available:
    • Drawing units: the size of the point symbol is determined by the parameter Symbol size.
    • Fixed scale: the actual dimensions of the Symbol block multiplied by the value of the Symbol size are taken.
    • Absolute units: the point symbol size is specified as the product of the Symbol Size parameter and the Custom Scale parameter on the Viewport.
    • Relative to screen: the size of the symbol is determined as a user-specified percentage of the drawing screen size.
Labels
  • In the Label block field, there is a list of all point labels, that are defined by the blocks.
  • The Label rotation parameter is used to specify the rotation angle of the Label block.
  • The Label readability angle parameter represents an angle, above which the point label text is rotated to a readable angle. By default, this angle is set to 90 degrees. When the Label rotation angle of the text is greater than 90 degrees, the text is rotated 180 degrees to remain readable on the plan. The Label readability angle parameter becomes active when the Label Readability Flip parameter is turned On.
    Figure 5. Figure 5: Influence of Label readability angle parameter on point Label rotation
  • The Label orientation reference parameter controls the orientation of the point labels on user-defined coordinate systems (UCS) or twisted view. When you select View from the drop-down, the point labels in the Layout view are aligned horizontally, even if rotated view is set. With the Object option, the labels rotate accordingly when the view changes.