Datasheet
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CHAPTER 1 GETTING DIRTY: THE BASICS OF CIVIL 3D
Figure 1.19
Setting label precision
Let’s look at the rest of the options, even though we won’t be making any changes:
Text Height determines the plotted height of the label. Remember, Civil 3D knows you’re going
to print and will attempt to give you inches or millimeters.
Rotation Angle, X Offset, and Y Offset give you the ability to refine the placement of this com-
ponent by rotating or displacing the text in an X or Y direction.
Attachment determines which of the nine points on the label components bounding box will be
attached to the anchor point. See Figure 1.19 for an illustration.
Color and Lineweight allow you to hard-code a color if desired. We suggest you leave these
values set to ByLayer unless you have a good reason to change them.
The final piece of the component puzzle is a Border option. These options are as follows:
Visibility is an obvious one, turning the border on and off for this component. One thing to
remember is that component borders shrink to the individual component, so if you are using
multiple components in a label, they all have their own borders.
Type allows you to select a rectangle, a rounded rectangle (slot), or a circle border.
Background Mask allows the user to determine whether linework and text behind this compo-
nent is masked. This can be handy for construction notes in place of the usual wipeout tools.
Gap determines the offset from the component bounding box to the outer points on the border.
Setting this to
1
/
4
or
1
/
2
the text size usually creates a visually pleasing border.
Linetype and Lineweight allow the usual control of the border lines.
How Many Dialogs Is That?
You can now see why many Civil 3D instructors refer to label creation as heading down the rabbit hole.
We’re a couple of dialogs deep in just making the simplest of label styles, with one static text compo-
nent. It’s easy to get confused, but don’t worry—it becomes second nature! The Text Component Editor
is another common dialog that appears in every label style creation exercise.
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