Datasheet

IT’S ALL ABOUT STYLE 21
Visibility set to True means this component shows on screen. Invisible components
can be invaluable when you’re creating complicated labels, as you’ll see in later
chapters.
Anchor Component and Anchor Point are straightforward, but many users have
issues when first using these options. Every component of the label has an anchor
component, anchor point, and attachment. The Anchor Component is how you tell
Civil 3D where you want to hang the label component. This component is bounded
by a box with nine anchor points, as shown in Figure 1.18. In this illustration, the nine
possible anchor points are represented with Xs and the nine possible attachments
with Os.
Figure 1.18
Anchor and attach-
ment points
Now let’s continue with the exercise and add a reference text component to this label.
5. Click the arrow on the right side of the component drop-down menu and select Reference
Text to open the Select Type dialog as shown in Figure 1.19.
6. Select Surface as the type of reference object, and then click the OK button to exit the dialog.
7. The name of the text component is Reference Text.1 by default. Change the name to Ref-
erence Text: Proposed Surface and click the Apply button in the lower-right of the dialog.
The middle portion of the dialog changes depending on the type of component, but the
concepts are similar. In the case shown here, the middle portion is the Text property. Under
Text, the first option is Contents, which determines the actual content of the text:
8. Click the Contents Value cell, and then click the ellipsis button that appears to the right to
open the Text Component Editor.
9. Click in the preview window of the Text Component Editor. This is a simple text editor,
and you can type anything you’d like in a label. You can also insert object information from
Civil 3D objects, as you’ll do now.
10. Highlight and delete the text in the preview window.
11. At left, select Surface Elevation from the drop-down list in the Properties text box if
necessary.