Datasheet

CHAPTER 1 GettinG Dirty: the Basics of civil 3D

inserted on the layer that is set here. This means a change to the speciﬁed layer can control or

change the appearance of the components if you like.

Orientation Reference sets an object to act as the up direction in terms of readability. Civil

3D understands viewpoint rotation and offers the option to rotate or ﬂip labels to keep them

plan-readable. Most users set this to View to maintain the most plan-readable labels with the

smallest amount of editing later.

Forced Insertion makes more sense in other objects and will be explored further. This feature

essentially allows you to dictate the insertion point of a label on the basis of the object being

labeled.

Plan Readable text maintains the up direction in spite of view rotation. This tends to be the

“Ooooh, nice” feature that makes users smile. Rotating 100 labels is a tedious, thankless task,

and this option handles it with one click.

Readability Bias is the angle at which readability kicks in. This angle is measured from the

0 degree of the x-axis that is common to AutoCAD angle measurements. When a piece of text

goes past the readable bias angle, the text spins to maintain vertical orientation, as shown in

Figure 1.16. Note how the label on the far left has rotated to accommodate the rotation past

110 degrees, the default bias angle. If you set the readability bias to 90.01, which is a typical

setting, the text ﬂips at a near-vertical angle.

Flip Anchors with Text determines how the text ﬂips. Most users ﬁnd that setting this to

False gives the best results, but sometimes ﬂipping an anchor point positions text as needed.

You’ll learn more about anchor points on the Layout tab.

4. Switch to the Layout tab. Again, a lot is going on here, so you’ll work through the options

and then make changes. As shown in Figure 1.17, each component of the label has a host

of options. On the right is a preview of the label you’re creating or editing. You can pan or

zoom this view as needed to give you a better feel for the label style’s appearance as you

make changes.

Figure 1.16

Examples of plan-

readable text

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