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CHAPTER 1 GettinG Dirty: the Basics of civil 3D
The purpose of this exercise wasn’t to build a Surface Spot Elevation label style; it was to
familiarize you with the common elements of creating a label: the Label Style Composer and the
Text Component Editor. However, you can try out the new label to check your work!
Object Styles
Beyond the styles used to label objects, Civil 3D also depends on styles to control the display of
the native objects, including points, surface, alignments, and so on. Just as in label styles, certain
components of the object styles are common to almost all objects, so let’s create a new alignment
style to introduce these common elements:
1. Expand the Alignment branch on the Settings tab, and then right-click the Alignment
Styles folder. Select New, as shown in Figure 1.23.
2. Type a new name for your style on the Information tab, and enter a description if desired.
3. Switch to the Display tab. The other two tabs are unique for alignment objects, but the
Display tab is part of every Civil 3D object style.
4. Turn off the Arrow component by clicking the lightbulb in the column next to it.
5. Near the top of the dialog, change the View Direction setting in the drop-down menu to
Model, and notice the change.
6. Click OK to dismiss the dialog. Your new alignment style appears under the Alignment
Styles branch in the Settings tab.
Objects can have distinctly different appearances when viewed in a plan view versus a 3D
view. For example, surfaces are often represented by contours in plan view, but by triangular
faces or a grid in 3D.
Figure 1.23
Creating a new
alignment style via
Prospector
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