station label display format

[stephen.cowling]

Hi all,
I finally have a new project to use C3D on from start to finish. I gave up on using existing projects because I couldn't justify the time. The lack of pipes doesn't worry me since I use Advanced Road Design which has its own pipe stuff. Anyhow, background aside:

In my neck of the woods we don't use the station display format with the + at all. Is there a way to change all settings to DD.DDDDD (decimal) rather than station format?

I changed my alignment station labels, geometry labels and station equation labels, then created a profile view, saw more +'s and got annoyed, because I don't want to sift through all the sttings individually. Is it just me?

[srsherrill]

Stephen,

If you right click the drawing name in the settings tab in tool space, next to last line in ambient settings tab is the control for stationing display in the drawing. The decimal format is a choice, so you may be lucky and be able to change everything there. If this does not change what you already have displayed you will have to go fishing for each label type and modify them. Stationing along the bottom of a profile is defined in what is called a "band" display style and can be difficult to find, but most labels can just be placed, right click it and chose "label properties". You can modify or compose any label style from here. Any existing or future labels with this style name will now reflect the changes so if you have some labels you want preserved you must create a copy or make a "child" style for the new label.

Stephen R. Sherrill

[quiggle]

Hi all,
I changed my alignment station labels, geometry labels and station equation labels, then created a profile view, saw more +'s and got annoyed, because I don't want to sift through all the sttings individually. Is it just me?

The only way to know for sure where these styles really reside is to right click them after they are made and choose "edit label". They are all over the tree in tool space and more often than not in the most illogical place conceivable. The good news is once found and changed all labels of the same style are changed along with any you add later. It doesn't appear you can copy the style from one type of label to another though.

[stephen.cowling]

Stephen,

If you right click the drawing name in the settings tab in tool space, next to last line in ambient settings tab is the control for stationing display in the drawing.

Stephen R. Sherrill
Thanks for that, I found it, changed it and locked it. No flash of lightning that I could see, and deleting the profile and bringing it in again didn't help. Changing individual style settings still has all three station formats, so I don't know what locking it in ambient settings does either. *sigh*

I might have to add a signature to my posts with the seven P's, cause they seem essential when working with C3D
Proper prior preparation prevents persistently poor performance.

[quiggle]

Typical of this program - one shouldn't expect the obvious settings to do anything at all.
I have a copy of my "real world" 3D project drawing that I keep around to experiment on when sailing in "uncharted waters", which means just about everything I decide to try at this point. I tried the "ambient settings" in this file and found zero affect as well. Maybe your required option is just one more thing they intend to include but haven't seen fit to add yet. With luck I will get back to my 3D project tomorrow and be able to check out a few more places. In the alignment area, I noticed a few places where a "+" was designated as a symbol in the station labels along with other options, perhaps the answer will be found in one of them.

[quiggle]

Stephen

I have found a way to set the station format you are looking for. First set the ambient settings as described above - I don't know if it makes a difference but it can't hurt. Next in you alignment label style go into the label composer and select the component "major station". Click on "text" "contents" and you will get the component editor. ERASE the contents in the text box, select decimal format and *IMPORTANT* click on the blue arrow to add the new contents. Follow the same procedures for any other places such as "horizontal geometry" that you need to change.

What a pain in the keester just to make the program display what you want ! It looks like this may be the secret to most of the customizing for labels so maybe we will get used to it.

quiggle

[stephen.cowling]

Click on "text" "contents" and you will get the component editor. ERASE the contents in the text box, select decimal format and *IMPORTANT* click on the blue arrow to add the new contents. Follow the same procedures for any other places such as "horizontal geometry" that you need to change.
quiggle
Sorry, I should have explained more originally. I knew how to change the settings, using the same method. Also, if you click on a <@#$%> type entry, you can make modifications and use the blue arrow to apply the changes without having to erase first. It only saves one button press, but I thought I'd mention it.

I'm sorry to have had you beavering away on my behalf, but thanks anyway. I posted my original question when I realised that I would be finding and changing settings for some time to come as I use more of the program. I hoped changing a global station labelling setting might cut out some of this. It doesn't seem practical to go through the entire settings tree (plus the ambient settings now!) all at once, especially when the settings aren't necessarily intuitive.

Hope that makes sense.

[quiggle]

No problems here. I needed to figure this stuff out for myself anyway. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. I wonder if those ambient settings only work at the start of a project rather than change things that have already acquired a style. I work with an old surveyor and his engineer son who tend to play fast and loose with their cad work, leaving the finesse work to me. They are in a hopeless mess and are ready to call this a failed experiment. I am thinking we may be better served learning how to really use MAP.

[stephen.cowling]

I've worked as a survey drafter for 4 years, and am now getting into road design and drafting. So I guess that makes me almost an old surveyor and a young engineer!

Seriously though, I think the only option long term for a situation like that is a solid system of standards. It's difficult to do all at once with a very small cad team, but we have templates kept up to date and have got into the habit of starting ALL new drawings from a template rather than copying from an old drawing. This should work well with c3d as well - it just means that the template has to be at least as good as the last project/drawing.

It stops layer bloat, standards drift (where the same standard is implemented differently over time) and a host of other things.

I've got to say that C3D so far seems to be a bit better for this than land desktop - once you change a setting and get it into a template, it's there for good. I used to find before that there were too many places for standard settings to hide and eventually I gave up trying to make them stick.

Rant almost over - just thinking that the worst way to run AutoCAD products seems to be in a business with too few drafters to justify a cad manager and too many (more than one) to just drift along.

Do you think map would be different? Genuine question - not rhetorical. Of course, civil3d has map inside it, so you could always give it a go...

[quiggle]

I finally broke the surveyor from drafting except for initial layouts and lot stakeouts when I implemented paper space and viewports. He at least recognized their benefits, but never tried to learn how to use them. Now I just have to deal with his son and the other PE messing up the drawings when they "help out" or can't wait. We are down to one other drafter w/ 18 months experience to keep in line as of last Friday. I could probably enforce things as you suggest were it not for the engineers.

From what I have seen on the MAP forum, much of what I have been fighting with in LDDT is coved by MAP quite easily, but again one has to learn how it needs to be set up. I am trying to set up a way to get basic instruction on all three programs that gets beyond these ridiculous tutorials. It will all have to be on my own nickle(s) and time however. I was hoping there would be a bit more help and participation here on the forum, but I guess I was a bit late for that. We are doing our best tossing guesses back and forth, but it seems there are too few people using 3D yet for any kind of knowledge base.

I guess my rant is over now as well

[dmo1205342273]

I've been looking in the drawing settings through the prospector for C3D for my drawing. I have the stationing and it works. It carries out too many decimal places but that's tollerable. What I really want is some stinkin tick marks. Does anybody know where I can find the setting to add tick marks at the major and minor intervals? Or, is there a forum I missed that already talks about this?

[MMccall.83699]

The tick marks are part of the station label. Check out the styles used in the tutorial files. The tick mark is a block added to both the major and minor station label styles. The minor station labels in the tutorial files have only the tick as the minor label.

Which styles get used in set in the alignment properties, on the Labels tab. Here you can spec the manor and minor interval and which style to use. Set these styles as the defaults in the command settings and you'll get them for every new alignment automatically.

The precision can be changed very easily. Edit your current style. Go to the text component of the style, set a new precision and press the blue arrow button to push the setting into the style.

[bruce.adams]

You might want to try here as well for some more knowledge base forums.

http://discussion.autodesk.com/