Trying to create a button on the tool palette

[dmackey.143011]

to assign a point an existing point label style. I'm dealing with a topo with 1000+ shots that will have about 8 different styles; is there a command line that I could use to utilize a button on the tool palette to change the label style of multiple points?

Thanks.

David

[tntdraftsol]

Could you put these points into point groups?

[dmackey.143011]

Could you put these points into point groups?

The thing with our topos is that we flag out the point with elev and desc, so I have 8 different styles to use depending on how I need to show the point (combinations of elev over desc, elev & desc lined up, elev to the .1' and elev to the .01'). I may change the style of a point three different times before I'm done as I'm moving the labels around so that their legible, so I'd have at least that many ( point groups, and that would not save me much time.

Right now, I'm selecting a few points and changing the style in the properties manager. Then I repeat the process until I have my final product. In LDD, a co-worker had a VBA routine written that extracted the elev and desc and created a Mtext entity and a line and leader, but it is unusable in C3D.

I basically need a 'button' that has a style assigned to it so that I can hit the icon, select my points and watch in wonder as they magically change to that style and then appear how I'd like them to look. At least it sounds easy.

Would it be possible to have a button that assigns points to a particular point group?

[tntdraftsol]

The thing with our topos is that we flag out the point with elev and desc, so I have 8 different styles to use depending on how I need to show the point (combinations of elev over desc, elev & desc lined up, elev to the .1' and elev to the .01'). I may change the style of a point three different times before I'm done as I'm moving the labels around so that their legible, so I'd have at least that many ( point groups, and that would not save me much time.

I understand what you are saying and you are correct there would be some considerable time up front to create each point label style to include all the permutations you would need, but a silver lining would be that if you put those styles into a template drawing you would have them for next time.

Right now, I'm selecting a few points and changing the style in the properties manager. Then I repeat the process until I have my final product.

Even if you had all your points in different point groups that had specific point styles and point label styles you can still overide individual points with whatever point or point label style you want.

I basically need a 'button' that has a style assigned to it so that I can hit the icon, select my points and watch in wonder as they magically change to that style and then appear how I'd like them to look. At least it sounds easy.

Would it be possible to have a button that assigns points to a particular point group?

Alas I do not think there is a button that can do that. The way points are setup, and you may already know this, is that any point that is inserted into a drawing in Civil 3D goes into the _All Points point group. From there you create your point groups by filtering them from the _All Points point group into the point groups you created; and based on the point group hiearchy you have at that time dictates how those points show up. So for instance I have an iron pin point that was shot with the description of Iron Pin and when it is inserted into a drawing it goes into the _All Points point group automatically. I then create an Iron Pin Point group and include in that group points only having the iron pin description. i also make sure that iron pin point group is above the _All Points point group so i see my iron pin label style and not the label style for _All Points. To sum up the iron pin point is in both point groups, but since the iron pin point group is higher than the _All points the iron pin group takes priority. I hope that made sense. Basically in my opinion based on what you have given so far, even though creating those point label styles and point groups would be time consuming, I would think selecting a group of points a few at a time and changing the style would be more time consuming.

In LDD, a co-worker had a VBA routine written that extracted the elev and desc and created a Mtext entity and a line and leader, but it is unusable in C3D

As far as that goes, I don't have enough coding knowledge to tell you whether or not that would still be possible, maybe some of the other members might weigh in, or you could post a thread in the programming forum. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[Opie]

I would also agree to creating specific point groups to control point marker and point label styles.

Could a tool be created to allow you to pick points to place in specific point groups? Probably. It is a bit cumbersome through Visual LISP, but is possible. You would be better off moving toward .NET in customizing for Civil 3D. Autodesk has limited the power of AutoLISP and Visual LISP for customization by limiting access to the Civil 3D object data.