This is from a post asking about point styles, but it kind of shows the
thought process I'm using.
"Are you working with display by style, or display bylayer? All of this is
my
opinion and experience, but I've been playing with C3D for almost 2 years
now, so it might be worth something.There's a couple of different mindsets
on the subject:
1. Everything is controlled by the style. That means color, linetype, etc.
All entities in the object are put on the parent's layer to make simple
on/off available via layer, but no fine level control is there. This
approach works well for small firms where XREF between C3D drawings will be
at an absolute minimum, for reasons I'll cover in a second. The advantage is
that you can set up a myriad of styles, and they will be consistent across
your firm. Background Topo will look like Background Topo in every plan, in
every project. Proposed Points will look the same every time. GREAT for
controlling standards.
The main problem with using Styles to lock the display of everything occurs
when you use the information in Xrefs. There is no way currently to change
the style of a C3D object when it's been Xrefed. That means that if you want
the contours in one drawing and the triangles in another, you have to either
have two copies of the surface (not a good idea!) or you have to insert the
surface in every drawing, bypassing the whole XREF procedure. This is ripe
with possibilities for data being out of sync. Some project management
exists in C3D, but I don't feel it's strong enough.
2. Everything is controlled by layers, with the parent being on some Object
layer, and all components being on their own layers internally, much like a
nested blocks. This can lead to some SERIOUS headaches in terms of layer
management, but it avoids the Xref display issues as above. In this
scenario, you still set up your styles for various display scenarios, but by
using the distinct layers and color bylayer, you can control the display in
other drawings without having to change styles. In my view, this is
currently the only workable solution."
So far, I'm more inclined to have a Parent style based on WHAT is being
labeled, and let the children handle HOW it's being labeled. i.e. I have a
ROW style for Parcel Lines. I then have a ROW-B-D and a ROW-B over D and a
ROW-D Only style. These three are children to that a change at the top rolls
down.
Hope this helps somewhat! I'm doing a full 90 minute lab on Styles at AU
this year, and I'm sure I'll get with the Dave and Dan show about maybe
doing it online after the fact.
--
James Wedding, P.E.
IT Manager
Jones & Boyd, Inc.
Dallas, TX
XP/2 on P4-3.4/1G
LDT2005+C3D
http://au.autodesk.com
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