How to base structure profile label location on top of profile view?

[ltmullen]

I'm working with a structure profile label style and it seems like the only way to anchor the position of the label is based on offsets from the structure itself...does anyone know if there's a way to position the label based on the top of the profile view, so that I could make all of my labels horizontally aligned above the profile view?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

[Jay_B]

Not that I know of, there are  three options for anchor being Top, Middle and bottom of Structure. and then an offset could be applied to shift label upward a set distance but that wouldn't result in a horizontal  labeling along the top of profile view it sounds like your looking for. Hopefully someone has a better answer.

[troma]

Is it possible that a data band could help?

[ltmullen]

Ah, it seems like a band is probably what I want.

I'm actually not sure anymore whether I'll need to have my labels aligned this way but if I do I'll try to create a band label. Thanks.

[ltmullen]

OK...I just played around with band labels a little bit and it will give me what I want in terms of aligning structure labels horizontally above the profile view...but now I have an issue in that I had a line going from the bottom of the profile view through the structure drawn in profile view and ending at the bottom of the structure label above...with a band it doesn't seem possible to draw a line like this automatically.

[Jay_B]

If your line is to go from from bottom of structure to the top of the Profile Viewport, you could create a structure label style using fixed length line component using bottom of pr as placement.

Kind of crude as the length can't vary but making it long enough for all scenarios should work as the viewport will hide the extra length.

[david.zavislan]

You can set structure labels so that they will be located relative to the profile view.  There are two parts to the process.

1. You need a structure label style with an anchor point that is set to Structure Dimension.  This is set on the Layout tab of the Label Style Composer.  The following image shows the Start point anchor point, for a line component, set to the Structure Dimension value.  All other elements in this style anchor to the line.
        
2.  When adding labels, edit the command settings, and set the Dimension Anchor Option for Structures to Graph view top.
   
   

This will place the labels at the top of the profile view.

[ltmullen]

David: first off, thanks, this was very informative...however, I still have an issue.

After going through your post I figured out that the dimension anchor option in the style I'm using (which was created by someone else) was already set to be "Graph view bottom" and this was how the line was being anchored to the bottom of the graph.

I would like to keep the fact that the line starts at the bottom of the graph and ends at the tag block I have in addition to having all of the tags aligned horizontally, but it seems like I can only define one anchor point in the Edit Command Settings menu...so am I stuck with just placing the tag using a vertical offset from the bottom and then always making sure my profile views are the same height if I want things to display correctly/making a new style for each height of profile view I use?

[david.zavislan]

Without a picture, I am not really sure what exactly you are trying to do.  However, I won't let that stop me from providing an answer.

Since you can only specify a single dimension anchor option for each label, you may be able to achieve what you want by creating the label in two parts, with two different label styles.  One could be just the line, that would be anchored to the graph view bottom, and the other, with the text, would be anchored to the graph view top. 

The opposite ends of the lines could then be anchored to the structure dimension.  In the command settings, set the structure label placement to "At Middle of Structure" to get the two lines to a common endpoint.

You can also use the 'line only' style to create lines from the structure to a corresponding band label.

[ltmullen]

OK, thanks a lot for your help. Having two labels and two styles isn't a super-elegant solution, but I guess that's the best I will get to for now.