Community
Civil 3D Forum
Welcome to Autodesk’s Civil 3D Forums. Share your knowledge, ask questions, and explore popular AutoCAD Civil 3D topics.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

How do I set a Plot Style within a text style definition?

24 REPLIES 24
Reply
Message 1 of 25
civ_engineer
1009 Views, 24 Replies

How do I set a Plot Style within a text style definition?

Obviously, I can set the lineweight to bylayer, but what if I want a different lineweight than the layer it's on has?

Is the setting hidden in there somewhere?  It seems a little odd, not to be there if Plot by lineweight is the way things are "suppose" to be going.

24 REPLIES 24
Message 2 of 25
civ_engineer
in reply to: civ_engineer

Right after I posted this I found that I can set it individually with the properties dialog... but it sure would be nice if the style could take care of it.

Message 3 of 25

The style will do this...

 

6-27-2011 3-12-14 PM.png



Todd Rogers
BIM Manager
Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn

Message 4 of 25

Yes, for the Linework.. but what about the text?  ..like my station labels

Message 5 of 25

That's why it's called LINEWEIGHT, it refers to lines, not text.



Todd Rogers
BIM Manager
Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn

Message 6 of 25

Funny... but no...

when I change the lineweight of the text it shows visually correct on the screen.. but since I'm plotting ByStyle it uses what the layer is set on

Message 7 of 25
Sinc
in reply to: civ_engineer

There have been long-standing bugs in C3D on this issue, but usually it affects the leaders in the dragged state, and not the text itself.

 

But we also switched some time back to using TTF fonts, because they look so much better in final prints than SHP fonts.  And TTF fonts are not affected by lineweight settings.

Sinc
Message 8 of 25
civ_engineer
in reply to: civ_engineer

Here's a snapshot of what I'm talking about.  There is a setting for color and lineweight
for my station label, but this has no effect when printing by Plot Style.

text style.JPG

Message 9 of 25
Sinc
in reply to: civ_engineer

It looks like you have some embedded text formatting in your label contents, although that may not be responsible for the issue you're trying to solve.  Unless, of course, you're using CTB files...  It looks like your embedded text formatting is changing the color of the text, and that can have an impact if you're using CTB.

 

What are you using for your Text Style in your label?  Is it something that points to an SHX font, or a TTF font?

Sinc
Message 10 of 25
civ_engineer
in reply to: Sinc

I'm using a STB 

The text style points to a .shx font.  I'm not sure what that has to do with it though... The option to set a "Plot Style" isn't even there.

If it's Mtext, I can select it and change it in properties... I don't even have that option with alignment stations.  However,

it seems like it should be a style setting and I just don't see it there.

Message 11 of 25
Sinc
in reply to: civ_engineer

Can you by chance post a sample DWG, along with your STB file?  Otherwise, we're into that game of "20 Questions"...

Sinc
Message 12 of 25
civ_engineer
in reply to: Sinc

 
Message 13 of 25
civ_engineer
in reply to: civ_engineer

Hey Sinc,

Did you have any luck?

Message 14 of 25
Sinc
in reply to: civ_engineer

Sorry, I have a lot going on, and don't get much chance to sort through stuff like in the forums anymore.  But I took a look at your setup...

 

I must say, it confused me a bit, and I'm not entirely sure what exactly you're looking for.  My initial thought is you need to go into your "Major Station Parallel with Tick - [Proposed TDOT]" Major Station Label Style and change the lineweight to "ByLayer".

 

But even more important, it appears you aren't using Object Layers.  We find we get best results all-around by making sure that NONE of our Object Layers are set to Layer 0.  For some elements (like Alignments and Surfaces), we also use a Suffix or Prefix, so that various items end up on their own layers.  Leaving all your Object Layer Settings set to Layer 0 causes all sorts of problems, and may help explain why I think you're starting to create unnecessarily-complicated Styles.

Sinc
Message 15 of 25
civ_engineer
in reply to: Sinc

What I was trying to do was to set the Station text (i.e. 5+00), to plot style "10", which is lineweight 0.031... However, the layer the station text is on is lineweight 0.008, plot style "2", so I wanted to set the style for the station to plot style "10" rather than Bylayer.

Message 16 of 25
Sinc
in reply to: civ_engineer

First, if you're going to use STB files, I recommend you don't use styles like Plot Style "10" to define lineweights.  There are isolated instances where you may want to control lineweight ByStyle when using STB, but overall, I find it works MUCH better to use the Layer Lineweight, rather than the Plot Style Lineweight.  It give you far more flexibility, and you can typically use the same STB file for every drawing, yet people without your STB file can usually get decent plots.  It's a "best-possible in all worlds" sort of scenario.

 

After that, I think your other problem is related to Object Layers.  In Drawing Settings -> Object Layers tab, you can set the "default" layer of a whole bunch of C3D entities.  I recommend that almost all of these go on separate layers, and ALL of them should be set to anything but "Layer 0".  By contrast, you have ALL your Object Layer settings on "Layer 0", which I view as a VERY BAD THING.

 

You may be discovering the problem where, because of the way you have your Object Layers setup, you're getting things that take on the Plot Style you assign to "Layer 0", because you failed to set any Object Layers.  This is related to an even-deeper bug in C3D's Styles, which can mostly be seen in the way Leaders take on the wrong Plot Style when a C3D Label is dragged into the dragged state, but I think if I say anything more about that, I'll just confuse the rest of this post...  So I'll save those details for later.

Sinc
Message 17 of 25
civ_engineer
in reply to: Sinc

I've tried to set my layer lineweight to match the same weight as is in my plot style, but my DOT uses wierd weights so I used what was closest.

Basically, I'm attempting to recreate in civil 3d what my DOT setup in Microstation.  Also, the CAD standards they use have a limited number of layers, so I'm attempting to stick to that as much as I can... I have taken some liberties when necessary though.  Most of the text related to the centerline is Bylayer (which is 0.008,plotstyle 2)... except for for the stations... which need to be set to plot style 10 which I created to be 0.031, on the same layer).

So, this is one of those "isolated instances".

 

I'll look into the Object layer thing... so far I haven't seen the issues you're talking about though.

If you set the Objects to default to a specific layer, how do you distinguish between existing and proposed? It sounds like I'd have to either have two template drawings (existing/proposed) or bounce into the settings everytime I needed to switch between existing and proposed. Correct?

Message 18 of 25
Sinc
in reply to: civ_engineer

You're asking some difficult questions, especially difficult to answer in forums.

 

To some extent, I would recommend forgetting about trying to match Microstation standards EXACTLY.  If you're going to be using C3D, then you're going to be using C3D.  They aren't entirely compatible, despite the hype you may hear.  And if you try to force C3D to match Microstation too closely, then you'll end up spinning your wheels in C3D, and making the program even more-difficult to learn and use than it already is.  And if you're doing this for TDOT, then that means you'll be forcing all these complications on EVERYONE who does work for TDOT.

 

In some other instances, you have some valid complaints against C3D.  C3D is still bad at automated support for Existing vs. Proposed.  However, if you're using Object Layers and appropriate Styles, it's very easy to flip things between existing and proposed (except, of course, when phasing is involved, and you want one part of an Alignment to show up as Existing, while the rest is Proposed, and you want this to reflect all phases...  This gets back into my "Project Rant", though...).

 

A key reason to use Object Layers is it gives you the ability to use layer overrides in XREFs and VPFreeze in general to really control visibility.  If you leave all your Object Layers on Layer 0, you lose both abilities, and create additional complications that impact you in all kinds of ways.

Sinc
Message 19 of 25
civ_engineer
in reply to: Sinc

So basically you're saying I can't make my station text another lineweight without putting it on a layer using that weight.... lol.. bummer

 

Oh, and that I need to start using object layers.

Message 20 of 25
Sinc
in reply to: civ_engineer

Not necessarily, but that may be the case if you're trying to use an STB Plot Style to control the lineweight (there are random bugs in C3D that you encounter from time-to-time, when using STB Plot Styles).  But as a general rule, I find using the Layer controls to control lineweight works much better than using Plot Styles, because then you can use Plot Styles to do other things, giving you FAR more flexibility in what you can do.

Sinc

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Post to forums  

Rail Community


Autodesk Design & Make Report