Polyline Contour Labelling

[mark]

For a long while we have used an old lisp to label our polyline contours, but i realise there is a better way through using the inbuilt line label ability. I want to switch over as we have alot of trouble with certain files and the labels dont go on aligned to the contours like they normally do. My issue is that i cnt seem to get C3D's line labels to go onto a SPLINED polyline. If i decurve the contour it works fine, but i need the contours splined.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Alex 

[Jay_B]

Civil 3d Line & Curve Labels don't work on Splines.

You don't mention why you need them to be Splines?

If the Splines are converted to polylines then the Line & Curve Labels will work.

Visually the Polylines will look the same as the Splines and appear curved with hardly any noticeable difference.

They can easily be converted all at once using the PEDIT command > Multiple > Select all Splines to convert > press return 4 times to exit command.

All splines will now be Polylines.

[Neilw_05]

To add to Jay's suggestion, now that C3D accepts splines as contour data, you could add the splines to a surface and then label the surface contours. I would always prefer to label surface contours vs. polylines since the labels can be moved, resized or deleted without leaving gaps in the lines.

[mark]

Sorry, we use polylines that have been 'splined' through the pedit command so they are smooth. The line labels wont work on these polylines until i decurve them trhough the pedit command. 

I will look into splines as I didnt know C3D now accepts them for surfaces. How do you assign elevations to the splines as a whole rather than just each control point?

I know you can label contours via building a surface but as I work on golf courses the sizes are too big and slow performance, and its extra work as we dont always build surfaces for our needs. 

[Jay_B]

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mark wrote:I will look into splines as Ididnt knowC3D now accepts them for surfaces. How do you assign elevations to the splines as a whole rather than just each control point?

I know you can label contours via building a surface but as I work on golf courses the sizes are too big and slow performance, and its extra work as we dont always build surfaces for our needs. 

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IMO building a surface as Neil mentions, is the only way to go and there are many different workflows which can be used.

Using the Paste Surface command many surfaces can be pasted together (while remaining dynamic to each other) so when the design changes the surface and contours update dynamically. This way multiple smaller surfaces can be created in separate drawings and pasted together in a master surface file etc.

Manually drawn Splines and Polylines for an entire golf course site must be a very tedious process, especially when the design changes!

I encourage you to look into utilizing the power Civil 3d as it will save you countless hours in the long run for this type of work.

To answer your question:

"How do you assign elevations to the splines as a whole rather than just each control point?"

Enter -CHange at command line (note the dash) > Select Objects > Properties > Elevation > enter desired elevation value > press Enter twice.

[mark]

Thanks for the advice but we only use surfaces really for some rough earthworks calcs after all the design has been done. The design starts as hand drawn contours which are digitised and then finished in civil. Contours generated from surfaces are messy and jagged compared to our style of smoothed polylines etc. design changes are only ever made by hand and then redigitised etc. 

Even that procedure to change an elevation is involved comapred to selecting the polyline and typing in the elevation to the properties box. 

Ive attached an example of the type of line work we generate.

Thanks.

[Jay_B]

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mark wrote:

Even that procedure to change an elevation is involved comapred to selecting the polyline and typing in the elevation to the properties box. 

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Agreed, the only reason I suggested the "old school" change command is I thought you were asking about changing the global elevation of an individual SPLINE entity.

I'm not aware of any way within Properties Palette to change every vertices of a spline at once to a constant elevation.

I very rarely work with splines as they present too many limitations for our type of work.

One command you might find useful for offsetting polylines at a distance and elevation difference at the same time is the "Stepped Offset" or command line entry = OFFSETFEATURE. This command will work with 2d polylines, 3D polylines and Feature lines.