Service Box Labels

[Rainman1]

Please see attachment. We always put in the distance/direction for the location of the Sevice Box in relation to a corner of the house. Is there a way to place this label without having to actually measuring the distances (which is what we do now)? We can label structures/PI's/etc. in relation to an alignment but this has to be in relation to a house.

[mathewkol]

I am unable to see the pdf on my bb, but what about creating a feature line with a style that is no-plot and then label that line?

[Rainman1]

The thing is, the service box has to be labeled in relation to the corner of a house. Eg. 4m North-2m West. So you are suggesting create a feature line with the house footprint or the service box label? It is basically the same as labeling a structure in relation to an alignment...but in this case it is labeling a service box in relation to the corner of a house. If you could see my .pdf you would get a better understanding. Thanks.

[mathewkol]

I see what you mean now.  Yes, it can be done with a feature line, it's label and two expressions; one for Delta X and one for Delta Y.  Just make the FL style/layer so it doesn't plot.

abs({General Segment Start X}-{General Segment End X})

abs({General Segment Start Y}-{General Segment End Y})

The yellow is the building, the white is the feature line.

[Rainman1]

Yes, that is what I am looking for. Problem is, I have no idea what this is:

abs({General Segment Start X}-{General Segment End X})

abs({General Segment Start Y}-{General Segment End Y})

I guess your talking about writing code?? Essentially creating a label style?????

[mathewkol]

This tutorial will explain what an expression is and how to apply them.  I have attached a DWG in 2013/2014 format.

Create the expression here.

[Rainman1]

Thanks for your time. I will give it a try. We are running AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012, therefore I am unable to open your drawing.

[Rainman1]

Went through the tutorial and made the edits to the labels as per the instructions....nothing changed. Thanks for your suggestions but I think without the proper training this can be very hard to accomplish. I have never written code or expressions before. I will contact our support for help.

[troma]

Expressions, like most things, are easy when you know how.

The first step is to make the expression. (& make sure to give is a good, recognizable name.) Matt showed you where. I would ask Matt what to Format the result of the expression as. (I think there are two expressions involved; one for easting, one for northing.)
The next step is using it in a label. Here is where the good name comes in handy. When you go into the text editor in your label style and drop down the available data you can add, you will see your expression in the list.

[mathewkol]

Troma, you are correct, there are two expressoins.  They need to be formatted as Double so theat the precision can be controlled through the style.