Should surface labels be on the same file as the surface?

[mcanta]

In the past we've placed "unintelligent" labels (spot elevations, grades, etc) on plan sheets that xref the master and topo files.  This tends to reduce the master file sizes.

We've pretty much followed the same practice using Civil 3d's "intelligent" labels.  The master file with the surface is still an xref.  The problem with this is that the labels stay with the plan sheet file and cannot be shown or exported to another sheet (or is there a way?).

My other thought is to keep all the labels (spot elevations, slopes, dimensions, etc.) in the same master file as the surface.  My fear with this that it will create one huge slow to open master file.  This would be really huge in the case of a subdivision project. 

[wetsnow13]

I may not understand you completely here, but if you have a huge surface you probably want a separate file, with all the existing labels, and have it DREF'd to your existing conditions linework or your design drawing.

[Grimes_MG]

The intellegent Surface Labels must have the surface data to interact with otherwise you'll just get "???". Surface Labels are like Alignment Labels. You could always Data Shortcut your surface information into your Master file and then label, it would be similar to the unintellegent label scheme you discribed.

Other than that, I don't see how you can have a surface in one drawing, XRef'ed (not Data Shorcutted) into your Master drawing and use C3D Surface Labels. You'll note that once you place your Surface Label and Slope Label, you can't change the surface they are labeling either.

[mathewkol]

Grimes and OP, yes you can xref a surface and label it. Xref anything and it can be labelled. No dref required if all you want to do is label.

[neilyj666]

absolutely right, I label all my projects via xref for final presentation drawings.

This avoids scale problems where the xref and final drawing are at different scales.

[tcorey]

Have you tried blocking the labels from the plan sheet to another drawing and then insert that elsewhere? As long as the same surface is in the other drawing, the labels should hold their values. I would test it for you but I'm on a tablet right now. No Civil 3D on iPad....yet.

Reply to this post and I can test this on Monday.

[mcanta]

Thanks for the replies.  I guess this was more of a question of what should be best practice.  From the answers, it seems that depending on the projects, people do it differently.

tcorey, I tried wblock and clipboard copy and paste commands on the labels (with and without it's associated xref) without success.

So I guess there is just no way to copy/export labels? 

[jmayo-EE]

IMO Best Practice would be to minimize the labels you have.

One of the best ways to do this with surface contour labels is to avoid labeling with the Increment command and instead label with the Multiple command.

This will reduce hundreds or thousands of Contour Label Lines.

[jmayo-EE]

I personally would try to avoid having an xref with a surface in it. I would Dref instead of xref.

[mcanta]

I'll keep this in mind for contour labels.

Although, we don't usually have many contour labels.

Most are various custom spot elevation and slope labels.

[jmayo-EE]

The Best Practice Manual will tell you to dref and label the surface in the sheet files.

[mcanta]

I just figured out how to use data shortcuts, and I agree that this has advantages over xrefing.  Thanks.  I will recommend this at my workplace.

I guess this means that Civil 3d Best Practices is to recreate labels if they ever have to be moved or shown on another sheet. 

[tcorey]

If you are creating plans types that don't use Plan Production Tools but you use Sheet Set Manager to drag model views into sheets, you will automatically get xreferenced surface models. You can label those in the sheet drawings if you like. 

If you must copy labels from drawing to drawing: Wblock will export the labels and the surface to another drawing that can be xref'd or inserted into a third drawing -- if the surface is native or data referenced into the drawing you export from.

If you add labels to an xref'd surface and want to copy those out, you will need to explode them first. Now you're working with blocks instead of labels. There are all sorts of reasons not to do this. I am providing this information for if you really insist on copying the labels drawing to drawing.

Tim