Where do you annotate your drawings in C3D?

[Iceberg71]

1. I am looking for some general feedback on where the majority of people annotate there drawings. I was in a CAD meeting discussing our new CAD standards that we will be rolling out on Jan 1, 2014. A major improvement I recommended to the plans was to place our annotations in our XREF drawings instead of placing them in model space of our sheet sets. (Our sheet sets are our drawings that have our titlblocks that we plot from ). I was vehemently opposed on this topic to the point when the meeting was over I was walking out of the meeting shaking like I had committed some kind of sin.So, I am asking where do the majority of CAD users like toadd annotations to there drawings? PaperSpace, model space, xref’s, etc. and why they do it that way?
   
   I should also state that we are transitioning from 2012 software to Civil3d 2014 software too.
   
   Thank you for any and all feedback. It is appreciated. 

[neilyj666]

In modelspace in the sheet set version of the drawings as I find it gives the most flexibility e.g. labelling contours through an XREF, I can choose where to locate the labels so they don't interfere with anything else. I very rarely label in paperspace apart from, say, a one off drawing or something.

If the labels are in the XREF'd drawings then inevitably there will be overlapping and/or illegible text, and the XREF needs to be opened, edited and resaved (I wouldn't touch editing Xref in place as it can be a bit problematic) to sort out the problem

Don't know (or care) if it's bad CAD practice but it works for me and I don't get any complaints about my deliverables....

[Jeff_M]

I'm with Neil. Although we often place generic notes in paperspace in the production drawings, but any plan specific annotation is placed in modelspace of the production dwg. The exception to this is the existing conditions (topo) drawing which holds all of the existing annotation.

[DaveM]

Model space of the sheet set, except Leadered text, I have yet to find a way to have it rotate correctly in model space.

[sdl051]

I agree with neilyj above. Model space is where I place it. Except for the one off paper space should be restricted and I restrict my usage of ncopy of any xref text that I need to minipulate.

The goal is to only update data entered once and have all sheets and view ports update easliy. With the progress of C3D Live update these tools will become more automated.

Just stress model space and work out a work flow, layer/color system that allows the dead text to stand out. So the updates are not missed in paper or ncopied text.

Setup a Text style(s) with your prefered naming convention and try to use basic text like "Arial". Arial has many benefits because of it's wide use I can not remember all of them. Using the traditional LEROY method set the Paper Text Height to 0.08 . Now your annotative size will update with a proper LEROY size per Viewport scale. Esri Leroy reference

For the Mleader users if you need to rotate the text try to use the properties tool bar while the active scale or viewport is active.

For new annotative user reference - http://youtu.be/GJ4M38g1K7E

[Iceberg71]

I have always placed text in my xref but it seems like acroos mulitple forums that everyone including using C3D are labeling everything in there sheet drawing (or plotting drawings with there titleblocks).

Guess its time to update my 15 years of thinking. 

[Lisa_Pohlmeyer]

I have to concur with the others, model space of the production drawings. Since the majority of labels are handeled through C3D, are annotative in nature, dynamic, etc. the hassle of any annotation interfering with something else is eliminated. The ability to label an xref also helps with labeling contours of existing surfaces in our roadway P&P sheets. Before C3D, I used to label xrefs, and moving text to suit the sheet was always a PITA. I'd never to back to that method.

[Joe-Bouza]

set your UCS to view prior to leader placement

[Iceberg71]

How does this work with multiple layout tabs? One drawing has you grading, utility, landscaping and soil erosion text in one plan all seperated by layout tabs. Seems like a lot of text to have to manipulated in one shot.

[Joe-Bouza]

c3d anno in ms and miscanno in PS. I go with the SSM paradigm and utilize enumerated views and view callouts

[mathewkol]

I'm with everyone else.  Text in the sheet drawing and not the XREF.  Could be Model Space or Paper space.  I won't get into that argument.  Let's save that for another thread (not like there haven't already been a thousand of them).

[Joe-Bouza]

If you want to do your whole project in one file (not recommended) you would want layer states for each. This would require viewport layer control and annotation layers per discipline (for lack of a better word).

I would suggest at a minimum use xrefs and one file per discipline.