topic Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths in Civil 3D Forum

Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

autoMick — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 05:38:46 GMT

It's beaten me!

The pic below is a simplified version - the real version is more complex. I want to be able to annotate polylines with overall lengths as well as sub-lengths between key points. I've set up a label style that uses general overall length, which works fine for the full length (63.4m) of the polyline. If I want to get sub-length of the 4 right hand segements, then I was hoping to use the 'between two points' option, however this gives a straight line length (38.6m), not cumulative length of 4 segments between the two points (which is 39.6m).

I don't want to start dividing up multiple duplicates polylines as the lines, and the sections of interest may change. I also don't want to label every segement as I've done here.

Is there a way to label overall length as well as the cumulative segment length between two nodes?

Thanks

- Mick

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

troma — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 17:06:16 GMT

Got me beat.

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 20:11:18 GMT

Looks like you will need a custom routine for something like this. I came across a .lsp that measures the length along a polyline between two points (http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=32677.0). You could probably use this as a starting point and modify it to generate a label for your use. I don't know about making it dynamic though.

Depending on your application, generating alignments from your polylines may be another way to go and use stationing as a form of measurement.

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

sirjoelsph — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 22:46:46 GMT

Sounds very similar to spanning labels for pipe networks. You can select one or as many segments of the network as you want and it will total the lengths, among other things. Spanning options for Line and Curve labels would be a great IdeaStation suggestion.

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

autoMick — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 07:20:27 GMT

thanks for the help.

Not as simple as I was hoping unfortunately - so I'll submit and IDEA and see how that goes and in the meantime will see what I can do with that LSP. I had experimented with alignments a bit, but not really what I'm after.

Still open to more suggestions guys....

Thanks

- Mick

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

autoMick — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 07:40:04 GMT

Idea added:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-civil-3d-ideastation/provide-spanning-options-for-line-and-curve-labels/idi-p/5848650

Please vote for it if you think it will be useful and add comments if you can expand on the idea.

Thanks

- Mick

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

civilman1957 — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 12:58:22 GMT

There's a lisp routine here:

http://lee-mac.com/totallengthandarea.html

that will display the total length of a segmented polyline in your command line. I'd guess the only way to label your line currently would be to label one segment, run the lisp, copy the text from your command line, and edit your label text to paste in the value. It's not perfect, and obviously the label won't change if your line does, but it gets it labeled.

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

jmayo-EE — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 13:00:04 GMT

IMO breaking the pline is the best option to get it all labeled fast with the tools provided.

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

jmayo-EE — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 13:01:22 GMT

I do this often on time of concemtration travel paths. I divide each path to sheet, SC or gutter flow lengths.

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

autoMick — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 11:43:51 GMT

In some cases breaking the polyline is logical, but in my case as presented I was wanting to have multiple labels for a single polyline - say the full length along the top, then the lengths of user defined spans along the bottom. I don't know how it could be acheived with existing tools?

Cheers

- Mick

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

Joe-Bouza — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 15:14:59 GMT

I would go with pipe style and spanning labels as a work around

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

Joe-Bouza — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 15:15:37 GMT

That would also give more reporting flexibility

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

autoMick — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 06:07:32 GMT

thanks, I've been experimenting with pipe labelling since Joel's post. Although not ideal, it solves my immediate need - so I'll call it case closed.

thanks for your suggestions everyone.

Cheers

- Mick

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

jmayo-EE — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 14:29:56 GMT

Excellent idea joe.

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

jgilbertSGX5N — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 19:25:17 GMT

Alter the annotation style, in the dialog box it will whether you picked "general overall length" or "general SEGMENT length". Pick overall length to get what you wanted, be sure and name the style accordingly.

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

ChrisRS — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 04:38:50 GMT

That is a good thought, @jgilbertSGX5N, but @autoMick wants the cumulative length of only part of the polyline.

In his example, he wants 4 segments (4-7) with a length of 39.6

"General overall length" would give 63.4 for all 7 segments.

Re: Polyline labels - overall as well as divided lengths

samuelXYLHN — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 21:00:47 GMT

After reading all the replies here, I thought I would try something different and it worked for me. What I did was used a Multi-Leader and in the text box I inserted a Field (selected "object", then click on the polyline, then select "Length", select the precision and "additional format" to add post fix or select desired precision.). Then, once I have that Multi-leader working and displaying the information like I want it, just copy it multiple times and double click on the FIELD (Highlighted text) to open up the dialog box where it lets you select an object, and just click on the new polyline, and select "length" again, and it will update the length to that of the new polyline.

(See screenshot below)

On my first label, I chose to make the "L.F." part of my field with the "additional format" option, but then on the next leader I just typed in the L.F. and let the actual length quantity be the only data that the field is reading. Hope this help.

Hope it helps.