Parcel Information/Label Styles

[zwarner22]

I am fairly new in C3D and we are beginning to experiment more with using parcels.  Let me first walk through what I have been using them for.  I have been practicing with a trial drawing in first setting up a boundary on a sample "Site", then creating centerline road alignments, ROW parcels, and then the lots themselves, all of which are in the same sample "Site" in order for them to be dynamic with each other. This works beautifully in creating the actual lots, but the main issue I am running into is regarding label styles for the different lines on the lots.  Here is a list of what I am looking for regarding the label styles and how we want to set them up to automatically label the individual segments of a parcel.

1.  Property lines along the ROW showing a distance only.

2.  Interior lot lines showing Bearing over Distance.

3.  Rear lot lines along the boundary showing a distance only.

          - A Bearing and Distance along the span of the boundary along the outside of the boundary line.

I have been tooling with the label styles and can only figure out how to specify a label style for the "Line Segment Label Style" and "Curve Segment Label Style."  I have resolved any issues with the "Curve Segment Label Style" because I can easily set it up to show a 'chord distance only' on any curved segment.  The trouble starts when I create my "Line Segment Label Style."  This is because of the different ways we want to label individual lines within a parcel.  From what I can find so far, my only way around this is to use a Bearing over Distance for the Line Segments, then manually change any ROW dimensions along a straight line and rear lot dimensions to show distance only, then add a span with Bearing and Distance for the exterior of the boundary.  Though, we are looking for a dynamic resolution rather than just a way around it.  The idea of us moving to parcels is to create a dynamic drawing that can take time out of monotonously labeling hundreds of individual lines.  

I am also looking for any additional resources regarding parcels and the best practices for setting them up.  If there are any videos or articles I can be directed toward, that would be a huge help.  Thank you in advance for the assistance.

[J.FOCHT]

Hello @zwarner22,

Once you have created you items, for example your lot, select the line that you want to dimension. Once that segment it selected, the ribbon will automatically open to the Parcel Segment features. There you can select the first option to "Add Labels" and do a "Single Segment". Once you have added the label you will notice that it displays bearing and distance. To change that, select the label and look at the Properties for the label. Under the setting "Line Lable Style" you can change that yo Distance Only, or whatever option you prefer. The nice thing is that you can display different types of data for different segments. Just change the properties.

Hope that helps you out!

[zwarner22]

Thank you for the quick reply J.Focht.  We have our parcels set up to automatically label lines, so we are looking for a way for the parcel creation tool to add our custom labels to their specified lines without having to change the properties of each line.  We are trying to avoid the labeling of single segments if possible.  I am attaching two screenshots as an example of what I mean.  In the "Create Parcels - Layout" box shown in the first picture, I have the "Line Segment Label Style" highlighted, though this is great for automatically labeling all line segments in the platted area, it doesn't allow me to customize the ROW lines or rear lot lines along the boundary without manually changing those as you suggested. 

In the second picture, I have manually changed the labels to show how we want them to automatically come in when using the "Create Parcels - Layout" tool.  Again, I don't know if this is possible to have AutoCAD do this automatically, but the entire process could be drastically sped up if we can find a way to automatically add all custom labels. Thanks again for your reply.

[J.FOCHT]

The only other option that i can think of that is still clunky and not very efficient is to not have it automatically label your parcel. That way you just have the linework. Then you under the Add Labels  ->  Parcel  ->  Add Parcel Labels,  it will open a dialogue box where you can add a label to a segment, change the label style, add another label, change the style, etc. It can label all the parcels quickly but it still doesnt do it automatially. But it may save some time from having to change the properties on ever line.

[zwarner22]

That might be the route I have to take on this one.  I'm going to keep exploring and I will post any updates if I come across anything also.  Thanks for your help, Jonathan.

[J.FOCHT]

I will keep exploring and testing too.

[MMcCall402]

As far as I know there isn't a way to tell the software when to choose one label style over another based on which side of the parcel is being labeled (front, side, rear).

Our normal work flow is to set the default label style to be a distance only style and then go back thru the site a swap in a bearing-distance label where a bearing is needed in addition to the distance.

Another option would be to use a default style for distance only and then go back thru the site and apply a second label with a bearing only to the segments that need a bearing.  (segments can be labeled more than once)

[zwarner22]

Thanks for the additional info, MMcCall.  I have been in talks with others in my office and we have decided to go with your route for now in labeling everything with distance only, then going back and changing interior lots to have bearing and distance.  It's not the most ideal, but its a step in the right direction and sure beats the heck out of drawing AND labeling each individual lot.  Thank you again for the advice!

[jefflambert9091]

This post may help with some resources. 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-civil-3d-forum/c3d-parcels-lot-sizing-how-to/m-p/7462994#M350...

[zwarner22]

Thank you @jefflambert9091, there is a ton of information in there and I'm going to dive in and see what I can uncover.

[jefflambert9091]

You are welcome. Working on parcels is like a chess match. Challenging, but be careful not to overthink or you will loose! 🙂