Point Label Elevation

[Anonymous]

A simple problem, no doubt, but one that has me stumped.  

We are land surveyors, and often the field doods collect a point cluster that requires dragging point labels apart to permit reading and sorting at the correct scale, etc.  Our custom, to keep things neat, is to snap the subject point labels to a circle or other figure such that the labels may be viewed in a neat, easily readable order on the drawing.  I've appended a screenshot, on which you will see a very faint reddish snap circle to which the point cluster labels provided as example have been snapped.  

Now, this sorting circle is drawn at Z=0, but as you can see by their labels, the points themselves are at greater than 7,000 feet in elevation; in the white-edged inset at right, you can see the result, wherein the program apparently snaps each LABEL itself to Z=0, such that the arrow is shown as originating at point elevation of, say, Z=7610 feet, and descending to Z=0 at the snap circle.  

Which I suppose is fine, except that as you see at right, the arrowheads themselves are severely distorted by the elevation difference, and are consequently very difficult to read in certain situations.  Since we work in a mountainous area, we cannot simply draw snap circles to the layer of one of the points in the cluster and hope that the arrowheads remain readable; the elevations here often vary hundreds of feet within very short horizontal distances.  

My question, then: once the point labels have been dragged out, is there a simple way to return the point LABELS from Z=0 to the elevations of the corresponding POINTS themselves, but at the same time leaving these labels in the place onscreen that was delineated by the snap circle, thus flattening out the label arrowheads again while retaining the orderly circular configuration of the labels?    

Many thanks.

[Jeff_M]

The quickest, easiest, way would be to just eyeball the drag to location on the circle...i.e. don't snap to it. OSNAPZ has no affect when using grips, so the only other way would be to use the .xy Point filter to snap 'near' the circle than the .z point filter to get the point elevation fro the main grip point.

[sirjoelsph]

I noticed that it will only do the exagerrated dragged state arrows when your 3D Geometry Point Display Mode is set to Use Point Elevation.  If you are able to without affecting your other workflows, set your Point Display Mode to Flatten Points to Elevation and snapping your dragged labels will work as you intended.

[Anonymous]

So am I to guess that there's no way to restore the point labels of points already dragged to the elevation of their corresponding points?  One must start over with the drawing?

Also, if one sets point display mode to Use Point Elevation, does this affect the generation of surfaces and 3D linework based on these points?

Thanks again for the responses.  

[jmayo-EE]

Select the points, right click and choose reset label.

Does that work?

[rl_jackson]

No it does not affect 3D linework assuming it's a survey figure. But all items added by the point to point method will be at zero.

You can also set figures to flatten as well, but you loose grip edit abilities when doing this.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

If I select points and then right-click, I get the damned "help" screen.  I wish things were so simple as John Mayo suggests!

Thanks anyway,

McL..

[rl_jackson]

What's the version, I believe that's been around since C3D11 maybe 10

[troma]

Try typing the command LABELRESET

[AllenJessup]

You should get the right click menu. Maybe you've changed your right click options.

You can also access it this way:

Allen

[rl_jackson]

Defualt OOTB right-click menu for C3D13 when selecting a point label.

[TerryDotson]

From your user standpoint, I agree with Jeff, don't osnap.

On 2013 or higher code could produced to fix the elevations, but the more interesting prospect is the automation of the old cluster problem.  In other words do you really need to do a dozen drags when two picks (center, radius) will do?  I've been experimenting with a simulated drawing but the results aren't what I'd like to see based on radial projection of the points, but there is a lot of room for error coming from a image.

I think next I'll try dividing the circle into the number of points involved and using the closest direction.  As long as there are no crossing leaders it's a good implementation.  Then the ideal solution would be to detect all clusters across the drawing and automatically radiate them, but that's a lot tougher.

[Anonymous]

Actually, it turns out that if I hover the cursor over the grip on these points, I get the "reset" option.  Just doesn't work with the right-click.  

Of course, it sends the labels right back to their points of origin so they have to be re-dragged outward, but hey, if that's all I get, that's what I get.  

Thanks for all the suggestions.  

[odoshi]

I have an app that fixes this situation. PM me if you are still in a jam. If the Points are using 3D markers, the label will get dragged to the Z. If the markers are set to flatten elevations, the label is dragged to Z= 0.

It's part of my Civil Express Tools for some time, which you can get a trial version of.

Regards,
Mike