Profile View Style - Formatting Title to Include Automated Stations

[MauCabrera789]

Hi there,

I have some profile views on my drawing that are based on several alignments, from alignment A to J. I am trying to come up with a title formatting in one single Profile View Style that will generate the titles I need for all my profile views for alignments A through J. The following clip shows the structure of the title that I need: 

In essence, this is the following content structure that I'm seeking in the title formatting box (the Profile View Name is the "Stormwater Profile - Alignment A" string, different for each profile view per alignment):

<[GRAPH VIEW NAME]>
STA <[PARENT ALIGNMENT DESCRIPTION]>0+00 TO <[PARENT ALIGNMENT DESCRIPTION]><[PARENT ALIGNMENT END STATION]>

The issues I'm finding:

1. Cannot find the [PARENT ALIGNMENT DESCRIPTION] field in the text component editor.
2. The drop down list offers field [PROFILE VIEW END STATION] but this oftentimes does not correspond to the end station of the alignment itself; i.e. the profile view shows stations 0+00 to 2+50 as it must look tidy and grid-like, but alignment "A" actually extends from station 0+00 to 2+08 only. 

The work-around I found so far can be seen on the clip above. I had to hard-code the alignment letter and start and end stations (see issue #2 above). This means I need several Profile View Styles with hard-coded stations in the title text which is not a good idea.

Note: With respect to issue #1 above, it is worth mentioning that I cannot use the [PARENT ALIGNMENT] field offered in the drop-down list because that field extracts the parent alignment NAME, and this name cannot be the simple letter "A", "B", etc. For other reasons, it must be something like "PROP. STORM - A" which does not make sense to have as "PROP. STORM - A0+00 TO PROP. STORM - A2+08", so we must use the alignment description field to write "A" in there.

[ecfernandez]

Hi @MauCabrera789, maybe you can harness the API for Civil 3D and create a custom tool to do that. I'm not an expert on that topic, and I cannot say how to do it, but it might be possible. You should know some C# or Visual Basic programming language as far as I know. If you do the research and figure it out, it would be fantastic to reply with your comments. My regards!

[cwr-pae]

Not entirely the best thing, but a decent work around. Use Description in the component box, then type what you want it to read in the profile view's description field. If you can live with the labeling the stations of the view verses the stations of the alignment you will only have to assign a description to the views. You can apply the same info in the top axis title if you are not using this title otherwise.

[MMcCall402 · Accepted solution]

Sometime you can type in the formatted content for a specific value .... not so much this time.   

<[Alignment Description(CP)]> is accepted as a value, but when used it displays ???   Including the word Parent wasn't accepted at all. ☹️

Not sure if this helps, I did find that the Profile View's description is available if you type in <[Description(CP)]> into the editor. The description for multiple views can be edited at once when selected.

If there were expression available for use in profile views you could make one that returned the lesser of the two station values, view station vs alignment station.

[Joe-Bouza]

If you create your profile sheets via PP you can name the layout tab through the PP tool then use an ACAD field to make a view label using the ctab system variable

[MauCabrera789]

Yeah, I've noticed sometimes you can type in a field value that isn't included in the drop down and the software still manages to retrieve that parameter somehow.... I've noticed the returns with ???, unfortunate it happened in this case.

I'll try using the <[Description(CP)]> and see what I can come up with.

Anyhow, thanks a bunch for your input, you always provide great insight when I post! And to the rest of the people in this thread as well 🙂