Learn the steps and nuances of creating a new contour label style for a surface in a drawing template file. This tutorial guides you through the process of modifying existing label styles rather than creating new ones from scratch.
Key Insights
- The tutorial focuses on creating a new contour label style in a drawing template by modifying existing labels, offering an efficient alternative to starting from scratch.
- The process involves navigating to settings, expanding out surfaces, label styles, and contours. It includes editing the existing labels by layer contour label style, changing its name and creating a new layer for different types of contour text.
- The tutorial also provides guidance on how to adjust the layout tab, turn off border visibility, handle drag state and arrowhead style to achieve the desired contour label style.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
In this video, we’re going to create one of our last label styles before we start creating our drawing template file. We’re going to create a new contour label style for one of our surfaces.
To do that, we’re going to navigate to the Settings tab. Expand Surfaces, then Label Styles, and then Contours. When you're creating a drawing template file, if you start from a base drawing that is close to what you want—but not exactly—you have the option to modify some of the existing styles instead of starting from scratch.
That’s what we’re going to do here. We’re going to take this existing Labels by Layer contour label style, and I’m going to right-click and select Edit.
Inside here, I’m going to go to the Information tab and change the name of the style.
I’m going to type in Existing Contours. Now, from here, I’m going to go to the General tab. I notice that the layer is set to C-TOPO-CONTEXT. I don’t want this to be white, but I also don’t want to modify any of the other label styles.
So I need to create a new layer for a different type of contour text. I’m going to click OK, then click Apply, and click OK again.
Now we’ll see that Existing Contours appears. I’m going to open the Layer Properties manager. I’m going to go to C-TOPO and scroll down to locate it.
Here we go: C-TOPO-CONTEXT. I’m going to make this my active layer and create a new layer so that it inherits all the properties of C-TOPO-CONTEXT. I’m going to name this new layer C-TOPO-CONT-EX, change the color to 253.
Actually, I’ll change it to 252 instead, and click OK.
That looks about as dark as I want it to be. From here, we can enter a description such as: Topography – Existing Contour Labels. Then I’m going to close the Layer Properties manager.
I’m going back into Existing Contours, right-click, and select Edit. I’ll go to the General tab, click the Layer field, select the ellipsis, and then choose C-TOPO-CONT-EX.
Click OK. Now we go to the Layout tab. Here, we see that the text component is Surface Elevation, Feet, and the precision is set to two decimal places.
I’m okay with that. The color is set to ByLayer. The name is Surface Elevation. Visibility is set to True. The label location is Surface Elevation. Attachment is set to Middle Center, which is fine.
Color is set to ByLayer, and the layer is set to C-TOPO-CONT-EX. We’ll scroll down now. I do not want the border visibility turned on.
So I’m going to leave the rest of the settings as they are. Now I’ll go to the Drag State tab. I do not intend to use a drag state, so I don’t have a preference on visibility or whether it uses a straight or spline leader.
I don’t have a preference on the Arrowhead Style either. I’m going to click Apply, then OK.
Now we have our new Existing Contours contour label style. I’m going to collapse these sections back to how they were before. I’ll save the drawing.
Then I’ll see you in the next video, where we’ll create our drawing template file.