Get Rid of Those Pesky Contour Label Lines

A question I often get asked is,"How do I turn off the line on my multiple contour labels?" The answer is a probably a lot simpler than you might expect. Let's start out by creating some Civil 3D Contours so we can explore the different ways to turn off the contour label line.

First, select the surface in your drawing and pick "Contour - Multiple at Interval" from the "Add Labels" drop-down on the surface contextual ribbon.

 

Next, draw the beginning and end points for where you would like your contour labels to be placed on the surface. A Civil 3D contour label will be placed every time the line you are drawing crosses a contour line (depending on the current label style, this may not be true as major or minor interval labels may be turned off in the label set). 

 

After you pick the path of your labels you will be prompted for the frequency you would like the interval contour labels to be placed along the linear path of each contour line crossed.

 

 

Below, you will see the end result of the contour line and multiple contour labels placed at the defined interval. All labels attached to the contour label line move and are affected by properties as a group. The multiple contour line can be stretched to include or avoid other contour lines.

 

Each interval label is an individual entity and can be moved, copied, and even stretched across multiple contour lines to create a new multiple contour label.  When an individual contour label is moved along a contour line, it rotates to match the contour line's path (by default). When it is moved to another contour line, it will update to call out the proper elevation of the new contour line.

 

 

Here, you see an example of how the contour label line has been manipulated as well as an individual contour label moved to a new location. Additionally, the Properties Palette has been opened and the "Display Contour Label Line" option is changed to "False" in order to turn its visibility off.

 

 

The result of changing the "Display Contour Label Line" option to "False" is shown below. Now, anytime you select the multiple contour label object, you will see a blue line with grips at either end for the purposes of editing it.

With everything unselected, the contour label line goes away and there is no longer a concern that it will show up when plotting your drawings.

If your preference is for the contour label line to never show up in Civil 3D, you may be better off adjusting the Surface Feature Settings so that the default is set to never display it. Go to the Settings tab in Toolspace, navigate to the Surface category, right-click and select "Edit Feature Settings..." from the short cut menu.

This brings up the "Edit Feature Settings - Surface" dialog. Expand the Contour Labeling Defaults category and you will see the option to change the contour label line defaults. Select the cell next to "Display Contour Label Line" in the Value column and change the setting to "False." This will cause all subsequent multiple contour labels to have the contour label line disabled automatically.

If this is your preference as a whole, it would be wise to change this setting with your Civil 3D template so all future projects can avoid going through this process. It is just another little step toward refining your Civil 3D template and less to be concerned about when it comes time for production.

Comments

[Rob Lint]

Good article. I also have trouble changing the contour label elevation precision. Default is to 3 decimals. When I change to 0 I sometimes get double labels.

[Bryan Tanner]

That is a known issue with many people. There really isn't any way to prevent that from happening. If you move your label slightly or reset it, you should see it return to just a single label entity.