IMAGINiT Civil Solutions Blog

Find References and Replace With

James Musselman | Applications Expert

Lately I’ve been working a lot with styles and I thought I’d point out two tools I actually use quite frequently. The first of these tools is the “Find references…” tool. If we go to the settings tab of Toolspace and right-click on any style that is in use (designated by the orange triangle and indentation shown below) we will see the “Find references…” option in the context menu.

 

 

When we select “Find references…” we get another window showing all of the places that this style is being used. This includes objects in the drawing and any places where it is specified in the feature settings. This is a great way to pinpoint which objects are using that style as well as which settings. Better yet, if you double click on an object within the references window, it will navigate you to the appropriate location in Toolspace. This includes the Settings and Prospector tabs. This is great if you just want to change one setting or one style. What if you want to globally specify a particular style? This is exactly what the “Replace with…” tool is used for. Again if you select a particular style, right-click and choose “Replace with…” you will be presented with the “Replace use of style with…” window. Here you can specify a particular style to replace a currently used style.

 

This is very powerful yet very dangerous at the same time as you can imagine. Sometimes it’s prudent to use the two tools in conjunction in order to make sure that you are not replacing more than intended.

Stacked Fractions, Subscripts, and Superscripts in Label Styles

James Mussleman | Applications Expert

I was recently putting together some styles for a client and they had the requirement to have the digits after the decimal appear in superscript form. I started to go about it as creating two separate components and just altering the height of the decimal objects. This got me thinking that there may be a better way. As it turns out, there is! At least in my humble opinion there is. We can actually utilize the fraction functionality to accomplish this. The first thing we need to look at though is the fraction functionality within label styles. Fractions are accomplished by providing a code within the component editor. There are three characters that we can specify depending on the desired result:

/ - a slash will provide a vertically stacked fraction with a line separating the numerator and denominator

# - a pound sign will stack the numerator and denominator diagonally and will provide a diagonal line

^ - a carat will stack the text vertically but will not provide a line

In order to use these characters we simply add the desired symbol between our two pieces of text and highlight the numerator, denominator, and stack symbol.  Once highlighted, on the format tab of the text component editor, we can select the stack fractions button:

And the result is a fraction:

 

So with that explained, now onto the superscript and subscript. We simply use the same characters and only include a numerator or denominator. So if we want a spot elevation style that has the decimal digits in superscript, we first insert the elevation with a precision of 1 and the rounding set to truncate. Then we follow that with the elevation again, this time set to our required precision and the output set to right of decimal. Finally we follow that up with a slash. We then highlight the second elevation entity and the slash and select the stacked fractions button:

The result is a spot elevation label with the decimals in a superscript:

 

If we want a subscript we simply place the desired symbol (typically a carat if we don’t want the line above) prior to the component and perform the same process. If you need to revise the fraction portion, simply select the stacked text object and press the stacked fractions button. It will unstack the fraction and allow you to edit the components.

Crest and Sag Profile Labels

James Mussleman | Applications Expert

Many times when I’ve shown people profiles in Civil 3D, particularly the vertical curve labels, they question the way they are labeled out of the box. This got me thinking about possibly a better way to accomplish the high and low point labeling. In order to tackle the problem we first need to understand why it is a problem. We can simply create a crest label that includes the high point and a sag label that includes the low point. The only issue with this is that there are sag curves that do not contain a low point and crest curves that do not contain a high point. If you can imagine a vertical curve that joins two upward sloping tangents, this is the type that will not contain a high point and therefore the label ideally would not have those values either. Out of the box, Autodesk accomplishes this disappearing label by attaching the label to the high and low point marker. If the marker does not exist, the label does not exist. It’s pretty ingenious but is slightly flawed. This leaves the high and low point labels dependent on the location of the marker. Many clients would like these labels included in an overall dimension label for the curve. Here is the Autodesk label out of the box on the left and a more conventional label 2nd image below:

 

 

So how do we accomplish the latter? We create our label style as usual but need to separate out our low or high point values into their own text component. The remaining text can be included in one component. The next step is to create expressions. We will need two to be exact. One for the high point condition and one for the low point condition. For the low point the expression is as follows:

IF({Profile Curve End Elevation}={Low Point Elevation},0,IF({Profile Curve Start Elevation}={Low Point Elevation},0,0.1/12)) 

If we dissect the expression we can see that we start with an IF statement. This statement checks to see if the calculated low point elevation lands at the profile curve end elevation. If this is the case then we return a value of 0 and end the function. If this is not the case we step into another IF statement. This is commonly referred to as nested IF statements.  We now check to see if the low point lands at the profile curve start elevation. Again, if this is the case we return a value of 0, otherwise we return a value of 0.1/12. This probably requires some explanation. The two IF statements are checking to see if there is actually a low point. If the low point lands on either the beginning or end of the curve then there is no true low point and the curve is between two tangents that are headed in the same direction. The return values are going to be used as a text size. Therefore if there is no true low point we will set the label text height to 0 and it will not appear. Otherwise we set the label text height to 0.1” (or whatever printed height you choose). Don’t forget to divide by 12 as the expression editor sees these values in feet not inches. In order to complete the complementary high point expression we just use the high point parameters as such:

IF({Profile Curve End Elevation}={High Point Elevation},0,IF({Profile Curve Start Elevation}={High Point Elevation},0,0.1/12))

Finally we are ready to put together our label style. We just use the corresponding expression as the text height value for High and Low point components. So for our high point label our high point component height settings list our expression name (“HP Text Height” in my case) instead of the standard printed height (i.e. 0.1”).

 

So what happens when we label a profile? If the curve label is a true high point the expression returns a height of 0.1” and our label shows up. If it is not our expression returns a height of 0” and our label is not visible. Here are two curves that utilize the label style:

 

One is a true high point and the other is just a crest curve. Therefore it does not receive a high point label. These types of text height expressions can be utilized in so many ways. This is just one way but I’m sure you can think of quite a few others where you may be able to utilize a similar procedure.

Truncated Elevations

James Musselman | Applications Expert

In my previous blog posts I detailed ways to create disappearing labels and how to show stacked fractions. In this post I’d like to continue with this theme and show another common label style that has been requested. In this label style the requirement is to truncate the first digit of an elevation. An example of this is displaying an elevation of 123.45 as 23.45. The contours around the elevation imply the hundreds and therefore we can utilize this technique to save space while labeling or specifying elevations. To create this label we need to create an expression.  We start the expression by moving the elevation decimal two places to the left. We accomplish this by dividing the elevation by 100. This leaves us with an elevation of 1.2345. Next we truncate this elevation and multiply it by 100. This removes the .2345 and converts the elevation back to hundreds. Finally we subtract this elevation from our original elevation. This leaves us with the hundreds removed from the original elevation. The expression looks like this:

 {Surface Elevation}-100*TRUNC({Surface Elevation}/100)

 And this is the resulting label:

The only downside to this technique is that whenever the truncated value is below 10 we lose the leading 0. There is a relatively simple fix for this. We can go back to the well and utilize a text height expression similar to the one we used in the crest and sag profile labels. Basically we start with an expression that analyzes our truncated value. If the truncated value is less than 10 we return a text height (i.e. 0.1/12). If the expression is greater than 10 we return a text height of 0. The expression looks like this:

 IF({Remove Leading Figures}<10,0.1/12,0)

The “Remove Leading Figures” property is our truncate expression from earlier. We now edit our label style to create a text component containing a static 0. We set the height property of this component to our height expression and set the anchor component to the feature. Finally we set our Remove Leading Figures anchor component to the zero component we created.

 

Effectively how this works is that when we get to an elevation that is less than 10 our zero component appears and shifts the Remove Leading Figures component to the right. Here is what our final label looks like when the truncated value is below 10:

 

[Infographic] Civil Survey Results

A short while ago, we sent out a survey to those using the latest tools to compare with those using older software. Here is a quick summary of what we found. 

Updates, Permissions and A Lot of Alert Bubbles

If you have a recent version of any modern software on your system, you're well aware that the frequency and amount of updates we are presented with is going up.

The reason for the increased number of updates is likely attributed to a combination of a growing number of sophisticated programs we all have on our systems and (my personal theory), because the delivery and distribution is done via the Internet, where the cost of rolling out updates (compared to the physical media days) is virtually non-existent, developers now kick out a larger volume of small incremental updates as they encounter issues that require attention. Translation:  It's (comparatively) quick and easy to whip up a patches, hotfixes, etc. and push it via the internet. Well, it’s easy for them maybe. . .

This is the point where things get a little bit less easy for the users of the constantly updated software.  While the easy distribution of updates allows us to have better functioning software, it also necessitates, in aggregate, a moderate amount of time needed to install the updates.  In some cases (e.g. Autodesk Applications Manager) it may even require a reboot.  This takes time and when these easily created and distributed updates are streaming in on a seemingly constant basis, they can create a bit of a headache for users that are simply trying to get work done.

This issue can be significantly frustrating and distracting if your environment is such that system users do not have the necessary permissions to install all of these updates themselves.  In some cases, depending on the software in question, it will present itself like an alert bubble from the system tray and then ultimately for the user attempting to install the update, results in an error message requiring the user seek assistance from the "system Administrator".

Then there's the fun that happens when a system Administrator does log into one of these computers. This can be a real joy when it has maybe been weeks or more since an Administrator had logged into the system and when they do, it's like they've hit the update dialog/popup/alert bubble jackpot!  In these cases, several applications had been set free from their pent-up need to be installed and were just waiting for an Administrator to log in to rescue them.  

I've personally experienced this many times when logging into a system as an Administrator to do something that should only take a few minutes, then after I've satisfied all of the nagging (and seemingly desperate) programs awaiting updates, find myself having spent a half hour or more clicking “OK” buttons, accepting EULA terms and going through multiple rounds of rebooting.  Yippee!

So, what can we do? 

Of course there’s the option of giving the required permissions to system users to allow them to install all of these updates themselves.  This would lessen the load on the system Administrator during the installation of the updates but, if there’s a reason users don’t have Administrator permissions now, it would probably just create other issues later.  So, in most cases that would not be an option. 

With some programs, like that electronic document reader program we all seem to have, you know?  the one that seems to need to be updated daily!! . . . . Well, it can be set to allow the user to manually install the updates on a schedule that works better for you rather than the pushes that are sent via the internet automatically.

This brings me to the solution I have found has given me the best balance which is to change the settings (logged in with the necessary permissions of course) of as many of the programs as possible to NOT update automatically or, NOT download automatically and instead, update manually.  Once this is done, create an update schedule for systems updates that works for you (that’s what Weekend are for, right?).  In some rare cases you can locally push updates on the network, increasingly however, it will still require logging into each system, maybe once a month as an Administrator and installing the updates you feel you need.

While this is not a perfect solution, and it still requires Administrator time and attention, it might offer you a balance between the constant bombardment of update alerts/requests which can be distracting and time consuming and, having reasonably updated software on your systems where users can work as efficiently as possible with a minimum amount of annoying bubbles popping up from the tray.

If you have other tips, suggestions, please chime in.