Civil 3D – Contour Labels Auto Decimal Place

Leo Lavayen | Applications Expert

For a long time, with Autodesk Civil 3D I have wanted a smart contour label that drops decimal values.  Something like what is available for Stations, a modifier that could “Drop Decimal Value for Whole”, but none are available by default.

Next, I then turned to Equations and was not able to come up with something simple.  I then found an old post for Crest and Sag Profile Labels, from a colleague James Mussleman.  In the post, equations are leveraged to controls text height.  Below we create a contour label based on the same idea:

1. First, we will do “Math” to check for the whole number.

2. Next, an “If” statement is created that will show/hide the right of the decimal. To be used as 2^nd Text Height value.

3. Last, a two-component text label is created:
   • The primary text will always be shown (“Elev-Lt”) with the whole value left of the decimal.
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   • The secondary portion of text (“Elev-Rt”) will autohide decimals based on the “If” statement used as height for values right of decimals.
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This setup will be useful for situations when contours are set less than whole values or when Surface analysis creates user-defined contours.