Drawing Settings & Label Style Defaults

In Civil 3D, there is no need to create an L80, L100, L120, etc., text style as we did in Land Desktop. You simply create one “Leroy” style based upon your desired font; you can specify a height when you create a new label style (i.e. a spot elevation label). Heights are measured in terms of inches, therefore if your intent is to label something with an L80, you’d specify a height of .08″ (Civil 3D can do the math depending upon your drawing scale).

Your drawing settings hold the key to each label style you create. Right Click on the name of your current drawing in the Toolspace . Select “Edit Label Style Defaults…” (to edit other drawing settings, select Edit Drawing Settings instead). Be sure the “Label” tree is expanded, and notice the default text style. This is the default text style that will be used in every label style you create; in effect, this is your master setting.

You’ll see an Override column in the Edit Label Style Defaults – Labels dialog box, but you won’t see an override setting per se, or a way to select anything in this column – that’s because you’re at the top of the hierarchy, you can’t get higher.

You’ll also see a “Child Override” column with blue arrows pointing downward. The arrows mean somewhere down the line you’ve used a different text style, thus overriding the ‘master’ text style.

From a CAD Managers perspective, you could set this default text style to a specific style you’ve defined in your template; in my case it would probably be a Leroy style based upon the Simplex font. Lock it down (notice the Lock column), leave the height unlocked (scroll to the “Components” to find Text Height, Color, Linetype, and Lineweight), and then each new label style a user creates (Parcel Label Style, Surface Label Style, etc.) will use the Leroy style by default, and only the height can be changed.

As a test, create a text style. Make this your default text style in the Edit Label Style Defaults – Labels dialog. Now make a new Surface Label Style and notice the default text style.

For more information on the hierarchy of Label Settings, browse for “The Hierarchy of Label Settings” in the Civil 3D 2006 Help Menu.