Alternate Units in C3d labels

Ideally, I suppose the drawing could just be scaled down to varas and then the annotation labels changed to vrs., but it seems like there should be some method of entering a conversion factor. Somewhere.... Otherwise, it's off to the calculator and manual label entry.

Edit your label style (or save as another). Then for the "length" multiply your feet length by .36 by including the "*"

example: {Direction} {Length*0.36} v. or {Length}')

Hmmm... Not sure how to multiply the length. Are we talking about working in the text component editor? when I add the *.36, then my resulting label is 5281.74'*.36

Below is a "how-to" from LDD2 that will give you length in feet with length in meters following in brackets. I'm sure you can modify the procedure to get varas, and configure the layout of the label to your needs.

Copied from LDD2 Help:

You can use a formula to label a line with both feet and meters.

To set up a label style that labels both feet and meters

From the Labels menu, choose Edit Label Styles to display the Edit Label Styles dialog box.
Click the Line Label Styles tab.
From the Name box, select direction above, distance below. In the Text Below box, {Length}' is displayed. This labels the line with its length, followed by a ' (foot) symbol.
You can now use a formula to label the distance in both feet and meters.

From the Data list, select Length.
Click Text Below.
You now have two Length entries in the Text Below box. One labels the length in feet. You can edit the second entry so that it labels the length in meters.

In the Text Below box, place your cursor after the second Length entry (but inside the closing curly bracket).
Press SPACEBAR and then type * .3048, the conversion factor for feet to meters. The asterisk, *, is the formula symbol for multiplication.
Type m for meters after the closing curly bracket, and place straight brackets [ ] around the metric length entry so that the Text Below box appears as follows:
{Length}' [{Length * .3048}m]

Click Units to display the Linear Units dialog box.
In the Linear box, type 2. This labels the line length in feet with a precision of 2.
In the Formula box, type 3. This labels the line length in meters with a precision of 3.
Click Save to save the style.
Click OK to exit the dialog box.

use the example above, including brackets and parenthesis

(cut & paste the example)

OK, let me see if the solution above does anything for me...

Nope, pretty much same result. Civil3d is a major paradigm shift in how stuff works. Unless I'm just not getting something, the LDD directions do not work.

my mistake Andy...
I was excited about solving your problem and failed to acknowledge the C3D dilemma.
I have explored C3D, but that was 2 years ago. I am back on R16

I have questioned software makers since the mid 80's as to why their software is not set up for the different units surveyors use, especially within their Surveyor directed software.

Carlson did equip his Surveyor1 Cogo with the ability to input a number and input a math function and input the conversion factor (27/0.36) and the result would be input into the works (75).

Still, while working in CAD, I label in feet and manually change/replace and type in the unit (vara)(vr) or just (v) or to go into setting and change the units suffix when changing between the two and come back thru and edit the numbers.

Like you said, "you would think alternate units would be doable".

You are correct, when your units are in varas, the scale should be in varas.

I've tried for eons to get Microsurvey to write a small program so one could hover over a dimension and with a .............. "Click",

Presto !! it is converted to another unit with colour and italic options.

No luck yet.

Maybe Wendell, you might ask ?

Cheers

Derek

What you're looking for is called an Expression in Civil3d. If you check the Settings tab in your Toolspace dialog you will find that just about anywhere there is a set of Label Styles there will also be an Expressions button at the bottom of the group.

Once you start a new expression you can use any of the values that would normally be available for that type of label, plus the built in formulas and mathematical operators to produce whatever you need. Then when you create or edit a label style you can use the expression instead of one of the defaults.

You can also use them in other ways to control labels. I have an expression for alignment curves which returns +90 or -90 depending on the direction of curvature, and I use that to set the rotation of the text so that it always follows an up-chainage orientation.

EXPRESSIONS! Yes.

Thanks Steve. I was able to google enough to figure out expressions would probably help, but not enough time to figure out how to put one together. I'll try again tomorrow.

EXPRESSIONS! Yes.

Andy here's my version of the expression and the label style for ACad lines. Not sure if the images will work or not, but let's see what happens.

EXPRESSIONS! Yes.

Success! Thanks Steve.

> I have questioned software makers since the mid 80's as to why their software is not set up for the different units surveyors use, especially within their Surveyor directed software.
>

I've been doing this with ACAD for 15 years now.

:coffee:

For the Maysville software users:

change your reporting scale factor to 0.36
change annotate defaults (add second scaled distance option)

:beer: