Does anybody know how to limit the scales a C3D point marker or label will scale to, similar to the scale list you add to annotative text or blocks? I like for them to be able re-scale within certain limits, but if you use your features as the base for a 400-scale map on a plan cover-sheet, you wind up with water valves the size of circus tents. I suppose I could set up fixed-scale point styles, and have a different template for each drawing scale, but if the data goes into the databases the designers use for their plans, you will want them to be annotative so they can plot at different scales. Any ideas? I'm stumped, and the more I think about it, the more I want to go off on a big long rant about how much worse everything seems to be since the advent of Civil3D and Windows 7 64-bit...
It's a multi-layered question...
The C3D Point Styles work very well, as long as you are sharing files with other C3D users, who are using the same version (or newer) as you. In fact, even when you XREF a base drawing, the C3D Cogo Points will resize correctly in paperspace viewports, even though they don't in modelspace (something I've been complaining about for years now).
But I've also had customers who use plain AutoCAD (which I don't agree with, if you're doing Civil Engineering) who want C3D drawings exported to something like AutoCAD 2010 format, but want symbols sized to the correct distance. For example, an 8" vent pipe sized to an 8" circle in the export. Best way I've found to do that sort of thing is to create a special Point Style that is set to "Use absolute units" (I think... have to check on that) then use the Description Keys to size to Parameter 1 (or Parameter 2, whatever you chose). Then the field surveyor can key in a description code, followed by a number that indicates either feet or inches. You may need different codes, in order to get an "inches" code to come into a "feet" drawing at the right size, or just tell your field surveyors to always use decimal feet, instead of inches.
This stuff can be made to work very well, and very simply. The power of C3D is amazing. But the sheer number of options can also make it very confusing.
There should be no need to have different templates set to different scales. You should only need to make sure that all the scales are in the template, and then you can set each viewport to the one you want. And you may also want to change the scale in modelspace, so it matches the paperspace viewport you are targeting, depending on what you are doing.
Thanks. That helps a bit, but the way we operate, all the existing data goes into a database which gets x-ref'd into all the plans, whatever the scale. I want to be able to limit the scales the points will re-size to, the way you can with annotative blocks. Maybe I can use an annotative block as my point marker?
> Maybe I can use an annotative block as my point marker?
Yes you can, just set the Size in the Point style editing box to 'Use drawing scale"
All of our point markers are setup this way.
