Autodesk 23703-010008-1600A - Civil 3D 2006 Essentials, Manual

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■ Have you ever found it difficult to maintain standards so that points labeled
by one individual on your team look the same as points labeled by someone
else?
Points in Civil 3D
When you are working with points in Civil 3D 2008, one of the first things
that is important to understand is that in Civil 3D, each point is maintained
as an individual object. Each point also always belongs to a point group, which
is also an object. This means that you can manage points at different
hierarchical levels. Being able to manage points this way improves overall
performance and provides additional flexibility that you do not have when
using points in Land Desktop.
A second concept that is important to understand is that unlike Land Desktop
points, the display characteristics of Civil 3D points are based on two style
settings: the point style and the point label style. This is a concept that is
employed throughout many Civil 3D object types.
The point marker (shown as the “X” in the preceding illustration) is controlled
by the point style and the label text for the point is controlled by the point
label style. Setting up proper styles is one of the keys to unlocking the potential
of Civil 3D. By simply setting the point style to the desired marker, which can
include symbology, and setting the point label style to the desired label style,
you can achieve virtually limitless combinations for displaying points.
Note that in Civil 3D, when you are using symbology as part of your point
style, the symbol is the marker. In other words, there is no separate block
inserted on top of the point. Instead, the symbol is embedded in the point
itself. Because points are dynamic in Civil 3D, so are the symbols. For example,
there is no need to maintain multiple fire hydrant blocks to accommodate
plotting drawings at multiple scales. Also, symbols never become separated
34 | Chapter 2 Comparing Land Desktop and Civil 3D