labels, etc. that respect view rotation

[kspear]

OK, without opening the worlds largest can of worms, the basis of this topic is working with land fx inside civil 3d. Civil 3d labels, autocad labels, civil 3d sheets, etc. can respect the view rotation (from the dview command). As such civil 3d objects work in the WCS not in a UCS. Meaning, bearing labels on parcels, point coordinates, etc. will all be adjusted based on the UCS and thusly, inaccruate.

Is there any way that land fx can be setup to use the view angle? Much like you're grabbing the snap angle? Why hard code the angle, why not simply read the view angle and have the text react to that angle?

Or am i simplifying things too much?

Thoughts????

[Jeremiah Farmer]

All of our labels support UCS, which is the more proper way to establish multiple rotated views for a drawing. Our UCS tools also work together with Work Areas, to have an easy way to establish a rotation, as well as a custom scale.

--J

[kspear]

OK. Can i ask if you can support another proper way using dview twist?

[Jeremiah Farmer]

Dview is intended to provide a different camera angle. It is proper CAD practices to still have all settings still respect the current UCS. Dview is the equivalent of rotating the sheet around to get a better look at one side or the other.
Is there some reason you cannot establish a UCS with a rotation?

--J

[kspear]

Certainly, we can set a UCS. I just cant do any civil 3d related commands without destroying the underlying data. This would be a deviation from our normal practices.

Both methods do the same thing change what is orthagonal. In the end, the difference is how CAD calculates what you're doing. With dview, the coordinate values are absolute; with UCS, the coordinates are relative. For surveyors & engineers, that's a big difference.

That said, we can certainly make an isolated resource file of landscaping that has the UCS aspect as long as the origin point isnt moved. Surely, we'll continue this converation...

Thanks
Kevin

[Jeremiah Farmer]

I'm not following how creating a UCS will destroy underlying data -- the UCS can have 0,0 as its origin, but just have a rotation to it. In which case, all your calculations will still be the same, correct?

--J

[kspear]

Here's a blog post to help understand a bit...

http://www.civil3d.com/2006/09/how-i-rotate-my-views/

Yes, there is a way to use UCS with Civil 3d as they note. But the requirement of understanding is far more critical than with the alternative that i was mentioning.

http://www.civil3d.com/2006/09/more-on- ... -civil-3d/

Kevin

[Jeremiah Farmer]

Dview vs. UCS is a classic CAD debate.
To me, it comes down to this: UCS has a Manager, making it easy to see what UCS's are established in a drawing. It's also possible to manage the several UCS's that will need to exist for a curving street-scape. Toggling between multiple Dview's is far more complicated.
Among the hundreds of firms we talk to, by far the consensus is that UCS follows best CAD practices, and that Dview is the incorrect method, most commonly because it's so difficult to figure out why the site is rotated, making it far more prone for errors.

--J

[kspear]

No doubt its a long debate. Each industry / firm has a way of doing things. I use a frying pan to cook chicken at home but would never cook dog. Somewhere in the world i am sure would the exact opposite.

We have NO issues with dview since obects in the drawing ARE the reference for what's horizontal. We have a lisp as well that streamlines that process down to 2 picks. No need to manage the rotation, the design does that simlpy by being the design.

Why toggle between dviews? Each viewport has a rotation, same or different from each other. Labels simply react to the rotation angle and appear horizontal in the vport, even with leaders. With autocad's annotative labels and civil3d labels, all this is moot.

Dont get me wrong - we love your product. But please dont take a narrow view on what a cad standard should be...

I still need to know the answer to this basic question - can land fx adjust its labels to a new UCS? That means, rotate the block label as well as adjust the leader tail to be orthagonal.

[Jeremiah Farmer]

Once the Dview twist for a viewport is lost, it is an incredible pain restoring it. This is what I mean by switching among them. Once the setting is lost from that Viewport, it's far more difficult to restore than to just restore the UCS named for that Viewport.

And no, we do not have a tool to rotate our labels after the fact.

--J

[kspear]

Thanks for the reply. I guess its too late about the can o worms.

If i could make a suggestion, annotative text & blocks might be useful in this instance... But i'm not sure.
http://docs.autodesk.com/ACD/2010/ENU/AutoCAD%202010%20User%20Documentation/files/WS1a9193826455f5ff1bb1a0510dab2fb04a-7f57.htm