Get Started with Object Styles

Before you get your hands on specific styles, it is nice to understand some general things all styles have in common.

There are several ways to enter the dialog. The easiest, most direct way into any style is from the Settings tab. Right-click on any style you see listed and select Edit, as shown in Figure 19-15.

You can also enter the styles’ dialogs from the properties of any object by clicking the Edit button. Figure 19-16 shows the active styles on a point group, with the Edit buttons off to the right. Editing at this level affects all objects that use the style the same as it would if you had entered the style from the Settings tab. The downside to editing a style in this manner is that you will not immediately be able to click Apply to see your change. You’ll need to exit the style dialog and click Apply at the object level before seeing your label or object update.

Frequently Seen Tabs

All styles, regardless of type, have a few things in common:

Information Tab The Information tab, shown in Figure 19-17, controls the name of the style.

The description is always optional, but we recommend that you add some information to the style. The description can be seen in tooltip form as you search through the Settings tab.

On the right side of the dialog you will see the name of the style, the date when it was created, and the last person who modified the style. These names are initially pulled from the Windows login information and only the Created By field can be edited.

Summary Tab The Summary tab is exactly what it sounds like, that is, a summary of all other settings that exist in the style. The information from other tabs in list form as well as their override status is shown in Figure 19-18.

Basic Object Styles

Object styles control the display of Civil 3D objects such as points, surfaces, alignments, pipes, sections, and so on.

Consider a Civil 3D surface. Sometimes you want to see the surface as contours, other times you want to see the surface as triangles, and sometimes you don’t want to see it at all. Changing what you see is not a matter of freezing and thawing layers, but it is a matter of changing the active style. Think of the active style on an object as a wrapper. A surface model will have many potential wrappers depending on what you want to see. The underlying data does not change, but the representation of the data will change.

Object styles have quite a few things in common with each other. Almost every object style has a Display tab.

Display Tab

Inside the Display tab, you will see a list of the various components that can be displayed for the object you are working with. In Figure 19-19 you can see that a general-purpose marker contains only one component (the marker itself) and a surface model has components for contours, triangles, points, and more (as seen toward the bottom of Figure 19-19).

While other tabs in an object style control the specifics of how certain components look, the Display tab controls if the component displays at all. The visibility lightbulb indicates whether the component will be displayed when the style is applied to the object. In the bottom of Figure 19-19, you can see that triangles, border, major contours, and minor contours will all display for the Surface object style.

Each component will have a layer designation. You may be wondering, “Didn’t we set a surface layer back in the object settings?” Yes, you did. Those were overall object layers. The layers we see here are component layers. Using the analogy of a base AutoCAD block, the Object layer can be thought of in the same way as a block insertion layer. The object component layers can be thought of in the same way as layers inside the block definition.

This is Civil 3D, of course, so the objects exist in three dimensions. View Direction controls the display of an object depending on how you are looking at it. Certain items, such as a profile view, are intended to only be seen in plan, so they do not have multiple view directions listed. A marker, on the other hand, can be shown in plan, model, profile, or section, as seen in Figure 19-20. Surface models make an appearance in plan, model, and section, as shown in Figure 19-20.

Marker Tab

Marker styles and point styles both contain a Marker tab (Figure 19-21). The Marker tab controls what symbol or block is used, its rotation, and how it should be sized when it is placed in the drawing.

There are three symbol types that can be used. Use Custom Marker and Use AutoCAD BLOCK Symbol For Marker are the best options. Use AutoCAD POINT For Marker is a poor choice because it uses the symbol specified by the DDPTYPE setting and is difficult to control. When you choose the Use Custom Marker option, you can select a combination of symbols to mix and match.

When you choose the Use AutoCAD BLOCK Symbol For Marker option, you will be able to access a listing of blocks in your drawing. If the block you are after does not yet exist in the drawing, you can right-click in the block listing and choose Browse, as shown in Figure 19-22.

The Size options control how the symbol is scaled when inserted in the drawing (Figure 19-23). The most common options used for this are the Use Drawing Scale and Use Size In Absolute Units.

• Use Drawing Scale allows you to specify the plotted size of the symbol. The model space size of the symbol will be the size specified in the style multiplied by your annotation scale.
• Use Fixed Scale will scale the symbol based on the X, Y, and Z scale set in the style. This option will also use the Fixed scale factor in the description key set when used with a survey point.
• Use Size In Absolute Units is the option you will use in point styles that vary in size based on a survey description. For example, if this is a TREE symbol and you want the size of the symbol to reflect the trunk diameter in feet, set this to 1.
• Use Size Relative To Screen allows you to specify the size of the symbol as a percentage of your screen. This setting is annoying, because the marker will constantly change size as you zoom in or out. We do not recommend that you enable it.

Orientation Reference (as seen in the bottom right corner of Figure 19-21) controls whether the symbol stays rotated with the view, world coordinate system, or, in the case of survey points, the object. In most cases, the Orientation Reference setting should be set to World Coordinate system.

Create a Marker Style

Now get your hands on some object styles. You will start with simple styles and work your way up in complexity as this chapter progresses.

Markers are used in many places throughout Civil 3D. They are called from other styles to show vertices on civil objects, as label location marks, or as a marker to indicate the start of a flow line.

Create a Survey Point Style

Survey Point styles contain many of the same options as Marker styles. As you work through the following example, you will perform many of the same steps as the previous exercise.

Linear Object Styles

In this section, you will see some linear styles such as alignments, profiles, and parcels. Hopefully, you are already seeing that concepts from one type of style often apply to other types of object styles. For alignment and profile styles, this is especially true.

Both alignment and profiles styles have a Design tab, as shown in Figure 19-25. In the case of the alignment styles, the Enable Radius Snap option restricts the grip-edit behavior of alignment curves. If you enable this option and set a value of 0.5′, the resulting radius value of curves will be rounded to the nearest 0.5′. In the case of profiles, the curve tessellation distance is a little more abstract. Curve tessellation refers to the smoothing factor applied to the profile when viewing it in 3D. Most users leave these settings at their default values.

Alignment and profile have very similar Markers tabs. This tab is where you can place markers (like the one you created in the first exercise of the chapter) at specific geometry points. Figure 19-26 shows the markers assigned to various locations along an alignment.

At the bottom of Figure 19-26 you see arrowhead information. Both alignments and profiles have the option of showing a direction arrow on each segment. Most people choose to omit this by turning the Arrow component off in the Display tab or setting the component to a layer that is set to No Plot. You should consider the latter, as knowing the direction of an alignment comes in handy when designing roundabouts, as you saw in Chapter 10, “Advanced Corridors, Intersections, and Roundabouts.”

Figure 19-27 shows some commonly highlighted geometry points and components in an alignment. The markers in Figure 19-27 correspond to the markers displayed in Figure 19-26.

Figure 19-28 shows the Markers tab for the profile style. It looks pretty similar to the alignment Markers tab, don’t you think?

Figure 19-29 shows the corresponding graphic for the markers used in Figure 19-28.

Create an Alignment Style

Alignment styles can be helpful in identifying key design components, as well as showing the stationing direction. Use multiple alignment styles to visually differentiate centerline alignments from supplemental alignments such as offset alignments and curb return alignments.

In the following exercise, you will create a style that restricts radius grip edits to five-foot increments and displays basic alignment components.

Parcel Styles

The parcel styles have several unique features that make them different from other styles.

In the Design tab of a parcel (shown in Figure 19-30a), you see parcel-specific options. A fill distance can be specified to place a hatch pattern along the perimeter of the parcel. This setting is useful to differentiate “special” parcels such as parks, limits of disturbance, or environmentally sensitive areas.

The fill distance indicates the width of the hatch pattern. On the Display tab, be sure to put the hatch component on its own layer so that it can be turned off independently from the parcel itself, as hatches tend to slow down the graphic. Figure 19-30b shows the parcel graphic resulting from the design settings shown.

Feature Line Styles

Feature lines are found in quite a few different places. They are created automatically as part of corridors, created as a result of grading, or can be created independently by the user. Because their scope crosses functionality, you will find feature line styles in the General ⇒ Multipurpose Styles collection in Settings.

By definition, a feature line is a 3D object; therefore, its style can be controlled in plan, profile, and section. As shown in Figure 19-31, a feature line can use markers at geometry points.

Surface Styles

Surface styles are the most widely used styles in any Civil 3D project. Depending on which style is active, certain editing options may be restricted. For example, you need to see triangle vertices before Civil 3D will let you use the Delete Point command.

Each tab in the Surface Style dialog corresponds to components listed in the Display tab. Remember, the Display tab only determines whether or not the component shows at all, but it does not control the specifics of how the component should be shown.

Once a surface is created, you can display information in a large number of ways. The most common so far has been contours and triangles, but these are the basics. By using varying styles, you can show a large amount of data with one single surface. Not only can you do simple things such as adjust the contour interval, but Civil 3D can apply a number of analysis tools to any surface:

Contours Allows the user to specify a more specific color scheme or linetype as opposed to the typical minor-major scheme. Commonly used in cut-fill maps to color negative colors one way, positive contours another, and the balance or zero contours yet another color.

Elevations Creates bands of color to differentiate various elevations. This can be a simple weighted distribution to help in creation of marketing materials, hard-coded elevations to differentiate floodplain and other elevation-driven site concerns, or ranges to help a designer understand the earthwork involved in creating a finished surface.

Direction Analysis Draws arrows showing the normal direction of the surface face. This is typically used for aspect analysis, helping site planners review the way a site slopes with regard to cardinal directions and the sun.

Slopes Analysis Colors the face of each triangle on the basis of the assigned slope values. While a distributed method is the normal setup, a common use is to check site slopes for compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements or other site slope limitations, including vertical faces (where slopes are abnormally high).

Slope Arrows Displays the same information as a slope analysis, but instead of coloring the entire face of the TIN, this option places an arrow pointing in the downhill direction and colors that arrow on the basis of the specified slope ranges.

User-Defined Contours Refers to contours that typically fall outside the normal intervals. These user-defined contours are useful to draw lines on a surface that are especially relevant but don’t fall on one of the standard levels. A typical use is to show the normal pool elevation on a site containing a pond or lake.

In the following exercises, you will walk through the steps of creating or modifying surface styles.

Contour Style

The first style you create will be a contour display style. You will also manipulate the triangle display so that the elevations are more obvious when viewed in 3D.

After the style is applied to the surface model, you should see simple contours in plan view (Figure 19-36a) and an exaggerated surface model in the Object Viewer (Figure 19-36b).

Triangle and Points Surface Style

The next style you create will help facilitate surface editing. To work with the Swap Edge or Delete Line Surface edits, you must be able to see triangles. To work with the Delete Point, Modify Point, and Move Point commands, you must be able to see triangle vertices.

It is important to note that the points you see in the surface style do not refer to survey points. The points you are working with in this exercise are triangle vertices. The triangle vertices and survey points will initially be in the same locations for a surface built from points. However, as breaklines are added or edits are made to the triangle vertices, the surface model will differ from the original survey.

Watershed Analysis Style

The next style you will create in this chapter will be a watershed analysis style. Analysis styles are unique in several ways. To see the style applied to your design, you must run the analysis in the surface properties in addition to applying the style to the surface. The elevation and slope analysis styles do not let you set a layer for the components because the colors and behavior are set on the Analysis tab.

These distribution methods show up in nearly all the surface analysis methods. Here’s what they mean:

Quantile This method is often referred to as an equal count distribution and will create ranges that are equal in sample size. These ranges will not be equal in linear size but in distribution across a surface. This method is best used when the values are relatively equally spaced throughout the total range, with no extremes to throw off the group sizing.

Equal Interval This method uses a stepped scale, created by taking the minimum and maximum values and then dividing the delta into the number of selected ranges. This method can create real anomalies when extremely large or small values skew the total range so that much of the data falls into one or two intervals, with almost no sampled data in the other ranges.

Standard Deviation Standard Deviation is the bell curve that most engineers are familiar with, suited for when the data follows the bell distribution pattern. It generally works well for slope analysis, where very flat and very steep slopes are common and would make another distribution setting unwieldy.

In the following exercise, you will create a surface style for watershed analysis. To apply the new style to the surface, you must also run the analysis.

Elevation Banding

The last surface style you will create in this chapter is an elevation banding style:

Pipe and Structure Styles

In Chapter 13, you learned that the best way to manage pipes and structures was in a parts list. One of the functions of a parts list is to associate styles to pipes and structures. In this section, you will learn how to create the pipe and structure styles that are used by a parts list.

In your template, you will have multiple styles for the various parts lists. You will want to have separate styles for water systems, storm sewers, and sanitary sewers. Additionally, you may want to have separate styles for existing and proposed systems. The main difference between the styles for the different systems will be the layers you set in the Display tab.

Pipe Styles

It seems like no two municipalities want pipes displayed the same way on construction documents. Luckily, Civil 3D is very flexible in how pipes are shown. With a single pipe style, you can control how a pipe is displayed in Plan, Profile, and Section views. You can use multiple pipe styles to graphically differentiate larger pipes from smaller ones. This section explores all of the options.

The Plan Tab The tab you see in Figure 19-47 controls what represents your pipe when you’re working in plan view.

Options on the Plan tab include the following:

Pipe Wall Sizes You have a choice of having the program apply the part size directly from the catalog part (that is, the literal pipe dimensions as defined in the catalog) or specifying your own constant or scaled dimensions.

Pipe Hatch Options If you choose to show pipe hatching, this part of the tab gives you options to control that hatch. You can hatch the entire pipe to the inner or outer walls, or you can hatch the space between the inner and outer walls only, as shown in Figure 19-48.

Pipe End Line Size If you choose to show an end line, you can control its length with these options. An end line can be drawn connecting the outer walls or the inner walls, or you can specify your own constant or scaled dimensions. The pipes from Figure 19-48 are all shown with pipe end lines drawn to outer walls.

Pipe Centerline Options If you choose to show a centerline, you can display it by the lineweight established in the Display tab, or you can specify your own part-driven, constant, or scaled dimensions. Use this option for your sanitary pipes in places where the width of the centerline widens or narrows on the basis of the pipe diameter.

The Profile Tab The Profile tab (see Figure 19-49) is almost identical to the Plan tab, except the controls here determine what your pipe looks like in profile view. The only additional settings on this tab are the crossing-pipe hatch options. If you choose to display crossing pipe with a hatch, these settings control the location of that hatch.

The Section Tab If you choose to show a hatch on your pipes in section, you control the hatch location on this tab (see Figure 19-50).

In the examples that follow, you will create various types of pipe styles.

The first style is for a situation where the pipe must be shown in plan view with a single line, the thickness of which matches the pipe inner diameter. In profile, the pipe will show the inner diameter lines and in section, it will show as a hatch-filled ellipse.

Examine the pipe in plan, profile, and cross section. In plan, it should be a solid line. In section, it should be a filled pipe.

In the next pipe style example, you will create a style that uses several options for hatching pipe walls:

The last pipe style example demonstrates how to create a crossing pipe override style:

After all three pipe style exercises are complete, your profile view will resemble Figure 19-53.

Structure Styles

The following tour through the structure-style interface can be used for reference as you create company standard styles:

The Model Tab This tab (Figure 19-54) controls what represents your structure when you’re working in 3D. Typically, you want to leave the Use Catalog Defined 3D Part radio button selected so that when you look at your structure, it looks like your concentric manhole or whatever you’ve chosen in the parts list.

The Plan Tab The Plan tab (Figure 19-55) enables you to compose your object style to match that specification.

Options on the Plan tab include the following:

Use Outer Part Boundary This option uses the limits of your structure from the parts list and shows you an outline of the structure as it would appear in the plan.

User Defined Part This option uses any block you specify. In the case of your sanitary manhole, you chose a symbol to match the CAD standard.

Size Options The options in this drop-down are similar to what you see in other places in Civil 3D. Use Size In Absolute Units is a common way to represent a manhole at actual size. Use Drawing Scale will treat the object like an annotative block.

Enable Part Masking This option creates a wipeout or mask inside the limits of the structure. Any pipes that connect to the center of the pipe appear trimmed at the limits of the structure.

The Profile Tab Once you know what your structure must look like in the profile, you use the Profile tab (Figure 19-56) to create the style.

Options on the Profile tab include the following:

Display As Solid This option uses the limits of your structure from the parts list and shows you the mesh of the structure as it would appear in profile view.

Display As Boundary This option uses the limits of your structure from the parts list and shows you an outline of the structure as it would appear in profile view. You’ll use this option for the sanitary manhole.

Display As Block This option uses any block you specify.

Size Options The options in this drop-down apply to most blocks placed by Civil 3D.

Enable Part Masking This option creates a wipeout or mask inside the limits of the structure. Any pipes that connect to the center of the pipe appear trimmed at the limits of the structure.

In the following exercise, you’ll create a new structure style that uses a block in plan view to represent a catch basin. Because the block is drawn at actual size, you will use the size option Use Fixed Scale.

Blocks can be used anywhere a structure is shown. You have the option of inserting the blocks at Rim or Sump. In the case of a flared end section, there need to be blocks for both a left-facing view and right-facing view. In the next exercise you will edit an existing style to fix some “quirks.”