And now for some labeling good news! 

Have you ever wanted to override just one structure label to say something like “Drop Manhole”?  Right now, you probably make a child style, or maybe sneak in a piece of dtext. 

Or how about having the Existing Ground at Rim in the label as well as the Proposed Rim?

In Civil 3D 2008, there is a lot of increased label functionality, so look for more opportunities to override label text and add reference text.  One of the places this shows up is in Pipe Network Labels.

Click more to find out how…

Just click the label you would like to override and choose Edit Label Text.

The command line will prompt you to choose a part of the label to edit.  Once you choose the component, it will open a box that will allow you to either harvest additional model information or write in your own “hard text”.

 

Now I have my label the way I want it**.

**A word about overriding.  I couldn’t be the obsessive compulsive Civil3Diva that I am if I didn’t give you a small lecture about habitual overrides.  The great thing about Civil 3D is that your company standards are automatically being enforced as you design and annotate.  If you use label overrides for the occasional oddball label- that is great.  If you find that you are using overrides instead of writing label styles that you need for your template… well… you know how I feel about that. 

If you are using label overrides to make up for improperly built models (for example instead of actually making your proposed ground surface reflect your intended design elevation) I might let you get away with that for one project because you are still learning and deadlines approach.  But just like you know eating nothing but quarter pounders and cheetos everyday for lunch may be fast and satisfy your hunger, it will burn you in the future… You know that not building the skills to get your model to give you what you want is Civil 3D suicide.

Enough said.

Also note in the label style composer box, you can now add reference text.  Reference text can be from an Alignment, Cogo Point (NEW for 2008), Parcel, Profile or Surface.