With the recent release of BricsCAD V25, the Civil folks finally have line and curve labels that will annotate curves, bearings, and distances so I thought I would take them for a test drive.
In the Civil workspace on the Home tab of the ribbon, there is a new button:
This tool is designed to label a group of segments. Once executed, we first specify the Line Label Style Name, then specify the Curve Label Style name to use. Unfortunately, you will have to type the style name if they differ from Default, the name of the standard style. There isn’t a way to configure a different style as the default setting. An alternative is to edit the styles called Default and use those or swap the styles out using the Properties dialog after they are placed.
The labels, when selected, display two square grips. The one at the placement point is for sliding along the segment and the one that is offset slightly is for dragging the label away to display a leader line.
To return the label to its normal position, click into the drag grip and drag it back to its placement grip.
If you have ever configured a Civil 3D label, you could probably figure out how to configure one in BricsCAD. The Civil Explorer has changed slightly from BricsCAD v24, but not drastically. Like in Civil 3D, the label styles are configured on the Settings tab.
You can create new labels by right-clicking on the category or you can right-click on an existing label to edit or copy. When you copy or create a new label, the Label Style Editor will open allowing you to make the necessary changes:
Figure 1 – Info tab of the Label Style Editor
On the General tab, we configure some basic defaults such as text style and layer. We can also configure how the text is oriented using WCS, object, or view as options. Readability Bias is the minimum viewport angle at which BricsCAD will start rotating labels 180 degrees. These labels will exhibit annotative behavior without having to configure annotative text styles.
Figure 2 – General tab of the Label Style Editor
On the Components tab, we configure what data we need in the label. When Add Component is clicked, a list of data is displayed relating to the segment’s geometric properties. Once selected, there are additional settings in the lower part of the dialog that apply to each component in the label style. Use the Edit button next to Contents to format the component.
Figure 3 – Components tab of the Label Style Editor
The Text Content Editor has many controls for formatting the data displayed by the component.
Figure 4 – Text Content Editor
The dragged state tab is where we configure the behavior of the label when we drag it away from its original location. We can set up the display of leaders or borders around the label.
Figure 5 – Dragged State tab of the Label Style Editor
Label configuration is stored in the drawing, therefore your BricsCAD template should be updated with line and curve label styles to implement within your workflow.
Finally, line and curve labels are dynamic with the segment being labeled. If the segment changes, the label will instantly update. That’s a bonus for us Civil folks.
– Cyndy Davenport
