Label Points Command

RPS Command Library (Info Only) RPS Modeling Toolbox
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D_LabelPoints_64px    Label Points

Command Licensing and Default Menu Location

  • The Label Points command is part of the RPS Modeling Toolbox
  • The command is located on the Modeling Toolbox menu ribbon
  • The command is located in the Drafting menu group

Last Updated:

June 16 2022 - Version 5.7 RPS Command Library update
In this update we have added

  • The ability to enter a vertical offset to raise or lower the reference line or reference surface for the computations of elevation deltas between the measured points and the reference objects.
  • Additional label options in line with the vertical offset changes so that you can display the elevation of the line or adjusted line or surface or adjusted surface.
  • The ability to define a color map for tolerances between the measured points and the reference line and or surface model. The color map provides the ability to create an In Tolerance High and Low value, a Near Tolerance High and Low Value and an Out of Tolerance High and Low value with associated colors. Each band can be defined as a single color band or multiple equally spaced color bands. The colors can have a 0 origin or the origin can be offset from the 0 point to accommodate e.g. a Vertical Offset that is being applied. The labels that are created are now color coded based on the defined color mapping, providing enhanced QA mapping for your projects.
  • The tolerance settings can be applied to one of the computations used to generate the labels e.g. the Point to Line, Line to Point, Point to Surface, Surface to Point etc.

Command Description

This command provides additional drafting capabilities to label point stations, offsets and cut/fill values to selected reference linestrings, alignments and / or surface models

Command Interface Description

The Label Points command dialog looks as follows

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Select points:
Select the points that you want to label

Reference line:
Select the linestring or alignment that you wish to use as your reference for station, offset and elevation. Note that elevation reference can come from either a line or a surface model. The color coding of the point labels will be determined using the color map (defined below) and the selected color band option (see below).

Show line direction checkbox:
Check the checkbox to display the line direction indicators so that you can determine left and right references to the selected reference line.

Reference surface:
If you are comparing the points to a reference surface for cuts/ fills, selected it here from the list of project surface models.

Create CSV file checkbox:
Check the checkbox if you would also like to generate a CSV report of the data being labeled. If selected, define the file name and file location for the reported data. If you right click the file name field, you can define the path for the file using the Project data folder (for the current TBC project) or Browse
to your preferred location on the computer / network that you are using. Clicking the […] button takes you to the file browser and opens the last path used by the software as the default.

The CSV file created will have the following format and column order

Column 1: Point Number
Column 2: Northing (or Easting - based on TBC coordinate order setting)
Column 3: Easting (or Northing - based on TBC coordinate order setting)
Column 4: Elevation
Column 5: Feature Code
Column 6 and higher : Used for the values selected in the label definition in the order that they are defined in the label definition (and excluding the default values reported in columns 1 through 5). i.e. if you report Station, Offset, Dz (Point to Surface) and Dz (Point to Line), then these values will be reported in columns 6 through 9 accordingly.

Current ouput is a CSV file that is readily usable in Microsoft Excel

Report Precisions:
The reported values will be accurate to the following number of decimal places

  • Coordinates: 3DP (Metric), 2DP (Feet)
  • Offsets: 5DP (Metric), 5DP (Feet)
  • Delta Elevations: 5DP (Metric), 5DP (Feet)
  • Slopes: 3DP (Metric), 3DP (Feet)

DP = Decimal Places
Note that offsets and Dz Values are to 5DP so that computed slopes are accurate to 3DP

Report Notes:
Reported values for Delta Elevations Point to Line or Surface are positive when Point is above the line or surface and negative when the point is below the line or surface. (Point Elevation minus Line Elevation).

Reported values for Delta Elevations Line or Surface to Point are positive when line or surface are above the point and negative when the line or surface are below the point. (Line or Surface Elevation minus Point Elevation).

Reported values for slope between Point and Line are positive when the point is below the line and negative when the point is above the line.

Reported values for slope between Line and Point are positive when the Line is below the line and negative when the line is above the point.

Apply vertical offset checkbox:
When checked you can enter a vertical offset (+ = above and - = below) that is applied to the selected reference line and or reference surface to raise or lower the line or surface used in the computations.

When checked, enter the vertical offset that you wish to apply to the reference line and or reference surface.

Label definitions:
In this section you can define different labels for different use cases. For example you may want a label that compares the selected points to the selected line or alignment and displays Station, Offset and Dz values. You may also want a label that compares the selected points to the selected reference surface and displays Point ID and Cut/Fill values. You can create as many label definitions as you think you may need. These definitions are all stored in an external file so that you can use them on different projects.

To create a new label click the image button
To rename a label click the image button
To save a label definition click the image button
To delete a label definition click the image button

Edit Label:
To edit the content of a label, click the Edit label button. This will open the label editor as shown below.

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In the Value codes area of the dialog you will find a list of all the values that can be used to create the label. In the Label text area of the dialog you will find the current definition of the selected label. The Label text area of the dialog acts like a text editor, you can enter freeform text, you can use CTRL C, CTRL V, CTRL X, DEL, Backspace, Enter etc. to move the text and value codes around into the desired order and format.

To add a value code into the label text, simply enter the string of text required as a prefix e.g. N: for Northing, then select the Value code required e.g. Point Northing and then click Insert Code to move it from the Value code field into the Label text field of the dialog.

Value code options:
Here is a list of the available value codes and what they provide

  • Delta Z (Line - Point): The elevation difference of the Point to the line (Line Z - Point Z)

  • Delta Z (Point - Line): The elevation difference of the line to the point (Point Z - Line Z)

  • Delta Z (Point - Surface): The elevation difference of the point to the surface (Point Z - Surface Z)

  • Delta Z (Surface - Point): The elevation difference of the surface to the point (Surface Z - Point Z)

  • Slope (Line - Point): The slope from the line to the point in %

  • Slope (Point - Line): The slope from the point to the line in %

  • Line Elevation: The elevation of the line at the station of the point

  • Line Elevation (inc offset): The line elevation with the vertical offset adjustment

  • Surface Elevation: The elevation of the surface at the location of the point

  • Surface Elevation (inc offset): The elevation of the surface with the vertical offset adjustment

  • Point ID: The points Number / ID

  • Point Code: The points Code

  • Point Description 1: The points description 1

  • Point Description 2: The points description 2

  • Point Northing: The points Northing

  • Point Easting: The points Easting

  • Point Elevation: The points Elevation

  • Point Station: The points Station along the reference line

  • Point Offset (2D): The points horizontal Offset to the reference line

  • Point Offset (3D): The points slope distance Offset to the reference line

  • Surface Slope: The slope of the selected surface at the point location

  • Surface Slope Direction: The direction of the surface slope at the point location

Layer:
Select the layer on which you wish to place the point labels. If you wish to create a new layer click the image button to open the New layer creation dialog.

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You can also create a new layer group from within the new layer dialog by clicking the image button next to the layer group selector.

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Refer to the New Layer Command or New Layer Control help document for more details on the New Layer functionality. Click Here

Use color band check box:
When checked you can select the value from your label definition that you wish to use for your tolerance check. The tolerance check is used to drive the color mapping of the text that you are creating using the command. e.g. Select Delta Z (Point to Line) or Delta Z (Point to Surface) etc.

Edit colors:
Click the Edit colors button to open the color mapping dialog (see below)

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Our concept for color mapping is based on their being an In Tolerance band (above and below the 0 origin), a Near Tolerance band (above and below the in tolerance band) and an Out of Tolerance band (above and below the near tolerance band). You can elect to create one color band for each, or you can subdivide any of the bands into multiple color bands to provide more detail. Our default colors are Red = HIGH (Out of Tolerance) and Blue = LOW (Out of Tolerance), Orange is Near Tolerance (High and Low) and Green is In Tolerance (Above and Below the 0 origin).

The Origin of the color map is normally 0 however you can set the Origin to be at any offset to 0 that you may require - one of the videos below shows use of a non zero origin for checking measured points against a vertically offset line 0.5’ below the measured line - the Origin for the tolerance band is then 0.5’ so that a +/- 0.04 tolerance would fall from 0.46 to 0.54’, and the near tolerance from 0.54 to 0.60 and from 0.46 to 0.40, and out of tolerance being above 0.6 and below 0.4 for example.

In the editor, simply enter the width of the band for each of the bands, and then enter the number of equal width color bands required e.g. you could enter 0.1 for the width and 5 for the number of bands so the range is 0.5 total with 5 equally spaced 0.1’ bands within that tolerance area.

The idea of In Tolerance and Near Tolerance is that while you have a target, what happens if one point only falls outside of the In Tolerance band, and what happens if it is only 0.01’ outside - is the job out of tolerance? This is always a grey area, so the Near Tolerance band allows you to create a buffer zone, where if there are just a few points in the Near Tolerance band, and that is quite narrow maybe it is acceptable and will not remedial action or rework. If the tolerances are Black and White and there is zero wriggle room then set the number of Orange bands to 1 and the width to 0 to eliminate them.

Note that the In Tolerance bands are computed from the Origin, the Near Tolerance bands are computed from the limits of the In Tolerance bands, and the Out of Tolerance bands are computed from the Origin. For example if I set my In Tolerance to +/-0.10 and my Near Tolerance to +/-0.1 and my out of Tolerance to a band width of 0.2 and number of bands to 5, the first out of tolerance band from 0 to 0.2 will be lost because it is 100% taken up by the Green and Orange bands, so I will see 4 Reds or Blues from 0.2 to 0.4, 0.4 to 0.6, 0.6 to 0.8 and 0.8 to 1.0. If the sum of the Green and Orange bands is less than the first band of the Red or Blue colors, then I would have 4.x red or blue bands, where the first band is narrower than the others, because the first part of it is occupied by the Green and Orange bands. In this way you can easily control the values at which the break points in the color scheme occur.

Label offset:
Select or enter the offset for the label from the point e.g. 0.2’ / 0.05m to create a small space between the points location and the text insertion point. You can use the slider bar or simply enter the desired value.

Label direction:
When working with a reference line, it is often required that the text labels be oriented parallel, perpendicular or at a defined angle to the selected line or alignment. When working with just a surface as the reference you may wish to rotate the labels to an absolute orientation angle on the plans.

Absolute / Relative to line selection:
If you choose the Absolute option e.g. 90 degrees, then the labels will be aligned to that absolute orientation in the model.
If you choose the Relative to line option e.g. 90 degrees, then the labels will be aligned at that orientation relative to the selected reference line.

Use case tips:
If the points are to the right of the reference line, the relative to line option will add an entered angle of 90 degrees to the lines direction to orientate the text 90 degrees to the line. If the point is on the left side of the line then the text will be rotated by -90 degrees to the line direction.

Auto Flip definition in the selected text style will be honored however when labeling with a reference line, auto flip may create results where different labels are labeled in different orientations which may make the text harder to read for the viewer - we recommend that text labeling with respect to reference lines does not require auto flip in the text style definition.

Auto adjust label checkbox:
Select this checkbox to auto adjust the justification of the text to the side of the line that the point is on. Point labels on the right side of the line will be justified with the selected text attachment location, points on the left of the line will be justified in the opposite direction i.e. if points to the right are set to Left Middle then points on the left will be Right Middle. If points to the right are set to Top Middle then points on the left will be set to Bottom Middle etc. In this way all text is written clear of the reference line.

Text Style:
Select the text style to use for the point labels. The text styles are defined in the text style manager. You can select “New style” from the pull down list of text styles to open the text style manager.

Use case tips:
We recommend that you establish appropriate text styles for the point labels in your project template in order to save having to set them up here. We recommend defining the text styles in Sheet Units, and we recommend the use of stroke fonts if you are going to be labeling a large number of points. Note that sheet unit text styles, will draw the text at the height in sheet units based on the scale defined for the plan view in Project Settings, View, Plan View, Plot Scale. Be sure to have that setting at an appropriate value for the scale of work that you are working with. i.e. a text style set to 0.06 inch high at 50 scale will result in text 3’ high on the drawing, at 10 scale the same text would be 0.6’ high.

Text attachment location:
While the text style defines the text font, text sizing, bold, italic, whiteout and auto flip type settings as well as a default justification, this setting will control where the text box is placed in relation to the point for the purposes of this command. Typically use Center Left / Right for text being drawn at an angle to the reference line, or Bottom Middle / Top Middle for text being drawn parallel to the reference line. Typically use this in combination with the Auto adjust label checkbox being enabled.

Apply
When you tap apply, the text labels will be placed and the command will ready itself for another selection set and repeat process execution. If you do not want to make a second selection and repeat the process tap Close to finish the process.

OK
Executes the command and closes on completion

Cancel
Closes the command without further execution.

Video Demonstration

The following video shows how to utilize the Label Points command


Use Case Videos

The following videos show the use of the Label Points command in a work process context. This was captured using the v5.70 update to the command.


Feedback and Enhancement Requests

If you would like to provide feedback on the use of the Label Points command or to request enhancements or improvements to the command please Click Here