Civil 3D Text Sizing - When Dynamic Labeling Isn't So Dynamic

One of Civil 3D's great benefits, transforms to grief when you can't seem to translate text sizes from model space to paper space.  If you've decided to add text to model space and want to create viewports of the model, the text may show too big, too small or not at all.  Below, I'll show you the settings you should check if you run into this problem.

The image below shows a drawing in model space with text sized at the intended size for a 1:500 scale drawing.

Image 1

Notice the station labels circled in red, as well the 1:500 scale annotation setting.  To get this text showing 1.0mm high on the 1:500 setting the label style needs to be set to 2.0mm as shown below.

NOTE: Measurement is halved since drawings in model are 1:1000 rather than 1:500, however; this will be irrelevant as shown later in the post.

Image 2

A closer inspection in modelspace shows the text size to measure at the correct 1.0mm.

Image 3

All seems to be going great.  Until you get into paperspace and create your viewports. For some strange reason your dynamic text isn't so dynamic. The situation shown below, not only doesn't display the text at the wrong size, but doesn't show it all.  Notice the text that was circled in Image 1 doesn't appear in paperspace.

Image 4

The first trouble shooting action is to check the viewport scales.  The image below shows the viewport having the same scale as model space.  In theory, the text size should be showing 2.0mm high. 

Image 5

So the grief begins....you start checking layers, creating new viewports, thawing everything.  All to no avail.  Do yourself a favor and check the Page Setup Manager.  The Page Setup Manager is accessed by right-clicking on the tab of the viewport you are concentrating on.

Image 6



The image above shows the plot size to be 11.00 x 17.00.  The Page Setup Manager's plot size will have to correspond to the size of the viewport and border in paperspace.  Revisions shown below correspond to the metric dimensions actually sized for the border.

Image 7

Assuming that all layers are thawed (including "viewport only freezes") the text labels will now be sized as originally set in the Label Style Composer (Image 2).

Image 8

Now that you've found your missing Civil 3D labels, or adjusted the text to the correct label size, you can go back to burying yourself back in the design work rather than Civil 3D settings and styles nuances.