Learning Civil 3D: Creating a Pipe Label Style….with Inverts.

You’ve come this far….great! Crack open a couple Attaboys. or Attagirls. A pipe network has been created in your Civil 3D model. You’ve laid it out in plan view and have even established inverts that flow. However, inverts elevations don’t help in plan view, so you have to show the inverts on profile view as part of the construction documents. Of course, you know Civil 3D has this capability but you’re not sure how to access it. Well….this post will show you!

I’m going to assume you have some kind of pipe network modeled in, similar to below. In the image below you’ll notice I have three arbitrary pipe runs – from the top down: sanitary, storm, water.

Image 1

You’ve also managed to create a Profile View and project the pipes onto the Profile View. If you haven’t figure out how to add the structures/pipes to the Profile View, you’ll find a simple right-click will give you the answer you’re looking for.

Image 2

You’ll notice in the image below that Sanitary Structures (Red) are already labelled. We’ll run through making edits to a style that includes invert information.

Image 3

There are several ways about going about this, but let’s just start with any label by selecting any Storm Structure (Green), right-clicking and selecting Add Label.

Image 4

The default label styles set in this drawing shows a label without inverts. My label style shows Rim Elevation and relative alignment information (Yours, almost certainly, will look different and you’ll have to make adjustment for aesthetics).

Image 5

To begin to make adjustments to the Label Style, right-click on the label and select Edit Label Style. The Structure Label Style dialogue box opens.

Image 6

From the Structure Label Style dialogue box, click the drop-down box. It’s always a good idea to make a copy of the current selection, as shown below.

Image 7

After you made a copy, feel free to make modifications at will to change the aesthetics of the label. While you’re in there, add a new Component by selecting Text for Each as shown below.

Image 8

Select Structure All Pipes as shown below.

Image 9

In the Text category, select in the Contents field to give you access to the Text Component Editor. Since you used Text for Each you’ll have the options pertaining to the connected pipe(s). Notice below, I used Connected Pipe Direction and Connected Pipe Invert Elevation (don’t forget to hit the arrow to add the information to the list).

Image 10

Again, you’ll have to make some adjustment as far as Anchor Components and Attachments go.

Below, I’ll show you what worked for me……Keep in mind, the first (Image 11) is the general component and the second (Image 12)is the new component that has invert information.