Once points have been grouped, you can use them to study and manipulate multiple points at once. The groups are listed in Prospector, and you can view the points contained in each group simply by clicking the group name and viewing the contents of the point group in the item view at the bottom (see Figure). In addition, many point editing commands allow you to select points by group, enabling you to modify large numbers of points at once.
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| The contents of a specific point group shown in the item view of Prospector |
To use point groups to organize points in your drawing and control their appearance, follow these steps:
- Open the drawing named Point Groups.dwg or (Point Groups.dwg (METRIC)) located in the Exercise_03 class data folder.
- On Prospector, right-click Point Groups and select New.
- On the Information tab of the Point Group Properties dialog box, type Buildings in the Name field. Select Basic as the Point style and <None> as the Point label style.
- Click the Raw Description Matching tab. Check the box next to BLD* and click OK.
- Expand Point Groups, and click the Buildings point group in Prospector. Examine the list of points shown in the Prospector item view at the bottom. Note that they all are points with a BLD description.
- Create the following point groups with the associated raw descriptions listed. Use a default Point Style value of Basic and a default Point label style of <None> for each point group.
- Breaklines: BOB, BOTD, SWL, TOB, TOPD
- Roads: CLRD, DW, EP, ES
- Vegetation: ESHB, TL, TR
- Fences: FNC
- Ground Shots: GS
- Click the Settings tab, and expand Point ➢ Description Key Sets.
- Right-click Essentials, and select Edit Keys.
- Hold down the Shift key to select all rows except the last one (TR*). Then right-click the Style column heading and select Edit.
- Select <default> and click OK. Click the green check mark to close Panorama.
- On Prospector, right-click the All Points point group and select Apply Description Keys. This applies the new style choice of <default> to all points except trees. Now the point style assigned by the point groups is able to have an effect, and most of the points change from x markers to circle markers.
- On Prospector, right-click the Ground Shots point group and select Properties.
- On the Information tab, select Ground Shot as the default Point style and Elevation Only as the default Point label style. Click OK and notice what happens to all of the ground shot points in the drawing.
- Click the Output tab of the ribbon, and then click Export Points.
- Check the box next to Limit to Points in Point Group, and choose the Roads point group.
- Click OK and browse to your Exercise_03 class data folder. Enter Road Points as the name of the file and click Open. Then click OK to dismiss the Export Points dialog box.
In the previous exercises, you made some corrections and assigned a specific linework code set and figure prefix database to the data you imported. In an actual production environment, the changes you make to the description key set should be incorporated into the company template so that the tree points are handled correctly for all future jobs. The point groups you create could also be included in the company template so that they’re available on all future jobs. In addition, the linework code set and figure prefix database that you use could be assigned as defaults so that they are automatically applied to future data imports. A CAD manager typically handles this type of configuration management, but end users like you usually identify the needs for the changes. When you are working with Civil 3D in a production environment, be sure to work with your CAD manager to make sure that you and your coworkers are leveraging the configuration of Civil 3D as much as possible.Point Groups vs. Description Keys
At this point, you may be scratching your head a bit, thinking that a few minutes ago you learned that description keys control the point style and point label style assigned to a point. Well, you’re right—they do. However, you may have also noticed that when you assign these styles using description keys, the choice at the top of the list in each case is <default>. This choice could (and maybe should) be changed to say ByPointGroup, because that’s what it essentially means. When you configure your description keys to use <default> as the style, you’re deferring the decision about what style to use for the point groups. If you choose anything else, you’re making that decision right then and there.
Feel better about it? Well, unfortunately, there’s another feature to consider that makes this a little more complicated but also gives you even more flexibility when stylizing points. One of the properties of a point group is the ability to set up an override. When you set up a point style or point label style as an override, that means you’re going to apply that style regardless of whether it’s <default> or something else. There is an Overrides tab on the Point Group Properties dialog box that enables you to do this.
If you’re wondering whether point groups or description keys are best to use, the answer is both. By thoroughly understanding how each method can be applied to your point data, you can leverage both point groups and description keys to stylize and organize your points in the best way possible. When starting out, however, you might want to pick one method or the other and completely develop that method, then sprinkle in the other method little by little, observing and understanding how the two work together.