Control Point Display Using Point Groups Rather Than Layers

Civil 3D drawings have many layers. It is much easier to switch the display of the point groups rather than create layer states for each point-visibility scenario.

A point can belong to more than one group at once. For instance, a water valve cover with levation may be in a Topo group to be used in the definition of the surface, a Utilities group since it is part of the utilities point data, and the _All Points group since this is the default Civil 3D all-inclusive group. In these cases, the order in which the point groups are displayed in Prospector determines which point group controls the display of a specific point.

In this exercise, we will walk you through an example of how point group display order works:

1. Open the drawing 0307_PointDisplay.dwg or (0307_PointDisplay_METRIC.dwg).
2. In Prospector, right-click Point Groups and select Properties (see Figure 1).

   Figure 1:  Select Point Groups ➢ Properties to change point group display precedence.

3. Using the arrows on the far right of the Point Groups listing, select Utilities and move it to the top of the list.
4. Move No Display so that it is listed directly below Utilities, as shown in Figure 2.

   Figure 2:  The order in which the point groups appear in this list controls precedence.

5. Click OK. If the displayed objects are not updated to reflect the change, run a regen command.
   Notice that only points defi ned by the Utilities group are visible.
6. Experiment with changing the order of the point groups using the properties.
7. Save the drawing.

To compare your work with a completed example, see 0307_PointDisplay_FINISHED.dwg or (0307_PointDisplay_METRIC_FINISHED.dwg).