Modeling the Existing Terrain Using Surfaces - AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015 Essentials - page 81

Annotating Surfaces

As you have read, surfaces are used to tell a story about the shape of a piece of
land. I have presented nearly a dozen different ways to tell that story, but I have
yet to discuss the most obvious and most common way: telling the story with
text. In the following exercise, you'll use three types of labels to annotate a sur-
face: spot elevation labels, slope labels, and contour labels.

Certification
Objective

Exercise 4.8: Annotate a Surface

In this exercise, you'll annotate a surface using spot elevation labels, slope labels,
and contour labels.
If you haven't already done so, go to the topic's web page at www.sybex.com/
go/civil3d2015essentials and download the files for Chapter 4. Unzip the files
to the correct location on your hard drive according to the instructions in the
introduction. Then, follow these steps:

1. Open the drawing named Labeling Surfaces.dwg located in the
Chapter 04 class data folder.
The top-right viewport is zoomed in to the north end of the project
near the location where the magenta centerline meets the centerline
of the existing road. Your task is to label the elevation of the existing
road where these two centerlines meet.

2. Click one of the contours to select the surface, and then click Add
Labels ➢ Add Surface Labels on the ribbon.

3. In the Add Labels dialog box, select Spot Elevation as the label type.

4. Verify that the spot elevation label style is set to Elevation Only -
Existing and the marker style is set to Spot Elevation.

5. Click Add. Snap to the northern endpoint of the magenta centerline.
A label is placed at the location you selected (see Figure 4.18).

6. Pan to the south where the road centerline bends at a 90-degree angle.
Note the steep slope to the south of the road in this area. You want to
measure and label the slope in this area to determine whether homes
can be built here and/or if guardrails will be required for the road.

7. If the Add Labels dialog box is already open, skip to the next step. If
not, click one of the contours to select the surface, and then click Add
Labels ➢ Add Surface Labels on the ribbon.