Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
16.
Click OK, and browse to your
Chapter 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.
▶
17.
Save and close the drawing.
You have just created a
file that only contains
points in the Roads
point group. You might
do this if a road designer
asks for point informa-
tion on a road that has
been surveyed.
You can view the results of successfully completing this exercise by opening
Description Keys - Complete.dwg
. The survey database was not changed as a
result of this exercise.
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
,
it means you're going to apply that style regardless of whether it's <default>
or something else. The Overrides tab in the Point Group Properties dialog box
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 use both point groups and description keys to stylize
and organize your points in the best way possible. When you're starting out,
however, you may want to pick one method or the other, completely develop
that method, and then sprinkle in the other method little by little, observing
and understanding how the two work together.
