Enhancing your site plans with accurate terrain labels can greatly improve communication and visualization in your designs. In this tutorial, we'll guide you through simple steps to generate terrain labels in Plex-Earth, helping you add elevation data directly onto your CAD drawings with ease.
Tutorial Guide:
Import Terrain
Before adding labels, ensure that your drawing is georeferenced and that the terrain data has been imported. In addition, make to select Create Terrain Model (Advanced Modelling) as the surface type to create a dynamic terrain to add the labels:
Create Labels
After importing the dynamic Plex-Earth terrain, go to the Labels tab in the Terrain Editor and tick Show Labels.
Then click Create to enable the creation of labels for Contours, Elevation, Slope, and Direction.
The drop-down list will show the following options:
The types of labels you can create with Plex-Earth are displayed as follows:
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Contour Labels: Use your mouse to create connected imaginary lines that will be perpendicular to the orientation of the contour labels.
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Elevation Labels: Click anywhere on the terrain to insert points on that point you clicked on.
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Slope Labels:
In the command line, select if you want a one-point or two-point slope label- One-point: Specify a point to insert the label in
- Two-point: You will be asked to specify a first and second source point for the label
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Direction Labels: Use your mouse to specify a point to insert the label in
Remove Labels
Click on Remove to enable label elimination.
The drop-down list will show the following options:
Edit Labels
You can then edit the Text Height, Arrow Length and Head size (for Slope and Direction Labels), and Point Size (For Elevation Analysis). Following tick the label type you want to be visible, pick the color of your choice, and click Apply.
FAQs
What do I need before I can add terrain labels?
Terrain data and/or analysis must already be imported. Without any of these in place, the Labels tab in the Terrain Editor will not produce meaningful results. See the Georeference: Introduction and Create Terrain articles if you have not completed these steps yet. Select 'Create Terrain Model' as the surface type. You can also create terrain from your own objects (contours and/or points) or survey measurements.
What types of terrain labels can I create with Plex-Earth?
Plex-Earth supports four label types: Contour Labels (placed along contour lines perpendicular to their orientation), Elevation Labels (click anywhere on the terrain to insert a point elevation), Slope Labels (one-point or two-point), and Direction Labels (placed at a specified point to indicate flow or aspect direction).
How do I add labels to my terrain?
Open the Terrain Editor and go to the Labels tab. Tick Show Labels, then click Create and select the label type you want from the drop-down list. Follow the on-screen prompts to place the labels in your drawing.
What is the difference between one-point and two-point slope labels?
A one-point slope label inserts a slope annotation at a single location you click on the terrain. A two-point slope label asks you to specify two source points and calculates the slope between them. Use two-point when you need to show the grade between two specific locations rather than at a general point.
How do I edit label appearance after placing them?
In the Labels tab, you can adjust Text Height, Arrow Length and Head Size (for Slope and Direction labels), and Point Size (for Elevation labels). Tick the label types you want visible, choose your colors, then click Apply to confirm the changes.
Why is my color change only affecting contour labels and not the others?
The color box next to Text Height controls only Contour label color. To change the color of Slope, Elevation, or Direction labels, click the individual color box next to each label type before clicking Apply.
Related Questions
This article explains how to add contour, elevation, slope, and direction labels to terrain in AutoCAD, Civil 3D, or BricsCAD using Plex-Earth. You may have searched for:
- How do I add elevation labels to a CAD drawing?
- How do I label contours in AutoCAD with Plex-Earth?
- How do I show slope percentage on terrain?
- How do I change terrain label color or size?
- How do I remove terrain labels from my drawing?