Rotate Point Marker Independently of the Point Label

Depending on the settings, grips for a Civil 3D point will allow the point to be rotated as a whole with the  label included. Of course the question/request would come up: Can I rotate the marker independently of the label? This can be accomplished, but may have restrictions depending on the UCS and view you are using in your drawing.

For my example I am going to use the bound symbol, which takes me back to my field crew days. Living and working  in New Hampshire (the granite state) we used to set a lot of granite bounds when subdivisions were complete due to local requirements. These local planning boards required the smooth face of the bound to be set aligned with the right-of-way, and they also required their plans to reflect that rotation as well. To get our point markers to rotate and have our labels stay plan readable we are going to need to change the way the label interacts with the point marker itself.

First we are going to need to edit the point label style we are using. On the General tab of the Label Style Composer we are going to take a look at the Behavior Properties, specifically the Orientation Reference. Typically this is set to Object, which “attaches” the label to the point marker. We are going to want to set this to View or World Coordinate System, which will hold the label to these two setting rather then the actual point marker. This also is dependant on whether or not your UCS is set to World Coordinate System or not, so you should take note of this because it will produce different results. Go ahead and click APPLY, OK to exit out of these dialog boxes. You then should be able to rotate those granite bounds to the planning board heart’s content!

I would like to note that the fodder for this post was provided via a conversation with fellow Support Technician and all around good guy, Almas Suljevic. Thanks Almas!