Formatting Attributes

Hi,

I work in Land Survey/Engineering I can do a site survey and data is collected in Carlson SurvCE this can output a DXF file which I can then output to my PC and open in AutoCAD 2012 LT.

In the DXF there are Points, Lines and Attributes. Each point has the Attributes point number, code and elevation. I can easily scale all the Attributes at once and have even just learned how to Rotate using ATTEXT.

Each Elevation is quoted to 3 decimal places and I would like the ability to round this to less decimal places.

I may have found a solution with a vlx file I found, but since LT doesn't load these files I shall never know.

Is there another way?

If it's an attribute you should be able to change the precision to only one decimal. When you insert the field in the attribute to get your elevation you should see a "precision" option or something along those lines. Set that to 0.0 or however many decimal places you'd like.

Thanks for your reply Tuns,

I tried to find what you were talking about.

Modify Object, Attribute, Block Attribute Manager, (highlight attribute), Edit, L click default, R click insert field.

Beyond this I can't find the "precision"

Am i barking up the wrong tree?

If these elevations are just text in the Attribute, I think you are out of luck without some programming.

Might help if you could post a drawing file with one of these attributes.

What value are these attributes linked to? If they're just text values then why not just input less decimals? I agree with SLW. We might need an example attribute so we know what you're talking about.

Hi,

Please find attached example,

I have turned on all the attribute layers but i would only be showing elevation which as you can see does not need to be to the millimeter for earth existing ground levels.

I have solved how to rotate the figures its just the precision.

Thanks.

Attribute Example1.dwg

How did you set it to get the values that are currently there? Is it a math formula that you put in? Reason I'm asking is because there is no indication that you inserted any field values into the attributes. The only way to remove the decimals would be to backspace them out.

The values were recorded from a Survey instrument onto a data logger which runs Carlson SurvCE which can export a DXF file.

I have looked all over the Carlson software and haven't found a way of changing the precision of the blocks it creates.

There is always the option of manually rounding the values in AutoCAD ! At least I have learned how to rotate them globally.

If this has to be the case then thankyou for your help anyway.

I sorta kinda cheated, but it beats changing them 1 by 1

Attribute Example2.dwg

I went to a Carlson web site and found this information relating to elevations, maybe these will help.

You can change the precision of the elevation attributes on existing points at any time using Points > Edit Multiple Pt Attributes

click on Draw-locate points, and pick the elevations box it will allow you to pick the elevation accuracy.

Thanks SLW210 I had a look on my machine and am pursuing it on the forum Surveyor Connect.com There are a few different versions of Carlson (PC, mobile device etc) so the information may not apply.

Thanks also to steven-g. Can you give a pointer as to how you changed the values and the cells:) have a grey background can that be removed?

I just added another attribute that read the elevation attribute, and used a field formula that you can set the precision with, then made your elevation attribute invisible. the grey background is to show it's a field. If you open the block in the block editor you can see there are 2 attributes on top of each other (ELEV2 and ELEV3)

Hi Steven-g,

Please can you help with a few more pointers as to how you did this.

As it's not urgent I have been trying to figure it out over the past week or more.

I found the precision you referred to but can't find how to implement the background color or vary it.

I think I can see how ELEV2 can't be turned off independently of ELEV3.

Do I need to go into the field expression somehow?

Thanks for your help, James.

I turned off the attribute ELEV2 with the invisible property of the attribute, but only because I wanted to put ELEV3 at the same place, so that the layout looked the same, because ELEV3 actually reads the Z value of the block then ELEV2 could be deleted. The background color is just something that Autocad puts in there to show that the value is a field AFAIK you cannot choose the color it is just grey. You can turn the background off though using the FIELDDISPLAY variable.