Overlapping labels

[Treehugger]

I currently use a piece of third party software to plot tree survey data to CAD drawings supplied by architects. My problem is that each tree plotted has a text label that identifies it but when the trees are close together the labels sometimes overlap or another tree overlaps the label.

Is there any way that autocad can adjust the position of the labels automatically so they are clearly visible but without being so far removed from the tree position as to be useless?

I have seen a CAD drawing where this has been done. Each tree was plotted with a label and a pointer or "string" (im not sure what the technical term would be) identified it without ovelapping. So I know its possible but I don't know how.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[Tiger]

are the lables applied by the third party software? You get DWG-files with trees with their lables there? what are the lables? If you click on them, and bring up properties, what does it say it is? A Leader? A Line and a MText? A Polyline and a Dtext? Blocks?

 

I would say that this is a case of lay-on-hands.. as in you need to manually change the positon of every lable....

[Treehugger]

Thans for your response.

The first screenshot shows the trees and text as they plot from the third party software.

 

This second image shows the drawin I was referring to where the labels do not overlap.

I hope this helps?

[Treehugger]

I was hoping that there was an alternative to laying on hands as moving 600 or 700 labels can be pretty time consuming!

[Tiger]

from just seeing the pictures, I would say that hand-laying is just what has been done. It might just be easier to plot out your drawings with the lables, then remove them from the drawing all together and add new leaders for em all.... will take time though...

[Tiger]

Depending on .. well a lot of things - I know that on occasions like this, I have simply reduced the size of the lables, then they don't clash and it's at least readable.. might be possible for you or not.

[Treehugger]

Yes that is how I have always done it in the past. Reducing the text size and manually realigning the text. It takes forever. I was hoping that autocad had its own special routine that would somehow automatically adjust the labels so they did not overlap, but I guess not.

[Tiger]

Nah sorry, AutoCAD is not that smart...at least not as far as I know

[Treehugger]

Oh well. Thanks for responding.

[qball]

what about Qselect the text by style or something, or SSX command? Then highlight the selected and change them all at once in your Properties?

Or isolate layer and matchprops from one that has been changed.

Still might have to re-align, but if the alignment with respect to the tree is all the same, you can grab them all at once and shift them over a bit.

There's a Layerlock lisp floating around on this forum that may be useful if you have to do them all individually.

[Treehugger]

Thanks for the response.

Unfortunately my autocad skills are failry minimal as I am a tree hugger and not an architect/engineer! Could you be a little more specific please?

I'm sorry I require spoonfeeding when things become too technical.

[eldon]

Of course, the real culprits here are the trees. How dare they grow so close together, and at random spacing

[Tiger]

Of course, the real culprits here are the trees. How dare they grow so close together, and at random spacing

 

We really should set up rules and regulation for the trees so that they have enough spacing, the current system really doesn't work.

 

For the recommendation to use QSelect - type QSELECT on the command line and under Object type select MText or DText, whatever it is the labels are and hit Ok. That should highlight every label in your drawing.

 

if you then bring up the properties window (type PR) you can chen stuff like size and justification, try it - it might do the trick

[Treehugger]

Not quite what I was after but at least I have leant a new useful command!

I can see that this might reduce the amount of work required.

 

Blooming trees do have a tendancy to do their own thing!