I am having an issue where my line label positioning is 1 above line and the second is one below. Looks good in TBC. I export as a VCL (points, linestrings, and text label)
Then import into Trimble siteworks on TC7 data collector. In siteworks the spacing along the line is real funky.
I haven’t tried any other format of export yet. This is just a small change on a stick of pipe. I was told by Sitech that exporting from VCE to VCL can give bugs sometimes. For full models I normally export a ttm, dxf, and csv into new project and then export as a vcl.
See attached jpeg, top is TBC bottom is SW.
Attached png is my properties in TBC.
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The issue is as follows
- You have Auto Flip turned on in TBC on the Text labels, that flips the text the right way up when it would otherwise be upside down. When you export the text as a VCL file, the VCL File has that smart, however Siteworks converts the CAD data in a VCL to a dumb DXF file when it reads it, and in that process it just reads the Text Location and the Text Value and draws the Text in its own font rather than the font it was created in. The conversion loses
a) Autoflip
b) The font used in TBC
It keeps the following
a) The Text Size
b) The text location
c) The text orientation
The fact that it loses the font means that the sizing of the text in Siteworks will be different to that in TBC (the character Height / Width and overall text Height Width will vary along with the character spacing because of the font change - this is why the text in Siteworks does not look as good as the Text in TBC
The fact that Auto Flip is not supported in DXF files means that the text may appear upside down in Siteworks when it was the right way up in TBC
Until the Siteworks group at Trimble fully support the native VCL file and stop converting the “Smart Data” into “dumb DXF CAD and TTM Surface data” behind the scenes in Siteworks, you will see these types of discrepancy between TBC and Siteworks unfortunately. DXF simply does not have all of the tools to leverage the VCL data fully e.g. 3D curves in linestrings, VPIs and 3D Nodes in linestrings, Vertical Curves and Vertical Arcs in Linestrings, VPIs defined using Offset Slope or Incoming Slope or Outgoing Slope etc. Smart Text Objects and more.
Hope that this explains at least why you are seeing what you are seeing.
VCL was developed to allow Smart Data to be taken to the field. It was developed more than 12 years ago by my team (TBC Team) for this exact purpose when I was at Trimble. To this day, the only product that truly supports VCL is Groundworks (which was also my team at Trimble) - the Earthworks System and the Siteworks System are sadly lacking in this regard and could be so much better as products if they just took the time to support the VCL files properly.
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We had this issue and it lead to rework because the contour label was misleading and sitting on the next contour over. Very frustrating.
This makes complete sense, Thank you for the detailed response. I think I came up with a workaround. Labels looks great in TBC, I always add any relevant plan pages as background images in siteworks. I think I could take my storm civil drawing and make sure plot box is sized correctly. When I capture image, I can capture one with no layers turned on but my georeferenced pdf. I would capture a second image with just georeferenced pdf and relevant line labels turned on.
I do this a lot for sharing utility maps etc. My biggest complaint is in order to make the linework show up in the captured image, I have to dim image and significantly up the transparency of the georeferenced pdf. It also helps to up the line weight. IS there a better way to make my linework “pop”?
No you have the basics down there I think - in the properties of the Image in TBC you can set the Display Style to Dimmed and that will dull it down allowing the linework to be more visible. Setting transparency allows more Black (black background) or White (White Background) to shine through - Black makes it darker, White makes it lighter with transparency (white light brightens up the image).
On your Lineweights - that will help also - go to a 0.35 or 0.5 line weight - dont gp to thick otherwise the graphics looks kind of clunky, 0.35 works for me. Also use brighter colors rather than Dark Green, Navy Blue, Black or White etc. i.e. Yellows, Oranges, Brighter Greens, Brighter Blues, Cyans work well, choose a base color and then lighten it up in Color Manager till it stands out like you want it.
These are all options in TBC, Siteworks again does not really support Lineweights etc so until they support VCL properly, you can do a lot in TBC but it is lost by the time you get it to the field.
Alan
