Attach a Label to a Graphical Element (a Graphic or Symbol) - Intergraph Smart Electrical - Help - Hexagon

Technical drawings often have many labels that display important information about the objects or elements in the document. The text and graphical information in labels completes the drawing and constitutes its intelligence to the reviewer.

The textual part of a label symbol is attribute data from the database and is defined using the Smart Text Editor (in Catalog Manager). Defining text this way makes labels containing this text a true reflection of the information in the database. To help you maintain this data, you can also add and modify information as you place labels in the drawing.

Labels can have several properties. One of these properties is Placement Type, which can be either One-Point or Two-Point type. If a label is a One-Point label, the placement command automatically positions the label at an offset from the given point. If a label is a Two-Point label, the placement command allows you to reposition the label after identifying the item to be labeled with the first select.

Labels can have leader lines (lines that connect labels with graphical elements). To enable leader lines, make sure that when creating a label in Catalog Explorer, you set the Is Leader Visible label property to True.

When selecting a label in a drawing, the leader line is always visible. If you want to see the leader line of a label when it's not selected, select a label and then select on the Smart Label Modification toolbar. The leader line of that label remains visible after selecting another graphical element in the drawing. To hide the leader line, select a label and select on the Smart Label Modification toolbar again.

Dragging a label away from the graphical element that it is attached to extends the length of the leader line. This way you can see which graphical element the label is attached to.

For more information about the creation of labels, see Create a Label in the Catalog Manager help.

The following procedure explains how to attach a label to a graphical element.

You can attach a label to any of the following:

• An auxiliary graphic regardless of whether it has or has not been associated with a plant item.

• A smart symbol (compound or regular) dragged from Catalog Explorer, regardless of whether it has or has not been associated with a plant item.

• A plant item placed on a drawing.

1. In Catalog Explorer, expand the catalog node in the Tree view to display the Label folder. For more information, see .

2. In the Catalog Explorer list view, do one of the following:

• Drag an appropriate label to a graphic element in the open drawing.
  Release the mouse button when the indicator is displayed to attach the label.

• Select an appropriate label (by selecting a label in Catalog Explorer) and then hover over a graphical element in an open drawing.
  For a one-point label. select once when the indicator is displayed to attach the label.
  For a two-point label, select once when the indicator is displayed to select the graphic element to which you want to attach the label. Then, select again to place the label.
  You can place the same label multiple times when you point to a graphical element. Press ESC on your keyboard or select the right mouse button to exit the placement mode.

• After attaching a label to an unassociated auxiliary graphic, the auxiliary graphic takes on the type of the attached label. That is, you will be able to associate this auxiliary graphic only with a plant item compatible with the type of the attached label.

• After associating a symbol with a plant item, the smart text labels show the property values of the associated plant item as defined in the symbol label. Updating these properties on the same machine where the drawing is currently open automatically updates the smart text labels on the open drawing.
  If, for some reason, such a label contains no plant item property value, you can instruct the software to display a specific text indicator that you define in the General Settings of Options Manager. You can, however, leave out the text indicator, if needed. It is always advisable to press F5 to refresh the drawing data after every change that can affect all your plant drawings. See General Settings Window in the Options Manager help.

• Making a change to a plant item that has been placed on a drawing refreshes the data automatically in all the open drawings where this plant item has been placed. For example, changing a property of a motor placed on a drawing automatically updates this property on a label attached to that motor in the drawing.

• To remove a label from a drawing, right select the label and then select Remove. This action does not delete the label from Catalog Explorer library. It only removes the label from the current drawing.

If a label used in a drawing has been deleted from the Catalog Explorer library, replaced by another label, or modified in any manner, the drawings in which this label has been used becomes out of date. For details about resolving out-of-date issues, see Resolving Out-of-Date Issues in Composite Drawings.