Plant Labels Acting Strangely (Troubleshoot Plant Labels)

Issue

Something is amiss with your plant labels. You may be experiencing any of the following issues:

• You inserted a plant label, and the callout box contains no information or text – it's empty.
• The right and left sides of the same callout style are coming in at different sizes.
• The layer colors are wrong.
• The left and right versions of your labels look different – they're in completely different styles.
• You might be able to double-click a blank label and see a dialog box that includes attribute values, but those values are incorrect.
• The leader of your label may be jumping to the middle of the label lin – likely in a drawing that includes a User Coordinate System (UCS).

This list is not exhaustive; it's just a sample of some common label/callout-related issues our users have faced, which can often be resolved by a few simple steps.

Cause

Remember: Callouts are just blocks, each of which is contained in its own DWG source file. Problems can sometimes occur with these blocks that cause them to behave strangely in a drawing.

Changing the drawing units can also cause plant labels to come in blank. If your drawing units have changed, the attributes in one or more of your labels can become invisible. As a result, the label might be showing the incorrect quantity of plants.

Issues with a UCS, drawing corruption, and other drawing-side problems can also cause your labels to act strangely.

Solution

Step 1: Redefine Block.

If any of your labels or callouts seems out of order, the first and easiest step to take is to redefine the block from the source file using the REDEFINEBLOCK command. For information and instructions, see our Redefine Block documentation.

Step 2: Delete and re-place a problematic label.

If the problem is limited to just one or a few labels, try deleting those labels from your drawing. Place the label(s) again. If your units have changed, this step may resolve the issue.

Step 3: Do the left and right labels look completely different? Try this.

If your left and right plant labels are coming in with completely different appearances – not just different sizes – you might have an older label style defined in your drawing. Follow our steps to address left and right labels that look completely different.

If not, move on to the next step.

Step 4: Check for an issue with a User Coordinate System (UCS).

Are your labels' leaders jumping to the middle of the label? And does your drawing include a UCS?

If so, your UCS could be so close to a true world 90 degree (WCS) that the system is not able to position the leader properly in relation to block content in the callout because of the size of the ticks on the edges of the callout. Some of these plant callouts are custom-created multileaders (MLeaders) with text and content, so the edges of the callout have extremely small polylines in place that allow the system to snap the rest of the leader in the correct spot. In this case, you have a few options:

• Option 1: Edit your source callout blocks to make the ticks a little larger so they are recognized more easily. You would also want to block edit that callout wherever it's been in the drawing to update its definitions so they place properly.

• Option 2: Choose a different callout style that is either a block version or an MLeader version that is just underlined MText.

• Option 3: Choose a slightly larger rotation/direction when setting up your UCS so the system knows where to position everything. (This option is often not feasible on a site that has already been designed, but more to show that everything is working properly at a wider-set UCS.)

Are your leaders not jumping as described above? Does your drawing not include a UCS? Or did you try one of the options listed above and you're still having the issue with your labels? In any of these cases, move on to the next step.

Step 5: Check for Z elevations.

Are some of your labels and/or their leaders and arrows still coming in incorrectly? Examples include:

• Plant labels coming in at the wrong location – away from the plants they're supposed to point to, or off the site entirely
• Leaders pointing to the wrong location
• Arrows distorted or bent off of the leaders in an incorrect direction
• Callout box appears distorted or otherwise doesn't look right

If so, your issue may be occurring because one or more plants you are trying to label are incorrectly assigned Z elevations. For instructions, see our Z Elevation documentation.

Step 6: Use the ATTSYNC command on each label that is causing issues.

Type ATTSYNC in the Command line and press Enter. Then select each problematic label.

Step 7: If the issue persists, try cleaning your drawing and all Xrefs.

7A. Clean any attached Xrefs with either our Nuke tool or manual cleanup steps.

7B. Clean your drawing using our manual cleaning steps.

Step 8: Restart CAD.

Still having issues with plant labels? You may be able to resolve the issue at this point by simply closing and reopening CAD.

Step 9: Run the Land F/X Workstation installer.

No luck? Follow our steps to download and run the latest Land F/X Workstation installer.