How to make text tags view independent so they can be read from any angle in a 3D design?

Background

View Independent text "faces" the user when viewed from any side. While Text Elements can be set to be View Independent, Tag Elements cannot. Text that is part of intelligent objects such as equipment are often Tag Elements. This article describes how to link View Independent Text Elements to tag values so that the text elements face the user from any angle and will be updated when the tag value changes.

Rotate View is used to view the elements at different angles in the above animation. The "L6" text is View Independent and always faces the user, while the "LCS6" text is View Dependent.

Steps to Accomplish

1. Open the DGN file containing the text.
2. Select the Place Text tool (Tools > Text > Place Text).
3. On the Text Editor that appears, right-click in the area where you type and select Insert Field.
   
4. On the resulting Field Type box, set Field Type to "Element Properties".  
   
   Click OK.
5. The status bar should be prompting "Place Text > Identify Source Element for Field Properties". Select the text (tag) that you want to make View Independent.
6. On the resulting Fields Editor dialog, select the Value row.
   
   Click OK.
7. In a Top view, place the text element on the drawing in the desired position.
8. Close the Text Editor.
9. Select the new text on the drawing and open Element Information (Element > Information or CTRL+I).
10. In the Extended category on Element Information, set the View Dependent property to "View Independent".
    
11. [Optional] Hide the original Tag Element using the Tools > Text > Tags > Edit Tags tool to turn off the Display property for the tag.

Other Notes

Fields are identified by their gray background color. This color is not displayed on printed output. To hide the background color on the screen, set the Hide Field Background check box on Workspace > Preferences > Text.

If changes to the tag value are not automatically updated in the View Independent text, follow the procedure described in the Set DGN files to update fields automatically article.

Keywords: BRCM, orientation, oriented, viewable, direction, side view, front view