Legend Creation Methods

Legends are used to vary the display properties of objects based on the value of some attribute or field associated with the object. They can be used to control:

Text color.
Line color, style and weight.
Fill color, pattern or texture.

When an object is imported, the data source driver creates a default legend for each field or attribute of the object - for example, if a table contains the fields Hole Name, Depth, Azimuth and Dip, the driver generates five legends, one for each field.

Legends can be stored within the project file, another project file, or a standalone legends file for general distribution and use. See Legend Interval Types.

You can also create your own legends and apply these to any object displayed in the document. For more information about creating and editing legends see the following topics:

Legends Manager: An overview of the Legends Manager where legends can be created manually.
Create New Legend: Information about the Create New Legend wizard that creates legends automatically based on the contents of loaded data.

Legends created in one project can be used by other documents; for example, a common legend may be used to define pattern fills for lithological codes. For more information on sharing legends between documents see Sharing legends between documents.

You can also share legend definitions between different systems with the import and export facility in the Create New Legend tool.

An extensive library of pattern fills and natural surface textures is supplied with your program. You can also add your own pattern and texture bitmaps to the installed library. For more information about creating custom patterns and textures see Creating Custom Patterns and Textures.

Applying Legends

When a legend is created, it may not be automatically applied to screen data. In these situations, you will need to specify the overlay to which the new legend belongs.

Legends can be applied to overlays at multiple locations in your software:

3D properties screens, such as those displayed when double-clicking 3D data in a 3D window, or double-clicking an overlay in the Sheets or Project Data control bars.
Format Display panels, such as those displayed when formatting overlays belonging to a plot projection.
Managed tasks, as found in many Studio applications, often have control groups that allow legends to be applied to overlays of objects generated by a managed task.
Properties control bar data updates to show data relating to the currently selected overlay. You can set a legend using the control provided.