How To Label Contour Lines On A Topographic Map

Select the contour to label. However if you begin to cross over contour lines you are either gaining or losing.

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Because its impractical to mark the elevation of every contour line on the map the index contour lines are the only ones labeled.

How to label contour lines on a topographic map. Make sure students understand that contour maps though 2 dimensional use contour lines to show elevation above sea level. The index contours are a darker or wider brown line in comparison to the regular contour lines. But you can see it gets to be a bit messy what with all those numbers.

To avoid this problem line features that represent contours can be treated as special types of line features. Topographic maps identify terrain and elevation with the use of contour lines. Point out the flattest and steepest areas on the crater lake map.

Display the images of topographic or contour maps. So if you walked along any contour line on a topographic map you would remain at the same elevation the entire time. What do contour lines on a topographic map show.

Topographic maps use a combination of colors shading and contour lines to represent changes in elevation and terrain shape. To make topographic maps easier to read every fifth contour line is an index contour. In the example below weve added labels and it should be clear that its a depression.

Every fifth contour line is a thicker index lineat some point along that line its exact elevation is listed. And how to draw contour lines. To add single contour labels click annotate tab labels tables panel add labels menu surface contour single.

You dont really know unless there is a label on the contour line. The change in elevation from one contour line to the next is always the same within the same mapmany maps have either a 40 or 80 foot contour interval. Labeling using the contour placement style.

Show students map images and introduce the activity. A map with contour lines on it is called a topographic map. How to label a contour line to show its elevation using civil 3d.

Instead of labeling every line we can let everyone know the vertical distance between the contour lines. We call that the contour interval abbreviated ci then all we do is label every fifth contour starting with the zero contour. Essentially topographic maps represent the three dimensional landscape of earth within the two dimensional space of a map.

An 80 foot interval simply means that each contour line is 80 vertical feet away from. Select the contours to label by specifying the start and end points of the contour label line. We also make the labeled lines heavier.

Contour lines are often represented by many individual line features in a gis which can result in many more labels being placed than necessary. Which trail would you take. A contour is a line that connects points of equal elevation.

Topographic Maps