Description keys: symbols from field codes
A shot coded 460 draws as a hydrant before anybody opens a picker. Here is how that works and how to override it.
4 min read
What they are
A description key matches the description on a point and decides how it draws. Backsight ships a 345-key catalogue covering the codes Canadian survey crews actually use, so an imported file is styled the moment it lands.
The order of precedence
When Backsight decides how a point looks, it asks in this order:
- Does this point have its own chosen style? Use it.
- Otherwise, does its description match a description key? Use that.
- Otherwise, use the layer's default point style.
- Then apply any per-point overrides on top, colour, size, marker, labels.
Numbers are never read as codes
The key is matched against the description only. A point numbered 101 is not mistaken for the legacy code 101.
Overriding a key
Select the points and choose a style preset, or set an override. Your choice wins over the description key from then on, and the key is left alone for everything else that uses it.
Read next
- Point styles and labelsChoose a symbol, size it in millimetres, and arrange the labels the way your office wants them.
- Field-to-finish: linework from point codesTurn coded shots into figures: curbs, fences, edges of pavement: without drawing them by hand.
- Editing points, one or a thousandChange a description, an elevation or how a point looks, for one point or every point you have selected.
Something here wrong or missing? Tell us and we will fix it.