Civil 3D Tip: Civil Object Labels Not Appearing in Viewports

April 18, 2025

In Civil 3D 2023.2 and newer versions, civil object labels that are not entirely within a viewport do not display by default. The labels will plot, but are not shown in paper space. This is due to new labeling settings introduced in Civil 3D 2023.2. This is controlled by the AeccViewportOpt setting.

AeccViewportOpt set to ON in paper space:

Model space:

The basepoint for the highlighted label is about 500 feet further to the west.

AeccViewportOpt set to OFF in paper space:

Tags: 2023.2, Civil 3D, Civil Objects, Viewports

Geoff Ashworth

Geoff has been working in the civil/survey industry since 2000 as a survey crew chief and civil designer. He has worked on a variety of projects from survey field to finish surveys, DOT plans, lead grading on landfills and site plans. Geoff has experience working in both MicroStation and Civil 3D and has led the transition to Civil 3D from previous design softwares at several engineering firms.

2 comments on “Civil 3D Tip: Civil Object Labels Not Appearing in Viewports”

Charles Reply 09/27/2025 9:56am

Geoff, thank you very much for posting this. I was having issues with my parcel face labels not showing in viewports and this was the solution.

Do you know why this setting exists? Are there times when you wouldn’t want to see the label displayed in the viewport?
Geoff Ashworth Reply 09/29/2025 8:13am

Autodesk introduced that setting in Civil 3D 2023.2 to improve performance in viewports defined as Section views.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/CIV3D/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-F6EA5D6A-34A9-4F58-94EF-B4BB2BB21B3D