Auto Labels drawing on top of features no matter how I cahnge settings

Sean_Gambrel

Hello. Having trouble with contour labels. Using the Maplex engine. Have a reference scale set in the map. Have set feature weights for all layers to 1000 (both feature and polygon boundaries as appropriate), except for contours which have a weight of 1. Have set the barrier weight for all graphics to high. Have set the label buffer to as high as it will go (50%). Remove all duplicates is set. Set the minimum label repeat to 2000 map units (feet). Contour labels are still drawing over features and graphics. Setting labels as background doesn't help.

These are literally part of the backdrop to a map so I really don't care where they're placed, so long as they're at the bottom. Switching them to graphics or annotation is fairly impractical because, again, I don't really care where they are placed as long as they're at the back.

What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions on things to try? Thank you!

Robert_LeClair

What you’re running into is that Maplex weights/barriers affect label placement (conflict resolution), not the draw order. So even if Maplex tries to avoid your features/graphics, it can still place a contour label on top of them when it can’t find free space, and “Send labels to back/background” won’t force them to render underneath other layers.

Here are some steps you can try:

1. Make sure you’re not forcing placement. For the contour label class, check Maplex conflict settings and confirm you are not using a “Never remove / always place” type behavior. If labels are forced, they will overprint by design.
   
2. Verify weights are applied to the actual obstacles. Feature weights only help if the conflicting items are being passed to Maplex as barriers. If you’re using definition queries/scale ranges so some features aren’t actually drawing, they also won’t act as barriers. For graphics/annotation/dimension, confirm you set Graphic Layers barrier weight (Weights > Graphic Layers tab), since that’s separate from feature weights.
   
3. If your requirement is strictly “contour labels must appear under everything,” Maplex can’t guarantee that. To truly ensure features draw above the contour text, you typically need a masking workflow (feature masks, halos, or converting the contour labels to annotation and controlling draw order there). Maplex weights won’t change stacking/drawing order.