Thanks for the feedback Tom.
there is probably a pile of coding blunders within.. it has been through many hands over the years, so really just looking for a band-aid solution.
We are using Civil 3D 2020 and do use Civil 3D label styles with the Scale Factor version when appropriate, details and visibility of the label are the issue.
Civil 3D labels have limitations regarding visibility and annotation scale when you have many details that need to restrict a label from the view, can't freeze the layer as other things are on the same layer, and can't restrict by annotation scale because Civil objects are all scales, so we use this custom routine that outputs current scale annotative mtext to serve the need.
you mentioned alternatives... is there some OTB labeling for Bearings and Distances other than the Civil 3D ones?
Kind Regards
Trevor