CapSign — sign designer

What it does

CapSign is CapCad's sign layout tool: it assembles a traffic sign from its content instead of from drawn lines. There are three doors into the same tool, plus a shortcut to a third-party designer that feeds the same library:

The sign model, in design terms

A sign is a stack of modules. A module is a plate — the rectangle painted in the background colour — plus the border (the fillet running round the plate) and the content.

In a stack of modules, each module's border opens on the joining side and a seam bar is drawn between them: that is how a sign built from two or more plates is represented. This can be switched off (the Module seams option in the editor), and then each module becomes an independent sign with a closed border.

Inside a module, the content is made of elements:

Relations: what makes the sign recompose itself

No element has coordinates of its own. Each one (except the first in the module) anchors to another, saying which of its nine reference points touches which point of the reference element, with a gap between them. Three refinements sit on top of that:

• Vertical only / horizontal only — align on one axis and leave the other free ("stay below him, but do not move horizontally").
• Compound reference — the element anchors to the bounding box of two or more elements at once ("centred under both lines").
• Displacement — a fine X/Y adjustment applied after positioning.

In the editor you type none of this: drag the element and CapSign infers the relation from where you dropped it — which reference, which pair of points, which gap. The gap is measured from the geometry, not typed. If a drag would create a circular dependency the move is refused with "Move rejected (would create a cycle)".

Delete an element that others depended on and the dependants are re-anchored so they stay where they were ("Deleted (dependents re-homed)").

Series (alphabets)

When you do not choose a series, CapSign detects it: a line entirely in capitals comes out in series D; any lower-case letter sends the line to Em. There is also a rule of its own for "km" and "m": the unit comes out in the lower case of series Em even inside a series-D line, so that "80 km" composes correctly.

There is no series A.

Minimum letter height: 50 mm. Below that CapSign refuses the line and the sign is not assembled.

What the norm decides on its own

Once the content is in place, CapSign computes from the area of the plate:

The default gap between elements is 3/4 of the letter height — the value the editor's 3/4 h button applies and the one the message line spacing uses. The considerations panel of the templates form records the full pair the norm gives: horizontal spacing 3/4 d, vertical 1.5 d.

Once the minimum size is known, width and height are rounded up to the next available sheet value (0.5 · 0.8 · 1 · 1.2 · 1.5 · 2 · 2.5 · 3 · 3.5 · 4 m in the templates form; the 5 cm grid in the editor). The form warns in red when the width or the height exceeds 4 m ("Medidas chapa não OK").

There is also a letter-height-by-speed table, which fills the H field automatically:

Above 80 km/h in the urban column the table defines no value: the H field is left empty and you choose.

These tables are fixed, not switched per country profile. The area table, the 3/4 h spacing, the sheet-value list and the speed table above are the same whatever the active country profile is. Check them against the norm of your own profile before publishing; where they differ, type the letter height and lock the plate dimensions by hand.

The sign file

The document is saved as .capsign (JSON). CapSign opens two dialects with the same Open command:

• the native format, with the elements, the relations and the sign options — this is what the editor writes;
• the simplified JSON (sign › modules › lines), which is what the AI produces and what you would type by hand for a quick test. On opening, it is converted into editable elements and relations. The conversion is one-way and partial: pictograms, signs identified only by a catalogue code, and lines with several segments are refused with the reason.

Keep the .capsign with the project: it is what lets you reopen the sign and change its content. The published dwg is the drawn result, not the definition.

Storing the definition inside the drawing is not available in this version: the .capsign file is the only place the definition lives.

Workflow

Composing in the editor

1. Run CAPCAD_CAPSIGN. The CapSign window opens beside the drawing.
2. File › New: choose a model under Start from: and give the Project letter height (mm). Every model produces real elements.
3. Add content from the Elements group: Text, Box, Arrow, Picto, Border, Background, Module. Text, Box, Arrow and Picto enter a placement mode: a ghost follows the cursor, the snap is previewed and the click drops the element (Esc cancels). Border and Background ask you to click the element to wrap.
4. Adjust in the right-hand panel: sign colour, project letter height, corner radius, and the line-spacing, Sheet-metal values (5 cm) and Module seams options.
5. To edit a message, double-click the text on screen: editing happens on the sign itself, in the letters of the series, with the caret drawn at the position CapSign measured. Enter creates the next line, Esc cancels. F2 does the same through the selection.
6. File › Save writes the .capsign.
7. CAD › Draw in CAD draws the sign in the current drawing. If the current drawing is empty the sign is drawn in it; otherwise a new drawing is opened for it.

Publishing the sign into the project

1. Run CAPCAD_CAPSIGN_TEMPLATES and use Importar do editor… (34) to bring the .capsign in — the sign is composed and drawn.
2. Fill in the Código (29), tick Salvar placa em projeto (30) and, if you want the sheet, Gerar detalhamento (31).
3. Salvar (28) writes <code>.dwg into the project-signs folder, a <code>.txt file with the searchable content of the sign, and — when asked — DET\<code>-DET.dwg.
4. From then on the sign appears in the sign insertion command, under project signs, like any other library sign.

Starting from a photograph

1. Run CAPCAD_CAPSIGN_AI, 1. Abrir imagem (37), 2. Analisar imagem com IA (40) and check the JSON that appears in the box (39).
2. 3. Gerar placa (47) draws the sign that was read, or Abrir no editor (51) takes the definition into the editor, where it becomes an editable sign.

The forms

Numbers are the same in every screenshot of this page; each control keeps its number wherever it appears.

Templates CapSign and CapSign AI show Portuguese captions in every language, so the tables below quote the caption you will see and give the English meaning beside it. The editor is fully translated: its Language box switches between Português, English and Español live, and this page quotes its English captions.

Templates CapSign (CAPCAD_CAPSIGN_TEMPLATES)

Opening state: the "Mensagens simples" (Simple messages) template selected. The blue strip under the list shows where the criterion, the project, the alignment and the project-signs folder come from — in red when there is no active project.

The ***CONSIDERAÇÕES*** item of the list shows, inside the form itself, the rules CapSign applies.

Templates (left column)

The items of the list, in order:

Content (the "Mensagens simples" panel)

Modules (bottom left frame)

Dimensions (bottom centre frame)

Output (bottom right frame)

Controls that appear only after the first module, and are therefore not numbered in the screenshots: the Referência list (Abaixo, Acima, Esquerda, Direita, on a light blue background) and the Emendar box, both beside button 14.

CapSign AI (CAPCAD_CAPSIGN_AI)

The Imagem (Image) tab: one photograph at a time — open, analyse, generate.

The Batch tab: up to ten photographs at once, each sign drawn 3 units above the previous one, with the photo beside it.

Header

The Imagem tab

The Batch tab

Below the models sit the progress bar and the batch status line.

The interactive editor (CAPCAD_CAPSIGN)

The editor is a WPF window called CapSign, opened integrated with the CAD (it is not a separate executable). One window per session. With no CAD host active, the CAD buttons are hidden and the editor works as a standalone designer.

Command ribbon

Models offered under New (all of them produce editable elements and relations). The model names themselves appear in Portuguese:

Besides those, any .capsign, .json or .txt dropped into the models folder appears in the list as a starting point — just put the file there.

Right-hand panel

• NEW TEXT — Content, H letra (mm) (letter height), Serie (alphabet) for the next text.
• SIGN — Colour (preset), the project letter height, the corner radius, and the options for line spacing at 3/4 h, Sheet-metal values (5 cm), Module seams, Sign preview and Detail sheet (DET) (read-only view).
• DIMENSIONS (m) — type to lock — W and H, each with an auto button: typing a value locks that dimension about the centre; auto gives the automatic computation back.
• MODULE (m) — Module colour (or (scheme), following the sign), Respiro (breathing gap) and Delete empty module.
• NEW BOX SIZE (m) — width and height of the next box.
• SELECTED ELEMENT — depending on the type: Text, letter height, Serie, Colour, fill colour, corner radius, the anchor distance (with a 3/4 h button that applies the norm's gap), Margin (m) on the elements that wrap another one, Width (m) and Height (m).
• Show all relations — draws the anchors of every element, not only of the selected one.

A handful of panel labels stay in Portuguese even in English mode: the project letter height, the corner radius, the 3/4 h line-spacing checkbox, the anchor distance and the fill colour.

On the canvas — the unit is the metre. A click selects; a drag re-anchors; a double-click on a text edits it in place; the mouse wheel zooms under the cursor; a middle-button drag pans; a middle-button double-click frames the whole sign; Del deletes. The status line at the bottom reports every action.

How the options combine

Every figure below was produced by running CapSign's own engines — the editor templates, the relation solver and the CAD-free draughtsman — and drawing the result exactly as the CAD would receive it.

A sign from messages

Simple messages template, two lines at 150 mm, guidance category: 1.80 × 0.70 m, 1.26 m². The border, the breathing gap and the corner radius come from the area table; the lines come out in series D because the text is all in capitals.

The same sign from the JSON definition that the "Exemplo" button (58) writes — mixed-case place names, which sends the lines to series Em. 1.90 × 0.70 m.

Modules and seams

Two modules: one line at 200 mm above two lines at 150 mm. The borders open on the joining side and the seam bar marks where the plates meet. Note that the modules are equalised to the width of the wider one.

The editor's "Two modules" model, with the same seam rule.

Editor models

"Several messages": three lines spaced by the norm, 1.86 × 0.92 m at 150 mm.

"Boundary sign": the whole sign comes out in the information category (blue) and the header is a module of its own above the module with the names — hence the seam between them. The header comes out one letter-height step below the names.

"Guidance (destinations + distances)": destinations aligned left and distances in a column on the right. The distance of the widest line (name + gap + distance) is the column's anchor; the others align to its right edge horizontally and to the centre of their own line vertically — which is why the column stays right-aligned without anyone positioning it.

"Guidance (destinations)": each destination with its own arrow. The arrows are a schematic shape today, at the size and side gap the norm asks for at the chosen letter height.

Colour categories

The same message in the categories of the Cor list (13), in the order warning, information, regulatory, roadworks, guidance and tourist. The educational category is not shown because it uses the same scheme as regulatory (white background, black detail). Each category picks the plate background colour and the detail colour (border and text). The colours in the figure are the editor's display colours — in the drawing the sign comes out in the corresponding CAD colour indices, and the warning plate is the norm's yellow, not the orange tone of the preview.

Remembered between sessions

Only the editor language (Português / English / Español) is written to the user preferences and restored the next time it opens. The Templates CapSign and CapSign AI forms always open at their defaults: template Mensagens simples, H 150 mm, Rural road type, Orientação colour, Lista de valores rounding, Manter dwgs abertos ticked; and in CapSign AI, the Conteúdo da placa prompt, Normal mode, the Opus model, and Deletar o último, Arredondar medidas (5cm) and Incluir condição ticked.

What really persists is the files: the .capsign you saved in the editor and the sign published into the project-signs folder.

Notes

• The templates form is beta and says so. Only the Simple messages template assembles a sign in this version; the other panels are not available in this version, and their buttons answer with a notice saying so. The complete route to an arbitrary sign is the editor (CAPCAD_CAPSIGN), and then Importar do editor… here, to save it into the project and generate the detail sheet.
• The empty-drawing rule. When the first module is created (or when importing from the editor), if the current drawing is empty the sign is drawn in it; if it holds any entity, a new drawing is opened. The project and the alignment are read from the drawing the command was run in.
• Each redraw erases the previous one. While the form is open, the sign is erased and redrawn on every change — only the last drawing survives.
• Saving requires a project. With no active project carrying a project-signs folder, Salvar warns and writes nothing. That folder is the same one the sign insertion command reads for project signs, and the same one PlacaPro must point at in its EXPORTAR menu.
• Pictograms and shields are read from the ...capcad/support/capsign/ folder.
• The AI does not do everything. CapSign refuses, with the reason stated: definitions holding more than one sign ("process one at a time"), signs identified only by a catalogue code (insert the library block instead), the guidance type (destinations + distances, not available in this version), the pictograms type, and arrow, pictogram or shield elements inside a multi-module sign. Text lines and stacked modules work.
• Arrows and pictograms in the editor are schematic shapes: the direction, the normative size and the placement are right.
• The detail sheet always labels the series as Em and the colour as white in its messages frame, even when the sign uses another series or another colour. Check that label before publishing the sheet.
• On the other CADs. The templates form runs on all five CADs. The interactive editor, however, only opens on AutoCAD: on BricsCAD, GstarCAD and ZWCAD the CAPCAD_CAPSIGN command answers on the command line that the hosted editor is not available there, and on ARES Commander it answers with the "coming soon" notice. The Editor... button (35) of the templates form shows a "no host available" notice on those CADs. CAPCAD_CAPSIGN_AI and CAPCAD_SIGN_PLACAPRO exist on AutoCAD (ARES reports that they are not available).

The PlacaPro shortcut (CAPCAD_SIGN_PLACAPRO)

PlacaPro is another company's sign layout software (www.placapro.com.br), licensed and bought separately. CapCad does not embed it: the command only opens a notice with three actions.

In other words: PlacaPro and CapSign stock the same shelf. A sign from either one appears in the sign insertion command as a project sign, with the difference that a CapSign sign has a .capsign behind it that you can reopen and edit.