Marking Strip by Code

What it does

CAPCAD_MARKING_STRIP_CONTRAN opens a form on which a longitudinal or transverse marking is described by its norm attributes:

Out of those choices comes the layer name, assembled in the SINA_HOR grammar described in Layers and the layer catalogue — SINA_HOR_<colour token>_<cadence><device>_<material>_<code>. The Layer box shows the result and is read-only: it is a consequence of the choices, not a field.

Then you give the geometric base — a stretch of alignment, the selected entities, or two points — and the command draws the marking as a polyline of constant width on the resolved layer, creating it with the colour of the colour token and a linetype generated from the cadence.

This command is bound to one norm. The code list, the descriptions under the preview and the material lists all come from the Brazilian catalogue, and the layer root is always SINA_HOR, independent of the country profile (see Notes). The codes and their descriptions are listed on the Portuguese edition of this page. On any other country profile, use Marking Strip instead: it draws the same geometry from a parametric library that ships definitions for fifteen countries.

Three constructions, three results

The chosen code decides how many lines come off each base:

• Double-line codes — the base is offset to both sides by half the internal distance for double lines (Opções tab), and the two parallels are drawn. Outside the newer paradigm, the second layer, where there is one, becomes the central stud line instead of the second parallel.
• Continuous-plus-broken codes — continuous on one side, broken on the other: also two parallels, each on its own layer.
• Every other code — a single line, on the resolved layer.

Workflow

1. Run CAPCAD_MARKING_STRIP_CONTRAN. The form opens modeless, beside the drawing.
2. On the Faixas tab, pick the code in the list on the left. The combos in the middle repopulate with the colours, cadences, widths and device cadences that code allows, and the preview changes.
3. Adjust colour, cadence, width, device and material. Watch the layer name assemble itself in the Layer box.
4. Pick the action in the lower left frame: Implantar, Manter, Remover or Revitalizar (implant, keep, remove, refurbish).
5. Pick the input mode on the inner Modo and Outros tabs.
6. Click Selecionar e converter ("select and convert"). The form hides, the command asks for whatever the mode requires, draws, and the form returns with the count in its status bar and on the command line.

The form stays open for the next marking: changing two fields and clicking again is the normal working cycle.

The form

This form has no English captions: it is shown in Portuguese in every language. The captions below are quoted in Portuguese as the software shows them, with an English gloss. The screenshots were captured in a Portuguese session, and the orange circles number the controls of each image — the numbering restarts per image, exactly as on the Portuguese edition, so the two pages stay comparable. An English render pass will replace the captures.

The Faixas tab: the catalogue on the left, the attributes in the middle, the input modes on the right and, below, the action and the extras.

Catalogue and marking attributes

Under the preview sits the description of the chosen code and, for the codes that are there only for reference, a note saying that the marking has a command of its own or is not available in this version. Those cross-references point at the crossings, the area fill and the chevrons.

Input modes — inner Modo tab

Actions, preview and situation

Input modes — inner Outros tab

The remaining input modes. Circles 1–8 and 20–44 in this image mark the same controls already described above; the numbering restarts in each image.

Modificar tab

Converts the properties and materials of markings already drawn, without redrawing them. In this version neither button is available: both answer with a warning in the status bar.

The tab's text reminds you that material can also be stored as XData and as a property set.

Utilidades tab

Shortcuts to neighbouring commands. Three work; the rest report that they are not available in this version.

Opções tab

How the choices become a layer

The name comes out of the SINA_HOR grammar in this order:

SINA_HOR _ <colour token> _ <cadence><device code> _ <material> _ <CODE> [_ <action>]

• The colour token is the two-letter one: AM yellow, BR white, PR black, and so on.
• The cadence is lower-case when it contains x (4x8), and the device code is glued to it (4x8TA4).
• The code loses its hyphen: LFO-3 becomes LFO3.
• The action appends _MAN, _REM or _REV; Implantar appends nothing.

The layer is then created with the colour resolved from the token by the active style's colour rules, and with a linetype generated to fit the cadence — mark and gap in their real proportion, the same mechanism described in Linetypes. None of this is written by hand by the command.

Remembered between sessions

Nothing. The form saves no preferences: every opening returns to the initial state — the first code selected, Valores típicos ticked, Converter entidades selecionadas as the mode, Implantar as the action, 0.30 internal distance.

The form itself is a per-session singleton: closing and reopening it brings back the same window, with whatever was filled in.

Notes

• Most of the buttons are not available in this version. This version covers the three main input modes — alignment stretch, convert selection and two-point line — and the drawing of the marking. Everything else answers in the status bar saying it is not available. The tables above mark them one by one.
• On the other four hosts, only the convert-selection path works. On BricsCAD, GstarCAD, ZWCAD and ARES Commander the input-mode choice does not exist: any click on Selecionar e converter asks for a curve selection. And there every other button — Copiar propriedades, Linetypes Explorer, Limpa via and Adicionar contraste included — answers "not available yet".
• The continuous-side radio buttons on the Opções tab have no effect. The command never consults the side decision; the continuous line always comes out on the same side. The Inverter LFO4 button is not available in this version either.
• The action suffix accumulates on a multi-segment polyline. Drawing a double line over a curve with more than one element reapplies the suffix per segment: the second lands on ..._REM_REM, the third on ..._REM_REM_REM. For a marking with an action other than Implantar, prefer a single-segment base.
• Devices are not drawn. Stud, big stud, delineator, cone and supercone enter the layer name and the linetype; no block is inserted. To insert devices, see the road library.
• The layer name is always the Brazilian one. Unlike the rest of CapCad, this form assembles the name with a fixed SINA_HOR root, independent of the country profile: an English or Spanish country profile will still see SINA_HOR_… in the box. That is consistent for a command that is bound to one norm by definition, but it is worth knowing when mixing it with the other commands.
• The DF alias exists only in the Portuguese alias file. It is not defined in the English or Spanish ones; use the full command name or the ribbon button.
• For the same marking from a ready-made definition, use Marking Strip, which brings a library of parametric definitions for fifteen countries instead of field-by-field entry.

CAPCAD_LINEARSET — the line-definition editor

CAPCAD_LINEARSET is the other route to the same result, and the reason it sits on this page: it is the reusable-line-definition approach, meant to replace the field-by-field form above. Instead of combos, you write — or load from a file — the definition as text, and the command draws its lines over a base curve.

It has no ribbon button and no shortcut: only the command name.

Between the grid and the text, a summary line says how many statements were read, whether the definition is point or linear, how many variables it declares and what its description is.

After Draw on alignment ▶, the command asks Select the base line: — any curve will do, it does not have to be the project alignment — and draws each strip statement (f) as an offset polyline, on the layer the statement names, creating the layer if it is missing. Block definitions declared in the definition are loaded into the drawing.

What it does not do: distribute signs and blocks along the path. That is the job of CAPCAD_ROAD_SET and its composer, which also explain the dctext grammar in detail — the same grammar summarised in Marking Strip. If what you want is to apply a whole cross-section, use that command; CAPCAD_LINEARSET is for writing and testing a line definition quickly.

Two observations:

• Cancelling the editor cancels the command. Only the Draw on alignment ▶ button leads to the drawing step; closing the window with the X ends without drawing.
• The editor's own captions are in English, and so are its prompts (Select the base line:, No statements to draw.).

See also

• Marking Strip — the same marking from a library definition, with fifteen countries built in.
• Layers and the layer catalogue and Linetypes — the name grammar and the generation of cadences.
• Contrast painting — the black backing, which here exists only as a disabled box.