Match Spacing, Render Strip and the Horizontal Hub

This page covers the commands that work on surface marking that is already drawn — rather than drawing new marking — and the window that gathers the horizontal commands.

What it does

CAPCAD_MARKING_SPACING_MATCH — match spacing

You select a cadenced line. The command reads its linetype's mark and gap — resolving through the layer when the object is ByLayer, and multiplying both by the entity's linetype scale — and recomputes the length to the nearest multiple of the mark + gap pattern, so the line ends on a whole mark.

The end that stays put is the one nearest the point you clicked; the other one moves. The line is replaced by a new one of the adjusted length.

The command then keeps asking: C grows by one pattern, D shrinks by one pattern, any other key ends it. If the fit would change nothing, the command pushes one pattern outwards, so C always really grows.

If the entity has no dashed linetype, it reports "No spacing pattern found - nothing changed" and touches nothing.

CAPCAD_MARKING_SPACING_RENDER — render strip

The opposite: it takes lines that represent a cadence (one line, with a layer that states the cadence, or with mark and gap typed in) and draws the geometry that cadence implies — each mark as a closed boundary, or as a widthed polyline, or as boundaries to become regions.

This is what you do before plotting, measuring area or exporting: the drawing stops depending on the linetype.

CAPCAD_MARKING_SPACING_RENDER_3D opens exactly the same form. The 3D options live in it; the Surface (LandXML) option asks for a LandXML file at run time.

CAPCAD_MARKING_HUB — the horizontal hub

A window with a rail of commands on the left and the selected command's panel on the right. Each rail item opens the panel of the standalone command, and the licence is checked item by item, exactly as the standalone command would.

The rail carries one item in this version, in the Zebrado group: Zebrado 1 lado (the one-side chevron). Every other command stays reachable through its own command, and every command the hub lists goes on working on its own.

A docked panel that needs to hide itself for a pick in the drawing hides the whole hub, not just the panel; and closing the hub closes each docked form, so that each one's live preview is cleared from the drawing.

Workflow

Match spacing

1. Run CAPCAD_MARKING_SPACING_MATCH (or type AE).
2. Click the line, near the end that should stay put.
3. The line is adjusted at once.
4. Type C to grow one pattern, D to shrink one, or any other key to leave.

Render strip

1. Run CAPCAD_MARKING_SPACING_RENDER.
2. Choose how the cadence is obtained (11 or 12) and the width (1 or 2).
3. Choose the output (4, 7, 10) and its options.
4. Click Select (23) and select the lines.
5. The result is drawn; with Delete input (17) ticked the original lines disappear. Elements with no usable cadence are listed in a box at the end.

The form

The numbers below are those of the Geometry Transform form. The Info and Tutorial tabs carry only text and the video link, plus the presets combo (28), which appears on all of them.

The screenshots below were captured in a Portuguese session; the control numbering is the same in every language, and the tables quote the English captions the form shows in an English session.

The Main tab. The greyed-out controls are not available in this version, and their tooltip says so.

The Info tab: the note on how mark and space are scaled so that the pattern starts and ends whole.

Cadence

Open geometry width

Geometry output

Dimensions and dwg output

Studs, selection and presets

How the options combine

The figures below came out of the engines themselves.

Match spacing

A 4/6 strip 37.5 m long (orange, above) ends in the middle of a gap. Fitted, it becomes 34 m (blue, below) and ends on a whole mark. C would take it to 44, D to 24.

Render strip

A 30 m line with cadence 4/6 and width 0.15, output Boundary + filling: each mark becomes a closed rectangle.

The same line with output Widthed Polyline: the same marks, now as polylines of constant width 0.15.

Remembered between sessions

None of the four commands keeps preferences. The Geometry Transform form is a per-session singleton: reopening it brings back the window as you left it, but closing the drawing resets everything.

Notes

• CAPCAD_MARKING_SPACING_MATCH replaces the entity: the original is erased and a new one is created with the adjusted length. The command copies nothing but the geometry, so check the layer and linetype if the result comes out different.
• The fit always starts from the current line, so a run of C grows cumulatively.
• CAPCAD_MARKING_SPACING_RENDER_3D does not preselect the 3D options on the form: it opens the same window and you choose the dimension in 19 or 20. The 3D options are live; what is disabled is the extruded solid, the new-drawing output and the stud-as-block mode.
• CAPCAD_MARKING_HUB has no ribbon button; no command depends on it.
• Because the hub opens a command's panel without going through the command, the licence check is repeated per rail item; if the licence is refused, the hub simply stays on the previous panel.
• The hub's window title and the Cadência and Tachas group boxes on the Geometry Transform form are shown in Portuguese in every language.