Marking Strip

What it does

The Marking Strip opens the Draw Set form with the road-marking folder of the library already selected (ROAD MARKING in an English session, FAIXAS in Portuguese, DEMARCACIONES in Spanish). You pick a definition on the left, choose how the base line will be obtained in the middle, adjust the variables on the right, and click Apply. The command then reads the base from the drawing and draws every line of the definition along it.

A definition is a short text (the dctext). Its lines look like this:

;@description Continuous / broken line (LFO-4)
var largura = 0.10
var distancia = 0.10
f, SINA_HOR_AM_LFO4, -(largura+distancia)/2, largura
f, SINA_HOR_AM_4x8_LFO4, (largura+distancia)/2, largura

• var name = value declares a variable. These are the rows of the Variables panel.
• f, layer, offset, width draws one line (a faixa): a copy of the base shifted sideways by offset, on layer, as a polyline of constant width. Offset and width may be expressions over the variables.
• p, sign, offset, distance, direction, left-edge inserts a sign at a station (none of the shipped road-marking definitions use it).
• ; starts a comment; ;@description and ;@preview are read as the description and the preview image.

The layer grammar

Every line's layer name is a sentence: SINA_HOR _ colour _ cadence _ code, with an optional material token (the one containing +) and an optional action suffix (_REM remove, _MAN keep, _REV renew). The command parses the name and derives the layer's colour and linetype from it:

In an English session the layer is written to the drawing in the English spelling of the same grammar: ROAD_MARK_YE_4x8_LFO2 (BR→WH, AM→YE, PR→BK, VM→RD, AZ→BL, VD→GR, LA→OR, and _REM/_MAN/_REV become _REMOVE/_KEEP/_RENEW). In Spanish it is SENA_HOR_… with BR→BL, VM→RJ, PR→NG, LA→NA. The definitions themselves always use the SINA_HOR spelling; the translation happens when the layer is created.

Colours come from the layer-domain rules: white 255, yellow 40, black 250, red 1, blue 5, orange 30, green 3; a yellow line with _REM is 6, with _MAN 253, with _REV 4; a white line with _REM is 10, _MAN 253, _REV 3. If a rule matches nothing the layer is created with colour 7.

Cadence linetypes

When the cadence token is a plain WxH, the command creates (once per drawing) a linetype named exactly like the token, 4x8, with a 4-unit dash and an 8-unit gap, and assigns it to the layer. The units are drawing units, with no scaling. Tokens that carry a device (2x2TA, TA4, CTA4) do not get a generated linetype yet: the layer is created with the right colour and the line is drawn Continuous.

Workflow

1. Run CAPCAD_MARKING_STRIP. The form opens beside the drawing with the road-marking folder selected in the folder list (5).
2. Click a definition in the list (7). Its name (8), description (9), variables (34) and preview picture appear.
3. Edit the variables (34) if needed, for example largura (width) or larguraTotal (carriageway width).
4. Choose how the base line is obtained on the Longitudinal tab (12, 15 or 17), or use the Transversal tab (18) to define the base from two edge points.
5. Set an Offset (24) if the whole marking should sit beside the base rather than on it.
6. Click Apply (select base) (33). The form hides, the CAD prompts for the base, and the lines are drawn. The status line reports how many lines were drawn.
7. Not right? Change a variable or the offset and click Update (31); click Invert (32) if the lines landed on the wrong side; Reset (29) erases the preview; Zoom (30) frames the base.
8. Click Apply again for the next base. The previous lines stay in the drawing.

The form

Numbers are the same in every screenshot of this page. The Transversal tab (18 to 22) and the dctext box (36) keep their numbers where they show.

As the command opens it in an English session: source CapCloud, folder ROAD MARKING, with "Filled in" selected so the Variables panel is populated. The list shows the entries of the active country profile.

The Transversal tab: only "2 transversal points" (18) is live; 19 and 20 are disabled.

Clicking "dctext" (35) grows the form and shows the definition text (36), which you can edit in place.

"All countries" (3) lists the library embedded in CapCad, one folder per country; here UK › 1004 with its description and variable.

Library (left column)

Longitudinal tab (how the base is obtained)

Transversal tab

Definition and offset (middle)

Variables (right) and dctext (bottom)

How the options combine

All figures below were produced by running the command's own engine (definition parser, variable substitution, offset rules and layer grammar) on a sample base line of 30.9 units, drawn dashed with an arrow at its end; the marking lines are drawn in the colour and dash pattern the layer name gives them. No CAD was involved, so the pictures show geometry only.

One definition, one or more lines

LFO-1: f, SINA_HOR_AM_LFO1, 0, largura: one yellow continuous line, width 0.10, centred on the base (offset 0).

LFO-2: f, SINA_HOR_AM_4x8_LFO2, 0, largura: the same line on a layer whose cadence token is 4x8, so the layer gets the generated linetype 4x8 (dash 4, gap 8).

LFO-3: two statements at -(largura+distancia)/2 and +(largura+distancia)/2: a double continuous line, one on each side of the base.

LFO-4: the same two offsets, but the second statement's layer carries 4x8: continuous on one side, broken on the other.

LMS-2: SINA_HOR_BR_4x8_LMS2: the colour token BR makes the lane line white.

UK diagram 1013.1 mixed (folder UK): SINA_HOR_BR_4x2_D1013.1 at -offset/2 and SINA_HOR_BR_D1013.1 at +offset/2: the TSM warning cadence (4 m mark, 2 m gap) beside a continuous line.

The cadence lives in the layer name

LFO-2 with the layer token edited from 4x8 to 2x4 in the dctext box: the norm's row for v < 60 km/h (2 m dash, 4 m gap). Nothing else changes.

Variables

LFO-3 with largura and distancia set to 0.15 in the Variables panel: wider lines, further apart. Compare with the LFO-3 figure above.

Statement offset: sign and edge

LBO: f, SINA_HOR_BR_LBO, larguraTotal/2-afastamentoBordo, largura with larguraTotal 7 and afastamentoBordo 0.1: the edge line lands 3.40 from the base, on the right of the walking direction (a positive statement offset goes right). The value is measured to the near edge of the stripe: the engine widens the offset by half the width, so the line's centre is at 3.45.

The same after Invert: the base is walked the other way, and the edge line moves to the other side.

The form's Offset box

LFO-1 drawn twice with Offset 1.75 and Offset −1.75: the base itself is moved (thin dotted lines) before the definition is drawn on it. Note that the form's positive offset goes to the left of the walking direction, the opposite of a positive offset inside a statement.

Stacked lines

"Faixa azul folga 0.05": a black contrast backing 0.40 wide on SINA_HOR_PR_2.1x1.9, a white line 0.15 wide on SINA_HOR_BR_2x2 and a blue line 0.15 wide on SINA_HOR_AZ_2x2TA. The two thin lines use tiny offsets (±0.00001) so they sit either side of the base; the TA token asks for studs, which the current linetype generator does not draw, so in the CAD that layer is Continuous (the figure shows its 2x2 cadence).

Remembered between sessions

Only the favourites: the *FAVORITES* entries are stored in your user preferences (key dc.favorites). The form itself is kept alive while the CAD session lasts, so the source, folder, offset and variables you last used are still there when you run the command again in the same session; they are not written to disk. The local library root defaults to the project's DesenhaConjunto folder each time the form is created.

Notes

• Bases from Segment from geometry are trimmed to the stretch between your two points; Convert selected entities uses each entity whole.
• Each f line becomes one polyline with constant width on its layer; existing layers are re-coloured and re-linetyped to match the name when the marking is drawn.
• A statement with offset 0 draws on the base itself; a non-zero statement offset is measured to the near edge of the stripe (the engine adds half the width). The form's Offset (24) moves the base before that, with the opposite sign convention: positive left, negative right.
• Definitions written with T lines (transverse elements such as LRE, LDP and UK 1001) and definitions that build layer names from lists (var cor = ["WH","YE",…] with &, such as Filled in, Hollow and Bordes) are not evaluated by the current engine: the T lines are skipped, and the list variables stay as written.
• Signs inserted by p lines go through the vertical-sign engine and are not part of the preview: Reset and Update leave them in place.
• The captions of the two disabled Transversal options and some prompts are shown in Portuguese in every language.