The CapCad Project


What it is	A folder on disk holding a `project.config` file, plus the `capcad` dictionary written inside the drawing
Where the drawing keeps the link	The dwg's `capcad` dictionary
Configuration file	`project.config` — JSON, at the root of the project folder
Main command	`CAPCAD_PROJECT_MANAGER` (Project Manager)
Also set by	`CAPCAD_ALIGNMENT_MANAGER` (Manage tab), `-CAPCAD_PROJECT_SET` (command line)
Form	`ProjectManagerForm` (modal, 7 tabs)
Hosts	AutoCAD, BricsCAD, GstarCAD, ZWCAD, ARES Commander

A CapCad project is a folder the drawings point at — not a file you open. It answers the questions every CapCad command asks before drawing anything: which alignment, which style, which coordinate system, which folder the signs and blocks come from.

One place for the conventions. Style, coordinate system, criteria and every library folder live in a single project.config, shared by all the drawings that point at the same folder.
The drawing carries the link. The project folder and the active alignment are written inside the dwg, so the file still knows which project it belongs to after it is copied or sent on.
It works with no folder at all. With no project folder set, CapCad writes everything into the drawing itself and carries on: useful for a one-off dwg, a quick study or a file that came from outside.
Folders with sensible defaults. Each library category (signs, blocks, typical sets, road markings, presets) resolves down a chain: the project value, the relative value, the drawing value, then the local library of the active country profile.
Relative paths. A folder written as \custom_signs is resolved under the project folder, so the whole project can be moved or handed to another office with nothing to reconfigure.
Automatic resume. CapCad remembers the last project folder and last alignment used, and offers to reuse them when you open a drawing that has no project yet.

What a project is

A CapCad project is made of two things:

A folder on disk containing a project.config file — a JSON with the project's settings.
A capcad dictionary written inside the drawing that says which folder this dwg belongs to and which alignment is active.

No file is "opened" to enter a project. You point the drawing at the folder (in the Project Manager or in the Alignment Manager), and from then on every CapCad command run in that drawing resolves its settings from it.

The project counts as active when the folder is set and exists on disk. If the folder was set but is no longer there (a network drive down, a folder renamed), the project is not active and nothing is written to project.config.

The project name is the ProjectName item of project.config when it is set; otherwise it is the last folder name of the path.

The two places settings live

Store	Where	What it holds
`project.config`	JSON file in the project folder	Per-project settings: style, coordinate system, library folders, criteria, project name
`capcad` dictionary	Inside the dwg	Per-drawing settings: which project folder, which alignment file, and the fallback values when there is no project

project.config is a two-level JSON: tag → item → value. The default tag is General; a few sections have their own tag (ProjectOverridenStyle, vertical).

Every setting read follows this order:

project.config, under the tag asked for;
if that comes back empty, the drawing's capcad dictionary;
if that is still empty, the default value the calling command supplies.

Every write goes to project.config, and only happens when there is an active project folder.

Drawing as project (no folder set)

When the drawing has no project folder, CapCad does not stop: it enters the mode the form's own help announces — "If not defined, data will be recorded in the dwg itself".

In practice:

The project.config store is empty in memory and every read falls straight through to the drawing dictionary.
The chosen coordinate system is written to the key capcad.dwg.coordsys inside the dwg instead of going to project.config.
The chosen style is only held in memory for the session (the drawing's own capcad.dwg.style record is still read normally).
The library folders keep resolving from the drawing's capcad.dwg.folder.* keys and from the local library defaults.

It is the natural mode for a one-off dwg, a quick study or a file that arrived from another office. You can set a folder at any moment and the drawing starts writing into it.

What is stored, and where

Key	Store	Content
`CapCad.Alignment.Path`	dwg	This drawing's project folder
`CapCad.Alignment.Name`	dwg	File name of the active alignment (`<name>.capcad`)
`CapCad.Folders.Alignments`	config	Alignments folder (optional; the project folder itself by default)
`CapCad.CoordSys`	config	The project's coordinate system
`capcad.dwg.coordsys`	dwg	Coordinate system written into the drawing
`CapCad.Paradigm`	config	The project's style (a cloud name or the path of a `.capstyle`)
`capcad.dwg.style` / `capcad.dwg.style.owner`	dwg	Style written into the drawing, and which cloud it came from
`CapCad.Criteria.Geometry`	config	The project's geometric criteria set (also mirrored in the alignment properties)
`CapCad.Folders.*`	config	The library folders (table below)
`ProjectName`	config	Project name
`ProjectOverridenStyle`	config (own tag)	The project's style overrides: sign styles for deploy / keep / remove, and the layer prefix
`vertical`	config (own tag)	Default values for vertical signing

CapCad also writes two user preferences (not project ones): the last alignments folder and the last alignment file used. They are what the offer to reuse the last project comes from when you open a drawing that has no project set.

The project folders

Each library category has its own folder. All of them are optional: with no value configured, CapCad uses the default of the installed local library, which varies with the active country profile.

Folder (form tab)	Key	What it is for
Pasta Eixos (Main)	`CapCad.Folders.Alignments`	Where the alignments' `.capcad` files live. Empty = the project folder
Biblioteca dwg (Pastas)	`CapCad.Folders.Biblioteca`	The project's blocks. Defaults to `dwg-<country>\` under the local library root
Situações tipo (Pastas)	`CapCad.Folders.LinearSet`	Linear sets for the Marking Strip compositor. Defaults to `DesenhaConjunto\` or `LinearSet\`
Sinalização horizontal (Pastas)	`CapCad.Folders.InscrPav`	Pavement inscriptions. Defaults to `ROAD_MARKINGS\` under the project library
Predefinições (Pastas)	`CapCad.Folders.Presets`	Saved presets of the assistants
Placas convencionais (Placas: pastas)	`CapCad.Folders.PlacasConvencionais`	Blocks for the official signs of the norm
Placas comuns (Placas: pastas)	`CapCad.Folders.PlacasComuns`	Blocks for signs in common use
Placas propostas (Placas: pastas)	`CapCad.Folders.Placaspropostas`	The project's own custom signs. No library default
Placapro (Placas: pastas)	`CapCad.Folders.Placapro`	The Placapro folder
Exports	—	`<project>\Exports\`, created on demand. Destination of exports and reports

How a folder is resolved

For the sign folders, the chain is:

the project.config value, when it is an absolute path;
the project.config value starting with \, resolved under the project folder (for example \custom_signs → <project>\custom_signs);
the matching key of the drawing dictionary (capcad.dwg.folder.placasoficials, …placascommon, …placascustom, …library);
the local library default, which depends on the country profile.

The official signs have one more rung above all of these: if a folder is set in the user preferences, it beats everything. That is what the Definir em preferências de usuário (não em projeto) tickbox turns on — in that mode the folder applies to you in every project, and the label beside the field changes from projeto to preferências.

When nothing resolves, CapCad uses the signs-<country> package of the local library and downloads the package from the server when the folder is missing or empty.

The project's coordinate system

The coordinate system is not a single field: it is resolved down a chain of priorities, and the Project Manager shows which source answered.

#	Source	When it applies
1	Alignment	The alignment file carries the property `CapCad.CoordSys`
2	Drawing	The key `capcad.dwg.coordsys` is filled in
3	Civil 3D	The host asks Civil 3D and it returns a system (which is then written into the drawing)
4	Last used	Optional: the last system acquired in this session
5	Country default	United Kingdom profile → `BNG`
6	Configuration / ask	Optional: `project.config`, a temporary session value, or the last used

The read from the alignment is light: CapCad walks the .capcad file and reads only the top-level properties, without loading the geometry.

The Project Manager

CAPCAD_PROJECT_MANAGER opens the modal 7-tab form. Two other entry points open the same form already on a given tab: CAPCAD_CRITERIA_MATERIAL_DEFAULT (Default Materiais tab) and CAPCAD_CRITERIA_TECHNICAL_DEFAULT (Default Diretrizes tab).

Project Manager, Main tab

The Main tab in a drawing with no project: project folder empty, with the warning that data will be written to the dwg itself, the style falling back to capcad.default, and the alignments folder optional. (The screenshot is from a Portuguese session; the tab captions are the same in every language, see Notes.)

Tab	What it organises
Main	Project folder, style, coordinate system and alignments folder. This is the tab that defines the project
Pastas	Blocks library, typical sets, road markings and presets
Placas: pastas	Official, common, proposed and Placapro sign folders, each with its source shown beside the field
Placas: Estilo	The sign's appearance per situation (deploy / keep / remove), the naming vocabulary used for those situations, the colour of the attributes, how a replacement by the same sign is represented, and the sign's border
Default Materiais	Default material values for vertical and horizontal signing, applied when the materials criteria set does not answer — feeding the block attributes on the vertical side, and XData (CapData) on the horizontal side
Default Diretrizes	Default values for the technical criteria, applied when no technical criterion answers
Properties	The project's materials and technical criteria sets (with their editors), the project's free-form properties, the decimal separator, the drive side, the layer prefix and the rename-project button

Project Manager, Folders tab

The Pastas tab: every row has Open, Copy, Paste and "Default local" buttons, and the note reminds you that paths may be absolute or relative to the project's main folder.

The Main tab also offers:

Remover — clears this drawing's project definition (the project.config on disk is untouched).
Abrir em explorer — opens the project folder in Windows Explorer.
Eixos… — opens the alignments folder in Explorer.
Coord system… — asks for the coordinate system and validates it before writing.
Selecionar local… — pick a .capstyle (or .json) file as the project style.
Styles explorer… — opens the style explorer.
Projeto Exemplo — points the drawing at the installed sample project.

The two footer buttons decide the fate of what you changed: Record and exit confirms, Sair sem gravar discards.

What the other commands read from the project

Who reads it	What it uses
Alignment Manager, Station Navigator, every alignment command	Project folder, alignments folder and the active alignment's file name
Sign insertion and maintenance, sign fixing, CapSign	Official, common and proposed sign folders; sign styles and action naming
Road markings, pavement inscriptions, station posts	Road markings folder and the blocks library
The Marking Strip and the compositor	Typical sets folder
Assistants with presets (chevrons, marking styles)	Presets folder
Reports, GIS exports, KMZ, geographic links	The `Exports` folder and the coordinate system
Clear zone, guardrails, criteria calculations	The project's criteria set and the alignment properties

Notes

The folder has to exist. Setting a path that does not exist leaves the project inactive: reads keep working (they fall through to the drawing), but nothing is written to project.config.
Creating the project folder creates the file. When you point the drawing at an existing folder that has no project.config yet, CapCad writes an empty one there.
project.config is shared. Several drawings can point at the same folder; they all see the same settings at the same moment.
The format is the same on every CAD. A project created in AutoCAD reads identically in BricsCAD, GstarCAD, ZWCAD and ARES Commander.
The seven tab captions and several field labels of this form are shown in Portuguese in every language; they are quoted above as they appear on the form today.