Property Sets

What it does

A property set is a named package of fields attached to an entity of the drawing: pset.seguranca.defensa.corpo with the properties def.comprimento, def.material, and so on. It is the project's way of keeping, on the entity itself, what the geometry does not say.

The subject has two halves, and nearly every doubt comes from confusing them:

The two stores for the data

CapCad writes the value in two places, with different roles:

• CapPset — the portable record. One record per entity, kept in an Xrecord in the entity's extension dictionary. It is an ordinary DWG object: it needs no Object Enabler, it never becomes a proxy, and plain AutoCAD, GstarCAD, ZWCAD, BricsCAD and ARES Commander all preserve it on open and save. It is CapCad's source of truth.
• The native (AEC) property set. It only exists under an Autodesk vertical. When Civil 3D is the host, the mirror is compulsory: every CapCad write is repeated in the native set, resolving the stable identifier to the style's display name. Outside Civil 3D the mirror simply does not exist and only the portable record is written.

What holds the two together is the stable identifier. Every set and every property of the style has a var (internal, dotted, lower-case — pset.vertical.placa, def.comprimento) and a name (the name that shows in the CAD, without dots — PSET-VERTICAL-PLACA, COMP). CapPset always stores the var; the name is the mirror's business. One client's style and another's may name the same field differently: because the var is the same, migration between them works and the stored data stays readable.

Workflow

1. Define the sets in the style. Property Sets tab of the Style Editor: each set's var, the name it will carry in the CAD, and the list of properties with type and default value.
2. Install the definitions in the drawing. CAPCAD_PSET_MANAGER › Install tab, or CAPCAD_PSET_INSTALL on the command line. Without this step Civil 3D has nowhere to hang the native values.
3. Attach the sets to the entities. Through the per-entity editor (CAPCAD_PSET_EDIT), through the Attach all to entity button of the Civil 3D utilities form, or automatically, when a CapCad command draws the element.
4. Fill in the values. In the same editor, or with CAPCAD_PSET_VALUE_SET when another program is driving.
5. Check. CAPCAD_PSET_LIST for one entity; the manager's QA tab for the whole drawing against the style.
6. Deliver. Export tab (a CSV per set) or IFC tab.

The commands

CAPCAD_PSET_MANAGER — the manager

Opens the CapCad Property Sets form, modeless, with seven tabs that cover the whole definitions side of the job. A single window is reused: running the command again brings the existing window to the front instead of stacking copies. It exists only in Civil 3D.

CAPCAD_PSET_INSTALL — install the definitions in the drawing

Asks CapStyle path: and creates, in the drawing's property-set definitions dictionary, one set for each entry of the style's Property Sets section, using the name (not the var) as the identifier on the CAD side. At the end it reports X created, Y updated, Z failed.

When a set with that name already exists, the command synchronises the existing definition with the style: it adds the missing properties and removes the ones that are no longer in the style. The removal is destructive — the values stored in the removed properties are lost. If you renamed a property and want to keep the values, run the migration before the installation.

CAPCAD_PSET_MIGRATE — migrate from one style to another

Asks Source capstyle path:, Target capstyle path: and Detach source PSets after migration? (default No). It walks every layout — model space and each paper-space layout, not just the model — and, on each entity, pairs the source style's sets with the target style's by var, copying value by value. At the end: Migration complete — X migrated, Y skipped, Z errors.

The var is the only bridge. Sets or properties whose var does not match are not paired and are left behind. Renaming a property inside the same set takes three steps, in this order: install (to create the new property), migrate (to copy the values into it) and install again (to remove the orphan).

Unlike the installation, the migration only accepts local .capstyle files: a cloud style name is reported as File not found.

CAPCAD_PSET_ATTACH — attach a set (automation channel)

Asks Handle|PropSet: and expects two parameters separated by |: the entity's handle and the set. Values containing spaces can be quoted. If exactly two parameters do not arrive, or the handle does not exist in the drawing, the command warns and stops.

The set can be given by its var or by its display name: the command canonicalises it to the active style's var before writing, and an unknown name is passed through as it came. Attaching seeds the style's default values, as the native attach does. It always writes the portable record and, in Civil 3D, the native set as well.

This command exists to be called by another program, not typed by hand — in the per-entity editor the same job is one click.

CAPCAD_PSET_VALUE_SET — store a value (automation channel)

Asks Handle|PropSet|PropName|PropValue:, with four parameters separated by |. It attaches the set if it is not on the entity yet and stores the value. Set and property are canonicalised to their var too. An empty value makes the command exit without writing anything.

CAPCAD_PSET_EDIT — the per-entity editor

CapCad's replacement for the extended-data palette: it asks Select entity:, opens a modal window with one row per property and, on save, writes the portable record and repeats each value in the native set when the host is Civil 3D. The command line confirms: CapPset saved: N set(s) on <handle>.

CAPCAD_PSET_LIST — list an entity's sets

Asks for an entity and writes on the command line, for each attached set, one line per property in the format id, type, name = value.

Careful. This command reads the native Civil 3D property sets only. It cannot see CapCad's portable record: on an entity whose data exists only in CapPset, it writes nothing. To see what is really stored, use CAPCAD_PSET_EDIT.

The manager's form

CapCad Property Sets can only be opened in Civil 3D, so there is no screenshot of it here. This section describes the window in words.

At the top, fixed on every tab: the Active drawing: label, which updates whenever the window takes the focus (Civil 3D lets you switch drawings with the form open), and the Style Editor... button. At the bottom, also fixed, a log box mirroring everything the services write on the command line, and a status bar with the summary of the last operation.

The per-entity editor

There is no screenshot of it here either.

A three-column grid — Pset, Property, Value — one row per property, grouped by set. Below it, the Pset list with the active style's vocabulary (it accepts a typed value that is not in the list), a second list with the chosen set's properties, and three buttons:

Save writes the portable record on the entity and, in Civil 3D, repeats each value in the native set. Before writing, anything typed as a display name is converted into the corresponding var. A row with the set filled in and the property blank counts as "set attached without values". Cancel discards everything.

The style's vocabulary

The Style Editor offers nine canonical set categories, each tied to a CapCad column catalogue, which is where the suggested properties come from:

The vars and catalogue names are internal identifiers and stay in Portuguese in every language: vertical signs and their supports, longitudinal markings, pavement legends, road studs, safety barrier bodies and terminals, rigid barriers, and gantries. The prefixes pos., cad., sys., eixo. and metodo_ are valid in any catalogue. Sets outside this list are accepted: they come in as a custom category.

Property types

The style accepts nine types: text, real, integer, km, area, geographic, geographic_pair, datetime and filepath. On installation, Civil 3D knows only three — integer becomes Integer, real becomes Real and everything else becomes Text. The distinction is not lost, though: it stays in the style, and it is what the IFC export uses to type each property (km in metres as IfcLengthMeasure, area as IfcAreaMeasure, and so on; a numeric value that does not convert — a chainage written 0+000, for example — becomes a text label, never an invented number).

Name rules

The display name is validated before it goes to the CAD, because Civil 3D rejects malformed names with an error that explains nothing. It must be non-empty, at most 256 characters for a set and 64 for a property, must not start with a digit, and may use only letters, digits, _ and -. Spaces and dots are refused — which is why the name cannot be the same as the var.

Remembered between sessions

The manager remembers the last path used on each tab, the resync direction and the state of the dry-run and check-entities boxes. They are saved when the window closes.

The Install tab's field is the exception: it is filled, on every opening, with the drawing's active style — resolved in the usual order (project configuration, alignment, drawing record, capcad.default) — and not with the last path used.

Notes

• The portable record travels with the entity. Copy, paste or WBLOCK takes the Xrecord along. What does not travel is the style context: because the values are stored by var and are self-contained, they stay readable in the destination drawing, but the association with the definitions comes from the style active there.
• Erasing all the data erases the record. Saving an entity with no sets at all removes the Xrecord, rather than leaving an empty record behind.
• Drawings from earlier versions are readable. Their property sets are read as they are and, on the next save, rewritten in the current form.
• CAPCAD_XDATA_CLEAN does not clean property sets. That command erases the entity's XData; CapPset lives in the extension dictionary, which is somewhere else. See Entities, groups and diagnostics.
• Installing synchronises by removing. Worth repeating: installing a style that has lost a property deletes that property from the drawing's definitions, and with it the stored values. Migrate first.
• In this version, the data commands exist only in AutoCAD. CAPCAD_PSET_EDIT, CAPCAD_PSET_ATTACH and CAPCAD_PSET_VALUE_SET exist only in CapCad for AutoCAD and Civil 3D. On BricsCAD, GstarCAD, ZWCAD and ARES Commander the portable record goes on being read and preserved in the drawings, but there is no command to create or edit it.
• CAPCAD_PROJECT_IFC requires Civil 3D. On plain AutoCAD it says so and stops; under Civil 3D it opens the per-entity editor.
• Two routes from the Style Editor only work under Civil 3D. The Pset Manager... button and Apply to dwg send CAPCAD_PSET_MANAGER and CAPCAD_PSET_INSTALL, and those two commands exist only in Civil 3D. On BricsCAD, GstarCAD, ZWCAD and ARES the Pset Manager... button prints an "available only in AutoCAD Civil 3D" line on the command line; on plain AutoCAD the two buttons are not available. The Style Editor... button of the manager works on all five CADs.
• Both windows are titled "CapCad Property Sets" — the seven-tab manager and the per-entity editor. The log and status messages of both are English in every language.