Insert Vertical

What it does

CAPCAD_SIGN_INSERT opens the Insert Vertical window, which stays beside the drawing while you work. You pick a sign in the library, choose how it is to be positioned (the Method) and click one of the four actions. The form hides, the command asks for points in the drawing, and inserts one sign per click until you press Esc.

Each insertion produces, in one go:

• the sign block, loaded from the library dwg if it is not already in the drawing;
• the support (post), inserted before the sign and linked to it;
• the layer for that action — ROAD_SIGN_NEW, ROAD_SIGN_KEEP, ROAD_SIGN_REMOVE, ROAD_SIGN_REPLACE, ROAD_SIGN_RELOCATE or ROAD_SIGN_<ACTION> for a custom action, always resolved through the active style's layer catalogue;
• the sign's graphic representation for that action (colour, grey, grey with an X…);
• the sign's attributes: code, chainage, latitude/longitude, coordinates, side, alignment name, area and action;
• a link between sign and support (xdata vertical.sign / vertical.post), which the other vertical commands use to treat the pair as one unit.

Three ideas behind the command

The alignment. The alignment (eixo) is the project's centre line, set in the Alignment Manager. With an active alignment, the Perpendicular to alignment method positions and rotates the sign for you and fills in the chainage. With no alignment, the point methods still work: the sign is inserted standalone and the chainage is left blank.

The project style. The style (set in the Project Manager: a CapCad default, an urban one, and the country-specific ones) decides the layer names and colours, the representation of each action, and the support's default representation. Changing the style changes the next insertions, not the ones already made.

The three sign libraries. The folders are set in the Project Manager, and each source on the form reads one of them:

A sign is looked for in this order: among the blocks already defined in the drawing, then in the conventional folder, the common folder, the proposed folder, and finally in the immediate sub-folders of those three. If the code comes in without a hyphen the command retries with one inserted. If nothing is found, it inserts the GENERICA sign in its place and records the original code.

Workflow

1. Before you start, set the working alignment in the Alignment Manager and confirm the style in the Project Manager. With no active alignment the Use active (84) and Use main km (87) options are disabled and the form opens on Select standalone (86).
2. Run CAPCAD_SIGN_INSERT (or type IV). The window opens beside the drawing; it is a single window, and running the command again only brings it to the front.
3. Choose the source (7 to 10) and the sign in the thumbnail grid (12). Right-clicking the grid switches between Large icons, List and Details. The selected sign's description appears at (17) and the item count beside (16).
4. Choose the Method (75, 76, 77, 79 or 82).
5. Adjust what you need: support (53 to 61), curb / direction / traffic side (66 to 72), scale (31), conventional area (73) and, in the perpendicular method, the Alignment (84 to 90) and Alignment offset (91 to 96) frames.
6. Click Insert (36), Remove (37), Keep (38) or Replace (39). The form hides.
7. Click in the drawing, once per sign. Depending on the method the command asks for a point or an entity, and may ask for the rotation afterwards (the sign follows the cursor). Esc ends the loop and the form comes back.
8. Close the window when you are done. The preferences are written on closing.

Double-clicking a sign in the grid is the same as Insert.

The form's footer has a status line with the result of the last insertion; the messages are also written to the CAD command line, which is the only visible surface while the window is hidden.

The form

The numbers are the same in every screenshot of this page: one numbering across the six top tabs and the three inner tabs of the Main page. A control that only appears on one tab keeps its number. The screenshots are of the Portuguese interface; the tables below name each control as an English session shows it.

Opening state: the Main tab, method Clicked point and rotate, inner tabs on Main, Actions and Support. The Alignment and Alignment offset frames are disabled because they only apply to the perpendicular method.

Method Perpendicular to alignment (82) selected: the Alignment and Alignment offset frames become live. Use active (84), Use main km (87), Main alignment + auxiliaries (88), Curbs as alignments (89) and Use defined curbs (95) stay greyed — the first two because there is no active alignment in this drawing, the last three because they are not available in this version.

Search and library (top of the Main tab)

Inner tab Main / Style / Mirror / Config / 3D / Assembly

Inner tab Style: the colour variant of warning signs.

Inner tab Mirror.

Inner tab Config: library update and access to the folders.

Inner tab 3D.

Inner tab Assembly: the spacing between the signs of an assembly.

Scale

Inner tab Actions / Rearrange / Custom / Swap / Sync

Inner tab Rearrange.

Inner tab Custom: the custom actions.

Inner tab Swap.

Inner tab Sync.

Inner tab Support / Options

The support's Options inner tab: the support representation and the two exception boxes.

Curb, Direction and Traffic

Right column: area, method, alignment and offset

Modify tab

The Modify tab: reposition, refit and adjust the supports of signs already inserted.

Tools tab

The Tools tab: files, listings, recoding, appearance and frames.

Options tab

The Options tab: scale, exaggerations, attributes and the behaviour of the insertion.

Commands tab

The Commands tab: shortcuts to the other vertical-signing commands.

Tutorials tab

The Tutorials tab.

How the options combine

This page has no generated figures: a sign's geometry comes from the library dwg and the insertion needs an open drawing (blocks, attributes, dynamic properties, selection).

The five methods, step by step

In the In existing support or block method, when the chosen block is a projecting arm (its support visibility starts with "BRAÇO PROJETADO EM SPU" or "BRAÇO PROJETADO EM COLUNA"), the final rotation is not asked for: the sign takes the arm's direction.

The perpendicular method in detail

1. The click is projected onto the alignment chosen at (84)/(86). The foot of the perpendicular must be within 200 m of the click; beyond that, or with no alignment there at all, the command asks whether to insert the sign standalone. Yes inserts at the clicked point and asks for the rotation; No ends the command.
2. The angle is the alignment's tangent at the foot of the perpendicular. With decreasing (70) ticked, 180° is added.
3. The offset comes from the Alignment offset frame: a fixed value (91/92), measured from the entities (96), or none at all (94, Keep point, which leaves the sign at the clicked point).
4. The sign of the offset follows the side you clicked on: the sign goes to whichever side of the alignment the cursor is on, not to a fixed side.
5. Shift (85) moves the insertion along the alignment. When it is used, the reading direction is worked out from the click side and the Direction buttons are ignored.

Actions, layers and representation

The names and colours above are those of the default layer catalogue for an English profile; a style may rename them, prefix them and change the colours, and another culture uses another family of names (SINA_VERT_* in Portuguese, SENA_VERT_* in Spanish). The representation of each action also comes from the style: Placa.ImplantarStyle, Placa.ManterStyle, Placa.RemoverStyle and the open map Placa.AcaoStyles, which accepts any action.

Scale and exaggeration

The final size comes from three multiplied values:

• the drawing scale (31), 1000 by default;
• the sign exaggeration factor (146) — the scale is multiplied by factor ÷ 10, so 10 is natural size and 20 doubles the sign;
• the support exaggeration factor (148), which acts the same way on the support.

For urban work the usual scale is 1:500 rather than 1:1000; to re-adjust signs that are already inserted, use the ⟳ (32) beside the scale.

Colour variants of warning signs

There are three variants of the yellow warning sign: the standard one, OBRA (orange, ACI 30) and LIMA (fluorescent lime green, ACI 60). In this version they are inserted by picking the corresponding dwg in the library — the -OBRA or -LIMA suffix is part of the file name, and the command recognises those suffixes when it normalises the name. The Warning colour box (20) is not available in this version: choosing a value only prints a notice on the command line.

Sign assemblies and composite signs

Assemblies — two or more signs on the same support — are built with the In existing assembly method (76): insert the first sign normally, then, with method (76) on, pick the sign already inserted as the reference to stack the next one on. The new sign inherits the reference sign's chainage, latitude/longitude, extra text and scale.

In this version the connecting line between the two signs of an assembly is not available (the insertion reports ConjuntoLineDeferred), and the Ext.line field (29) is not used: the spacing is the reference block's height times the scale, plus 5 units.

Composite signs (a warning sign with a text plate under it, for instance) are not a mechanism of their own: they are whole signs from the common library (source 8), inserted exactly like any other.

Custom actions

Beyond the four standard actions, the Custom inner tab offers a list of extra actions — in an English profile DAMAGED, CONFIRMA and PRIORITY. An action that is not one of the known ones passes through the normalisation untouched and becomes a layer of its own, ROAD_SIGN_<ACTION>, which lets you separate and check those groups in the drawing.

The Insert button (45) stamps the action chosen in the list (43) and uses the matching layer. With the list empty it warns and inserts nothing. To stamp a custom action on signs already inserted, use Change actions (44 or 169), which opens the action panel.

Changing the action of signs already inserted

Outside the form, four commands change the action of signs and supports already drawn. Each asks for a selection — the sign, the support or both — which you confirm with Enter:

SUB calls the sign replacement and TRO the sign swap. All of these are described on Sign actions and Swap and replace signs.

Urban mode

Urban mode is not an option of the form: it follows from the project style. A handful of style paradigms put the project into urban mode. In the Project Manager, select the style and save; the insertions after that use it.

In urban mode the support code is written with the action attached (IMP <code>, and <code> EX for an existing one), and the actions change name in the project's vocabulary: Insert becomes Place, Keep becomes Existing. The usual scale goes from 1:1000 to 1:500. To re-adjust signs already inserted to the new scale, use the ⟳ (32).

Moving signs without losing the coordinates

The sign and the support are linked by xdata, and the coordinate and chainage attributes are written at insertion time. When you move a sign + support assembly, select both, by the joint between them: the pair stays consistent. If you move only the sign and leave the support where it is, the stored coordinates and chainage still hold — they describe the support's point, which has not moved. Once the support has moved, the coordinates must be recomputed with Vertical Tools (CAPCAD_SIGNS_FIX, shortcut CV, also reachable from button 171).

Reconnecting a sign to its support

If a sign drifts off its support, go to the Modify tab and use Fit sign to support (103): select the sign and then the support, and the position and rotation are corrected automatically. Fit support to sign (104) does the reverse and asks for the support first.

The two commands without a form

The two sibling commands insert a sign without opening the window. Both use the same preferences (the scale, the fixed offset and the exaggeration factors come from whatever Insert Vertical last stored).

CAPCAD_SIGN_INSERT_SIMPLE — shortcut IP

Asks for the sign code on the command line and inserts; then asks again, in a loop, until you cancel. Enter at the code prompt repeats the last sign used, which is remembered between sessions.

For each sign the flow is:

1. One speed-limit code triggers a speed prompt first (Enter leaves it for later); it does not fire on other profiles' speed-limit signs.
2. With no alignment in the project, it says so, asks for the point and inserts with interactive rotation.
3. With an alignment, the prompt is Placa para eixo ou <Enter> para [Avulsa/EixoRotacionarApos]:
4. clicking a point projects the sign onto the physical sub-alignments, gives it the tangent angle, the chainage read from the reference sub-alignment, the latitude/longitude of the project's coordinate system and the stored fixed offset (default 2 m). A click more than 1000 m from any alignment is refused, with an explanation of the possible causes;
5. Avulsa or a bare Enter: clicked point and interactive rotation;
6. EixoRotacionarApos: a point that is evaluated against the first element of the alignment only; the sign stays at the click, with the tangent angle. Here the chainage and the latitude/longitude are not filled in.

The detect and defined curbs offset modes are not available by this route: the command says so and uses the fixed value.

CAPCAD_SIGN_INSERT_STOP_SIGN — shortcut R1

The same flow, with the sign fixed to the stop sign of the active country profile. One insertion per run.

-CAPCAD_SIGN_INSERT — for scripts

The command-line variant, with no window and no clicks beyond the point: it asks in sequence for the sign, the action (Implantar / Manter / Remover), Eixo or PontoClicado, the point, the direction (Crescente / Decrescente / Identificar), the offset (a number or Detectar, which uses the distance from the click to the alignment), whether it is the left-hand curb, and finally an attribute/value loop ended by Enter. It requires an active alignment. Choosing PontoClicado only reads the point and ends. The keywords are Portuguese in every language.

Remembered between sessions

Written when the window closes and restored the next time it opens:

• the scale (31) and the support line extension (143);
• the sign (146) and support (148) exaggeration factors, and the attribute height (150) and font (152);
• the fixed offset (92) — always written, whether or not Fixed is selected, because the IP and R1 commands use it too;
• the assembly line extension (29);
• Check and validate sign on insert (163), the country-paradigm checkbox (155), No support (64) and the projected support reference (161/162);
• the method chosen (75 to 82), the alignment mode (84/86/88/89) and the offset mode (91/94/95/96);
• the active inner tab of the actions and of the style options;
• the support representation (62), which is written the instant you choose it, not on closing;
• the sign grid's view mode (large icons / list / details).

The IP command separately stores the last sign code typed.

Notes

• The window is single and modeless. Running IV with it open only brings it to the front. During the insertion loop it hides and comes back at the end; the command's messages appear on the CAD command line.
• No sign selected, no insertion. Clicking an action without choosing a sign only writes "Select a sign" on the status line.
• Sign not found. If the code is in none of the folders and not in the drawing, the GENERICA sign is inserted in its place, keeping the original code in the code attribute. Check the command line: the insertion reports GenericInserted.
• The attributes filled in at insertion time are, in an English profile, SIGN_CODE, SIGN_KM, SIGN_LAT, SIGN_LON, SIGN_LAT_LON, SIGN_NORTH, SIGN_EAST, SIGN_X, SIGN_Y, SIGN_X_Y, SIGN_AREA, SIGN_DIM, SIGN_DIM_AREA, SIGN_ALIGNMENT, SIGN_STATE, SIGN_STATE_2, SIGN_EXTRA, SIGN_SIDE and the composite-code tag, whose name is not translated. The prefix is PLACA_ in Portuguese and SENAL_ in Spanish.
• Criteria-driven filling. Filling guided by the project criteria module is not available in this version; where it would be used, the insertion reports CriteriaFillDeferred and the default values are applied.
• Alignment markers. Signs whose code starts with ma (and the MP-1 / MP-2 / MP-3 family) automatically use the simplified support. To insert them in bulk, use MAs... (170).
• Not available in this version: the Km method (77/78), the custom action list (43), the warning colour variant (20), the mirroring (21/22), the insertion's 3D mode (25 to 27), the assembly line extension (29), the content search (4), By click (15), Validate (14), Zoom / Reset / Select (33 to 35), the Rearrange tab (40 to 42), and most of the Tools tab — each unavailable button says so on the command line.
• Some captions and identifiers are Portuguese in every language: the support appearance and representation values (53, 62), the block visibility states, the script variant's keywords, and several command-line replies. The item count beside the list also switches to "N signs" after the first listing, in every language.