Carriageway Helpers (lanes, cycle lanes, kerbs, draw order)

Lane assistant — CAPCAD_ROAD_LANE

What it does

It asks for a base line in the drawing and creates parallel copies of it. There are two behaviours, not three:

• Offset (4): the copies sit at the distance in the Offset box (5).
• Lane: the copies sit at a distance derived from the Width box (16). This is what runs when Extract segment (1) or Create intermediate divisions between 2 entities (12) is ticked.

Before anything else the command sets LTSCALE to 1. Then it asks for the base — Selecione a linha base: — accepting any curve; anything else is refused with Selecione uma linha ou polilinha.

The sign. A positive value puts the copy on the left of the base line's walking direction, that is, of its vertex order. Both sides (8) draws both: one at +value, one at −value.

The offset is tried first by the CAD and, if it refuses, by CapCad itself — which is why arcs and polylines that the CAD's OFFSET rejects usually come out anyway. Whatever does not come out is reported on the command line (Lanes: offset 3,5 falhou (…)).

Workflow

1. Run CAPCAD_ROAD_LANE. The form opens beside the drawing.
2. Choose Offset (4) and type the distance (5), or leave Extract segment (1) and type the Width (16).
3. Choose 1 side continuous (7) or Both sides (8), and the output layer (18 or 19).
4. Click Create (14) — or press Enter in one of the text boxes. The form hides, the CAD asks for the base line and the copies are drawn.
5. The window title reports the result: Lane assistant — 2 linha(s) in Offset mode, — 2 faixa(s) in lane mode.

The form

The screenshot was captured in a Portuguese session; the control numbering is the same in both editions, and the table quotes the English captions.

The form as it opens: "Extract segment" ticked, offset 0.4, width 0. Several controls are not used by this version — see the right-hand column.

The Cap Math label beside the offset box is only a hint that the field accepts arithmetic expressions; it has no action. The Sample solved label beside Load sample is not available in this version.

Remembered between sessions

Four values, in the user preferences: the chosen mode, the offset value and the two boxes Extract segment before and Draw joining lines — both not used by this version. Width, the side and the layer go back to their defaults every time it opens.

Cycle Lane — CAPCAD_ROAD_CYCLEWAY

What it does

The Ciclovias form draws nothing itself: it is, in the panel's own words, a set of "shortcuts to existing CapCad commands, configured for cycle lanes". Each button opens another CapCad command with the fields already filled in.

There are four tabs: Ciclovia (cycle lane), Ferrovia (railway), Rotatória (roundabout; not available in this version) and Zona de aprendizagem (learning area).

This form has no English captions: every label is quoted below in Portuguese as the software shows it, with a gloss. The screenshots were captured in a Portuguese session; the control numbering is the same in both editions.

Ciclovia tab

Ferrovia tab

The five greyed controls are not available in this version.

Rotatória tab

The four buttons — Tachão circular, Placas, Setas and Faixas — are not available in this version and are shown disabled.

Zona de aprendizagem tab

All four hide the form while the drawing downloads and show it again afterwards. The file is downloaded from the CapCad server each time and goes to CapCad's exports folder.

Drawing the kerbs — CAPCAD_ROAD_KERB_DRAW

The project alignment stores, as properties, up to three sets of kerb curves: left kerb (capcad.alignment.bordo.esq), right kerb (capcad.alignment.bordo.dir) and auxiliary kerbs (capcad.alignment.bordo.aux). They are written by the Alignment Manager and the alignment properties editor; this command only brings them into the drawing.

There is no form and no selection: the command works on the project's current alignment.

1. With no alignment defined, the command asks whether you want to open the Alignment Manager and stops.
2. With an alignment, each of the three sets is drawn on its layer:

The names above are the factory style's. The name that reaches the drawing comes from the active style's layer catalogue, which may add a prefix, rename the layer and change the colour; missing layers are created on the spot. Never type these names by hand.

1. If the alignment has none of the three properties, the command warns Nenhuma das 3 propriedades de eixos definidas para bordos: bordo esquerdo, direito e auxiliares (none of the three kerb properties is defined on the alignment) and draws nothing. Having just one of the three is enough for the command to work.

A set drawn twice becomes two overlapping copies: the command does not erase what it drew before.

Interchange guide — CAPCAD_ROAD_ACCESS_ASSISTANT

This command is not available in this version. Running it — or clicking the Geometric Assistant button on the Project panel — shows a notice saying so.

The kerbs of an access or an interchange are handled through the alignment's auxiliary alignments (see Draw and edit the alignment) and through the kerb drawing above.

Carriageway and shoulder to the back — CAPCAD_ROAD_DRAWORDER

What it does

It sends to the back of model space's draw order everything on the layers of the road platform, so that the marking, the signs and the hatches drawn on top show again. It is the cure for the solid carriageway that has "eaten" the marking after a fill or a hatch.

The layers it handles, in the order it walks them:

The names come from the active style's layer catalogue — the style may prefix them, rename them and translate them. The command never creates a layer: a layer that does not exist in the drawing is simply skipped, and so is one that exists but is empty.

It works in model space only. Entities in layouts are not reordered.

Workflow

1. Run CAPCAD_ROAD_DRAWORDER. There is no selection and no question.
2. The command line reports how many entities went down and across how many layers — 128 entities sent to back across 3 layer(s).

The same step runs by itself on every trim of Clean Carriageway, and that form's Util tab has a button for it.

Notes

• The lane assistant's ribbon button reads Geometry Tools, on the CAD Utilities panel; its tooltip reads Lanes.
• One side only, in lane mode, uses the whole width. With 1 side continuous (7) ticked, the copy comes out at +width from the base; with Both sides (8), the two come out at ±width/2. It is not half on one side and half on the other: it is the whole width on one side, or half on each. If you want a 3.5 m lane with the base on its centre line, tick Both sides.
• Several of the lane assistant's controls are not used by this version. Break 2 points, Erase input, Extract segment before, Draw joining lines, Reverse created and the number of divisions have no effect on the drawing; nor does Active alignment, although it enables and ticks itself when there is an alignment. Two of them are saved with the form.
• The ! button fills the width, not the offset. It measures a curve's length and writes it into the Width box (16).
• The two forms are only half translated. The lane assistant's title (Lane assistant) and its check-box captions are in English, but its status messages are Portuguese. The Ciclovias form has no English captions at all.
• The [BORDO] shortcut is not available in this version. Type the command name, or use the Bordos definidos [BORDO] box in the Alignment Manager.
• The kerb button is not on the ribbon. The route is the Alignment Manager, or the command name on the command line.
• The draw order only holds until someone draws on top. Any new entity on the carriageway layers is born at the top of the order; run CAPCAD_ROAD_DRAWORDER again after finishing the platform.
• The CICLOVIA folder comes from the CapCad server. When it is not available, the Desenhar ciclofaixa por eixo button opens the Linear Set where it was. The Ciclovía preset of the Compositor is an alternative: it already carries the red lane, the centre line, the two edge lines and the grass.
• The kerbs, the carriageway and the draw order do not talk to the lane assistant. The lanes this command creates are loose polylines: they do not become alignment properties and they do not land on the platform layers. To draw the platform from the alignment — carriageway, shoulder, kerbs and lane divisions in one go — use Pista e faixas in the Alignment Manager or the carriageway width editor.