Batch and entity coordinate conversion

What it does

Both commands start from the same projection used in Coordinates and the coordinate system and the same vocabulary of system strings (UTM-23, UTM-23-SAD69, EPSG:31983, …), with the same coverage limits — only SIRGAS 2000 and SAD 69 over UTM zones 17 to 25 South and 11 to 22 North actually resolve, and WGS-84 and BNG do not resolve at all. What changes here is the raw material.

CAPCAD_BATCH_GEO_CONVERT works on text. You paste a block of lines, choose the operation and the coordinate system, and get another block of text back. The decision on each line is the same as in the CC box: if both values fit the latitude and longitude ranges (±180 and ±90), the line is geographic and goes to projected; otherwise it is projected and goes to geographic. There is no "from → to" switch: the form decides line by line.

The second tab, Locator, uses the same reading for a different purpose: a list of labelled places, to navigate to each of them.

CAPCAD_GEO_CONVERT_ENTITY works on drawing entities. You choose the input system and the output system, select the entities, and they are reprojected: polylines and lines vertex by vertex (a new entity is drawn, and the original is erased or kept, as you choose); blocks, text and mtext are only shifted by their insertion point — and only when both systems are projected, never when either side is WGS-84.

Workflow

Converting a list

1. Run CAPCAD_BATCH_GEO_CONVERT. The form opens with the drawing's coordinate system already selected (on a pale green background, meaning it came from the drawing and not from a guess) and with the alignment named, if there is one.
2. Paste the coordinates into box 1 (or click Paste, 2) — or harvest them from the drawing with buttons 4 to 7. Examples (8) fills the box with one sample of each format.
3. Check the Operation (9) and the Coord. system (10). Adjust the Format (11) if your lines come in long-lat, and the Separator (12) if the output needs ;, a tab or a space.
4. Click Convert (15). The output appears in box 17 and the counter beside the button reads n of m converted.
5. Copy (16) takes it all to the clipboard. To take it into the drawing, choose the type at 18 and click Export (21).

Reprojecting entities

1. Run CAPCAD_GEO_CONVERT_ENTITY.
2. Choose Input (35) and Output (36). The two must differ and neither can be left blank, or the command warns and stops.
3. Decide whether the original entities are erased (37) or kept (38).
4. Click Select entities (42), select in the drawing and confirm. The command line reports how many entities were converted and how many failed.

The batch form

The numbers are unique on this page: 1 to 23 on the Conversion tab, 24 to 34 on the Locator tab, 35 to 42 on the entity form.

Tab 1, freshly opened: operation "Coordinates", format "Lat-Long", comma separator. The capture is of a Portuguese session; the numbering is the same in both editions, and the tables give the English captions.

Tab 1: Conversion — frame 1 Input

Tab 1: Conversion — frame 2 Options

Tab 1: Conversion — frame 3 Output

Tab 1: Conversion — footer

Tab 2: Locator

Tab 2, empty. The columns are Label, X / Lat and Y / Long. The capture is of a Portuguese session.

Important: the "go to" is not available in this version — see Notes.

The entity form

CAPCAD_GEO_CONVERT_ENTITY. The capture is of a Portuguese session in a Brazil profile, so both lists show the BR catalogue.

Under the button, the form carries the note "Note: implemented for geometric entities, text, Mtext and blocks (insertion points)."

How the options combine

What input normalisation does to each line

Every line below was passed through the batch normaliser itself. The middle column is the text after normalising; the last, the pair read.

The rule: if the line has a tab or a semicolon, that is the separator and commas are decimal; if a space is left between the numbers, likewise (and a comma stuck to the space is discarded); only when the comma is the sole candidate separator is it treated as one, and even then only when exactly two fields are left. The last row of the table is the case the rule cannot solve: four comma-separated fields with comma decimals collapse into a single number.

Note the difference from the CAPCAD_GEO_POINT_IDENTIFY box, which accepts neither a space nor a semicolon: here the normalisation is deliberately more tolerant, because the raw material comes from a spreadsheet.

How the Locator reads each line

Remembered between sessions

Neither form keeps any option between sessions. What is reused on each opening comes from the drawing: the coordinate system resolved by the acquisition chain (see Coordinates and the coordinate system) and the active alignment.

Notes

• Only the Coordinates operation works. Addresses → coordinates and Coordinates → addresses are not available in this version: every line comes back as !! Busca de endereços indisponível. or !! Busca reversa indisponível.. Stations → coordinates returns !! Stations→coordinates needs an alignment. on every line, even with an alignment set. To turn an address into a coordinate, use the Address panel of CAPCAD_GEO_POINT_IDENTIFY.
• The export to CAD always draws points. Polyline and Blocks also export points in this version, and the block-name box (19) has no effect.
• The Locator's "go to" is not available in this version. Selecting a row (or clicking Locate) inserts the marker, if 33 is ticked, and shows a message saying so. The Zoom / Pan options have no effect in this version.
• Include station and Zoom to output have no effect in this version. For the station of one point, use the Alignment km box of CAPCAD_GEO_POINT_IDENTIFY.
• The CapVideo link is not available in this version.
• Several strings are English-only, and a few are Portuguese-only. The ⓘ warning, the alignment label and the n of m converted counter are English in every language; the failure reasons in the output box and the Addresses / Coordinates → addresses messages are Portuguese in every language.
• CAPCAD_GEO_CONVERT_ENTITY only moves blocks and text between projected systems. If either the input or the output is WGS-84, insertion points are simply skipped in the selection — curves convert, blocks stay where they are.
• Three boxes on the entity form have no effect in this version (39, 40 and 41).
• Choosing the same system on both sides is not a way to "not convert". The command refuses with an invalid-input message and selects nothing.
• CAPCAD_BATCH_GEO_CONVERT exists on AutoCAD only. On the other CADs the name is registered, but ARES shows a feature-in-preparation notice and the other three do not register it.