Batch insert (spreadsheet to drawing)

What it does

There are four batch-insert commands, each with its own form, and a fifth that is not available in this version.

The first three share a model: one spreadsheet row is one entity, and one column is one role. You point at the column that carries the block name, at the X, at the Y, at the angle, at the scale, and at those that feed attributes. What you do not point at is simply not used.

CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK is different: there is no spreadsheet. It sweeps a folder and lays out what it finds on a grid, so you can look at a whole library at once.

CAPCAD_BATCH_MARKING (Road Lines Batch Insert) is not available in this version; running it shows a dialog saying so. The button is on the ribbon.

Where the blocks come from

CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK_GRID and CAPCAD_BATCH_DEVICE resolve the block name through the same loader the Road Library uses, in this order: a definition already in the drawing → the Support/Dwg folder installed with CapCad → the project's pavement-inscription folder (and its viario sub-folder) → the project's library folder (and its viario sub-folder) → the immediate sub-folders of the library. The .dwg found is imported as a block definition, with the units locked to metres.

CAPCAD_BATCH_SIGN does not use that loader: every row goes through the same sign insertion as Insert Vertical, which resolves the sign code, assembles the post and applies the action.

Workflow

1. Build the spreadsheet with one row per entity and one column per piece of information. Leave the header out — every row is treated as data.
2. Run the command and paste the spreadsheet into the form (Ctrl+V in the grid, or the paste button).
3. Point at the columns: the block (or a fixed name), the X and the Y — or the station, the offset and the side.
4. Build the attribute table, one row per block tag.
5. Click Test points and check in the drawing where the points landed. Swapped coordinates show up here.
6. Click Insert. At the end, read the report: each row appears as OK or FAIL, with its original text beside it.

How the columns are read

The grid's columns are lettered A, B, C… as in Excel, and the role fields hold the letter.

• On the CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK_GRID and CAPCAD_BATCH_SIGN forms only the first character counts: AA is read as column A, and SIMPLES as column S.
• The CAPCAD_BATCH_DEVICE form reads the full letter (AA is the 27th column).
• Numbers are read with a dot or a comma decimal separator; anything else is worth zero.
• A row with no tab is silently ignored by all three. Pasting a single column inserts nothing.

CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK_GRID — blocks by coordinate

The screenshots on this page are of a Portuguese session; the numbering is the same in both editions, and the tables give the English captions. The grid opens empty with four columns; pasting creates whatever is missing.

Data

The Block frame

The Insertion and Coords frames

The Current coord sys: label on the left shows the project's coordinate system, read when the form opened. In LAT, LON mode the two labels read Lat and Long; in E, N mode they read Y and X.

Angle, scale and running

Attributes

Above each grid column there is a role selector: choosing a role there is the same as choosing the letter in the field at the side, and vice versa. A column with more than one role shows <varies>. The main roles (X, Y, Block, Angle, Scale) are exclusive: giving a column a role that already belonged to another takes the role off the previous one.

Samples

All three samples replace the grid's contents and both attribute tables. Load them in a scratch drawing.

CAPCAD_BATCH_DEVICE — road items by station

This is the only one of the four whose form is modal: it closes when you confirm, the alignment is then asked for on the command line, and the insertion happens in one pass.

Note that Station + offset and X / Y both appear ticked — see the notes.

The block is born rotated to the alignment's tangent at the resolved station, and the offset is measured perpendicular to that tangent. In coordinate mode the rotation is always zero. The scale is always 1 — there is no scale column in this command.

A station off the alignment does not stop the pass: the row goes into the failure report with the valid range, for example row 7: station 34,2 is outside the alignment (0 … 22.415). At the end, the command line reports N block(s) inserted. and, if there were failures, opens a Batch insert — failures window with one line per problem.

CAPCAD_BATCH_SIGN — signs in batch

Most of this form's captions are in Portuguese in every language of the product. Below, a caption in italics is the Portuguese the form shows, with the English meaning after the dash; a caption in bold is genuine English shown by the software.

Data

The label on the left below the box says the spreadsheet came from the last run when that file was recovered on opening; the one on the right shows progress and the result.

The Método (method) frame

The Inserção (insertion) frame

The Lat/Long and Y/X labels swap name and position with 10 and 11 — the two lines literally invert on screen.

Content columns

The Suporte (post) frame

The Offset do eixo (offset from the alignment) frame

Attributes and running

CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK — a whole folder onto a grid

Opens the Blocks Utilities form already on the Insert tab. It is the same form as CAPCAD_BLOCK_TOOLS, which opens it on the Export tab; the other tabs belong to those other commands and are covered in Blocks, attributes and relative placement.

The "Insert" tab: no spreadsheet and no insertion point, just the folder and the grid pitch.

The grid starts at the drawing origin (0,0) and grows to the right and downwards. There is no insertion point: run it in a scratch drawing, or move the result afterwards.

Remembered between sessions

• CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK_GRID stores, in the user preferences, the block, latitude and longitude columns, the LAT/LON × E,N choice and both attribute tables, as well as the radio buttons of the Block, Insertion and Coords frames. The last spreadsheet goes to Exports\item_batch_block_last.txt and comes back on the next open.
• CAPCAD_BATCH_SIGN stores every role column (including the two post columns), the radio buttons and checkboxes, the attribute table and the km × coordinates choice. The spreadsheet goes to Exports\vert_batch_last.txt. The preferences are written when you insert and when you close the form — not when you test points.
• CAPCAD_BATCH_DEVICE and CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK store nothing: both forms open with the factory values on every run.

Notes

• CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK_GRID's angle is in radians. The cell value goes raw into the block's rotation, with no conversion from degrees. A spreadsheet holding 90 turns the block 90 radians (≈ 5157°). For 90° write 1.5708. The column is called Angle and nothing warns you. A non-numeric cell in that column aborts the whole run with a format error.
• The point and the block name carry over between rows. In CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK_GRID, a row whose X and Y cells are zero (or are not numbers) reuses the previous row's point, and a row with no block name reuses the previous name. The result is a block on top of the previous one, counted as OK. Check the spreadsheet with Test points before inserting.
• A zero in either coordinate is enough. The carry-over test requires X and Y to be non-zero, so a legitimate point with X = 0 or Y = 0 cannot be expressed — that row silently takes the previous row's position. On the very first row it lands at the drawing origin.
• An empty role field means column A. In CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK_GRID, leaving the block, X or Y boxes empty does not switch the role off: they fall to column A. Only Angle and Scale accept empty as "no column".
• Coordinate columns beyond the row stop everything. In CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK_GRID, if a row has fewer columns than the letter pointed at in X or Y, the run stops with an invalid-coordinate-columns message and, on the insert path, the form does not come back — it stays hidden until you run the command again. Rows already inserted stay in the drawing.
• CAPCAD_BATCH_DEVICE opens with two radio buttons ticked. Station + offset, Coordinates:, X / Y and Lat / Lon sit in one frame and form a single group; the form opens showing two of them ticked, and clicking any one clears the other three. In practice: on a freshly opened form the mode is decided by Coordinates: alone, so the command works in station mode; to work by coordinates, tick Coordinates:, and then X / Y and Lat / Lon untick. Lat / Lon mode is not available in this version: ticking Lat / Lon unticks Coordinates: and returns the command to station mode. Use projected coordinates, or convert beforehand.
• CAPCAD_BATCH_SIGN's attribute mapping is not available in this version. The sign is born with the attributes derived from its code, and the mapped columns are discarded. The Área column, the post's Código and Ação columns and the Include and validate dxf's box are not used either.
• CAPCAD_BATCH_SIGN's action list mixes words and letters. Because only the first character is read, choosing Manter points at column M, Implantar at column I and Remover at column R. The word only works as a default when the row has fewer columns than that letter; otherwise the command reads that column. To fix an action safely, point at a column of your own carrying I, M or R on every row.
• Sign rotation always loses 90°. The command subtracts 90° from the resolved angle on every row, in both methods. In the Eixo method the typed angle is not read: the rotation is always −90° before the sign's own rotation is applied.
• After one sign falls back to standalone, every later OK row carries the "alignment not identified, inserted standalone" reason — even the ones that went in normally over the alignment.
• CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK's grid reuses existing definitions. If the drawing already has a block with the file's name, it is the drawing's definition that is inserted, not the file's. Run it in a new drawing when you want to see the folder's real contents.
• CAPCAD_BATCH_MARKING is not available in this version. The Road Lines Batch Insert button is on the ribbon and answers with a dialog saying so.
• On the other CADs, CAPCAD_BATCH_BLOCK_GRID is a reduced version. BricsCAD, GstarCAD, ZWCAD and ARES Commander open the same form, but they do not reproduce the point and name carry-over between rows.
• Several texts are in English in the Portuguese product, and correspondingly several are in Portuguese in the English one: CAPCAD_BATCH_SIGN's form is mostly untranslated, its report headers are English (LINE, STATUS, INFO, ID SIGN, ID POST, LINE DEFINITION), and the Block insert report:, Batch insert — failures and command-line counts are English everywhere.

See also

• Blocks, attributes and relative placement — the other tabs of the same Blocks Utilities form.
• Insert Vertical — the sign insertion CAPCAD_BATCH_SIGN runs once per row.
• Road Library — the block loader and the folder order the batch commands share.
• Batch Script — repeating a routine of commands rather than a table of rows.