Linear Sets and the Compositor

What it does

The three commands all revolve around the same thing: a linear-set definition (the dctext, also called CapScript), the short text describing what should be drawn along a path.

;@description Single carriageway, edge lines and a double centre line
var larguraTotal = 7
var largura = 0.10
F, SINA_HOR_AM_LFO3, -0.15, largura
F, SINA_HOR_AM_LFO3,  0.15, largura
F, SINA_HOR_BR_LBO,  larguraTotal/2 - 0.1, largura
F, SINA_HOR_BR_LBO, -larguraTotal/2 + 0.1, largura

• CAPCAD_ROAD_SET (DC) applies the definition: it opens the Draw Set, you choose the definition, choose the base line in the drawing and the command draws every line on its layers.
• -CAPCAD_ROAD_SET does the same without a form: you give the path of a file or a URL, click two points, and the stretch of the alignment between them receives the definition.
• CAPCAD_ROAD_SET_COMPOSITOR writes the definition: an editor with five tabs — one per line type of the grammar — plus a button that tests it in a proof drawing.

How the definition is read, the grammar of the SINA_HOR_… layers (and how those names are written in an English session) and the offset conventions are documented in detail on the Marking Strip page, which describes the same form control by control. This page covers what is specific to these three commands.

CAPCAD_ROAD_SET and the Marking Strip are the same form

DesenhaConjuntoForm is single-instance per session. CAPCAD_MARKING_STRIP opens it with the road-marking folder already selected in the folder list (ROAD MARKING in an English session). CAPCAD_ROAD_SET opens it with no folder pre-selected, with the list as it was left last time. Beyond that there is no difference: the same input modes, the same offset, the same Apply.

That is why the command is called linear set and not marking: nothing in the library forces a definition to hold only marking lines. It can also hold signs (P) and, in the full grammar, blocks (B) and transverse elements (T) — see the limits in Notes.

The sign of the offset

Three places in this family take an offset, and they do not use the same convention. Getting the sign wrong throws the marking to the other side of the carriageway, so it is worth memorising:

The walking direction is the vertex order of the base line; Invert, in the Draw Set, reverses that order and with it every side. A non-zero offset inside an F statement is measured to the near edge of the stripe, not to its centre: half the width is added to the value you typed.

Workflow

Applying an existing definition

1. Run CAPCAD_ROAD_SET (or type DC). The Draw Set form opens beside the drawing.
2. Choose the source (CapCloud, Local or All countries), the folder and the definition. The variables appear in the right-hand panel.
3. Adjust the variables — larguraTotal is the commonest, because it is the one that places the edge lines.
4. Choose how the base line is obtained: a stretch of the alignment between two points, the selected entities, a polyline drawn on the spot, or two edge points on the Transversal tab.
5. Click Apply (select base). The form hides, the CAD asks for the base, and the lines are drawn.
6. Landed on the wrong side? Invert. Not wide enough? Change the variable and Update. Not right at all? Reset erases the preview.

Running it from the command line

1. Have a project alignment loaded — -CAPCAD_ROAD_SET works only on the active alignment. With none, it answers Sem eixo ativo. and stops.
2. Run -CAPCAD_ROAD_SET. It asks Entre com caminho do DC texto, URL ou arquivo local: — paste the path of a .txt file or an http(s) address. Quotes around the path are accepted and removed.
3. Click the first and the second point. They are projected onto the alignment and the stretch between the two stations is the base line.
4. The definition is drawn over the whole stretch and the command line closes with DC processado., preceded by warnings for any statement that could not be drawn.

Composing a new definition

1. Run CAPCAD_ROAD_SET_COMPOSITOR. The form opens with an empty definition, in text mode.
2. Start from a preset if there is a similar one: choose one in 26. Or click List (3) to work line by line.
3. Fill in the tab of the line type you want — Faixa for a marking line, Placa for a sign, Var for a variable — and click Add definition (9). The composed line goes to the end of the definition.
4. To correct a line, show the list (3) and click it: the Compositor opens the right tab already filled in, and button 9 changes to Update definition.
5. Click Test in dwg (13) and confirm the warning. Careful: the test erases everything in model space. Use a scratch drawing.
6. Save with Save (11 or 27), inside the project's DesenhaConjunto folder, so the definition shows up in the Draw Set's Local library.

The Compositor form

Numbers are the same in every picture in this section. The right half (1 to 28) does not change from tab to tab; the left half (29 to 62) is the selected tab.

The screenshots below were captured in a Portuguese session, so the captions on them are in Portuguese. The control numbering is the same in both editions, and the tables quote the English captions where there are any — the five tab names (Faixa, Placa, Bloco, Transv, Var) and a handful of labels are not translated in any language (see Notes).

As the command opens it: tab "Faixa", empty definition, text mode.

After clicking "List" (3): the text box (1) gives way to the row list (2) and the buttons "Del" (6), ▲ (7) and ▼ (8) appear. Clicking a row in the list opens the matching tab, already filled in.

Tab "Placa": composes a P line.

Tab "Bloco": composes a B line.

Tab "Transv": composes a T line.

Tab "Var": composes a var or const declaration.

The definition

Testing in the drawing

Reference and help

Image and AI

Presets

Faixa tab — the F line

The tab builds the layer name from the combos and writes F, <layer>, <offset>, <width>[, <surplus>][, <gap>][, <startAt>].

Placa tab — the P line

Bloco tab — the B line

Transv tab — the T line

Var tab — the declarations

Adding a variable whose name already exists makes the Compositor say which line it is already on and ask whether to add it anyway — the last declaration is always used.

The Compositor's proof drawing

Test in dwg does not draw over your project: it builds a test bench in the current drawing.

1. Every entity in model space is erased.
2. A 3000-unit straight runs from 0,0 at 45°, on the active style's auxiliary layer (in the factory style it is AUX; the layer is created if it does not exist).
3. Two points mark the test stretch: half the straight minus 100 and half plus 100 — 200 units in the middle.
4. The definition is drawn over that stretch, with the extra offset (12) applied to the straight beforehand.
5. If the two ends of the straight are not on screen, the view is framed on it.

The window title becomes the status line: Conjunto Linear: Compositor — 4 line(s), with , N placa(s) when there were signs, , N statement(s) not rendered when some statement could not be drawn, the reasons in brackets, — pontual: rendered over the 200 m stretch when the definition carries the pontual directive, and — dimensions not ported when Add dimensions is ticked.

Remembered between sessions

• Compositor: almost every control is written to the user preferences and restored the next time it opens. Left out are the definition box, the quick reference and the preset, directive and system-variable combos: the form always opens with an empty definition. It also reads three preferences shared with the Draw Set form (alignment offset, cadence and device), but the values the Compositor itself wrote win.
• Draw Set: only the favourites live on disk; the rest lasts as long as the CAD session. See Marking Strip.
• -CAPCAD_ROAD_SET: keeps nothing — not even the last path you gave it.

Notes

• The Compositor's test erases the drawing. Test in dwg and Dynamic mode empty model space before drawing. The confirmation exists precisely for that, and Dynamic only asks once per session. Work in a scratch dwg.
• -CAPCAD_ROAD_SET needs the active alignment. It does not ask for a curve: the base line is always the stretch of the project alignment between the two clicked points. With no alignment, it stops immediately.
• The two points of -CAPCAD_ROAD_SET are points. The prompt texts offer "a point OR a numeric station value", but the command uses a plain point prompt: typing a station does not work. Click in the drawing.
• A pontual definition does not run from the command line. If the text contains the word pontual, -CAPCAD_ROAD_SET answers that it is not available in the command-line version and stops. In the Compositor the directive is accepted, and the test draws the definition along the 200-unit stretch as though it were linear, saying so in the title.
• Only F and P lines are drawn. F lines (marking lines) and P lines (signs) are drawn. B lines (blocks) are counted and reported as not drawn; T lines (transverse) and lines written with L instead of F stay in the text and are ignored silently, without entering the count. This holds for the Compositor, for the Draw Set and for the command line — the Bloco and Transv tabs compose lines that are correct for the grammar but are not drawn in this version.
• An F line with surplus, gap or startAt is not drawn. It is counted as skipped and reported as GapExcedenteDeferred. The same holds for offset auto (AutoFaixaOffsetDeferred) and for @… references to criteria (CapvarDeferred).
• Some Compositor labels are not translated. The five tab names (Faixa, Placa, Bloco, Transv, Var) are Portuguese in every language, and espacios línea (29) and posición (34) are in Spanish. The window's status messages come out in English.
• The Compositor does not talk to the Draw Set. There is no button that sends the definition from one to the other: the route is to save a file in the project's DesenhaConjunto folder (11 or 27) and open it afterwards through the Draw Set's Local source. The Draw Set's Editor button opens a smaller dialog of its own, not this form.
• The layers follow the active style. The test's auxiliary layer and the definition's SINA_HOR_… layers are named by the style, which may add a prefix, change the colour and translate the stem (ROAD_MARK_… in English, SENA_HOR_… in Spanish). Missing layers are created.
• The ribbon button leads to the same form as the Marking Strip. Roadway › Templates › Linear Set and Traffic Control › Markings › Longitudinal both open DesenhaConjuntoForm; reopening it from either brings back the same window, with whatever was filled in.