Sign Assemblies

What it does

An assembly is a group of signs sharing one post: one above the other (sometimes side by side), joined by a line. It is the commonest arrangement on a highway — a regulatory sign with a warning sign, or a main sign with its supplementary plate.

CapCad builds an assembly the same way every time: you point at a sign already in the drawing (the reference sign) and say which code joins it. The command then

1. measures the reference sign (the block height times its effective scale);
2. decides the side, either because you said so, or by looking at which side the post is on;
3. places the new sign at height + gap away, at the same rotation as the reference;
4. draws the connecting line between the reference and the new sign, on the action's layer.

The new sign inherits from the reference the station, the latitude, the longitude, the scale and the EXTRA attribute, and is inserted the same way as in sign insertion, which derives the code, area, dimensions, layer and graphic style on its own.

Two commands do exactly that from the command line:

• CAPCAD_SIGN_ASSEMBLY (CJ) — asks only for the code and for the reference sign; uses the automatic gap and works out the side by itself.
• CAPCAD_SIGN_ASSEMBLY_OPTIONS — also asks for the side (left, right, above, below) and the distance between the signs.

The same mechanism is used by Swap and substitute: the old sign comes back into the drawing as the assembly's second sign, with the remove action.

The gap between the signs

The gap is the clear space between the top of the reference sign and the bottom of the new one.

The sign-set command is a different thing

CAPCAD_SIGN_SET_PLACE, the Conjunto Vertical ribbon button, does not despite its name stack signs on a post: it works along the alignment. It is a fork, decided the moment it opens:

• under the Brazilian country profile the command asks "Selecione: Sim = Distância reserva, Não = Placas agrupadas" (Yes = reserve distance, No = grouped signs);
• Yes opens the Conjunto Vertical form, with the Conjuntos page (curve sign pairs, or one sign every N metres) and the Mudanças velocidade page (the staged speed-reduction chain);
• No — and also every non-Brazilian country profile, which never sees the question at all — opens the Conjuntos de placas form, the inserter for alignment markers (delineators, chevrons) on a curve or along a stretch.

So under any other country profile this command goes straight to the second form. The Conjunto Vertical form documented below is only reachable under the Brazilian profile; it is described here for completeness, and its tables live on the Portuguese edition of this page.

Workflow

Stacking a sign (CJ)

1. Run CJ (or CAPCAD_SIGN_ASSEMBLY).
2. Answer Placa a ser inserida num conjunto: (sign to insert into an assembly) with the code. Enter on an empty line cancels.
3. Answer Selecione a placa de referência: (select the reference sign) by clicking the sign already in the drawing.
4. The command line confirms Placa inserida no conjunto (sign inserted into the assembly) — or Não foi possível inserir a placa no conjunto, when the code could not be inserted (for example a code that exists neither in the library nor as a generic fallback sign).

Stacking with a chosen side and gap (CAPCAD_SIGN_ASSEMBLY_OPTIONS)

1. Run CAPCAD_SIGN_ASSEMBLY_OPTIONS.
2. Give the code.
3. Choose the side keyword: Esquerda (left), Direita (right), Superior (above) or Inferior (below). Enter without choosing ends the command.
4. Give the Distancia excedente — the gap. Enter accepts the default of 10.
5. Click the reference sign.

On the left and right sides the command draws no connecting line: the two signs sit side by side, with no connector.

Sign sets: alignment markers on a curve or a stretch

1. Run CAPCAD_SIGN_SET_PLACE. Under a non-Brazilian profile the Conjuntos de placas form opens directly; under the Brazilian one, answer No to the question.
2. Choose the marker and the representation, and click usar o mesmo poste (use the same post) before Inserir placas — see the note below.
3. Pick the curve, or the two points of a stretch.

Sign sets: sign pairs on a curve (Brazilian profile)

1. Run CAPCAD_SIGN_SET_PLACE and answer Yes.
2. On the Conjuntos page, Curvas tab, choose the base sign in Placa (7) — picking one of the listed curve-warning codes fills Entrada (9) and Saída (10) with that code plus A and plus B, and preselects the insertion mode.
3. Give the Folga (8): the distance, outwards from each end of the stretch, at which each sign is placed.
4. Under Inserção, choose Curva inteira (whole curve, 1) or Trecho (stretch, 3).
5. Under Eixo, choose Corrente (11) if the project has an active alignment, or Selecionar (12) to pick a curve in the drawing.
6. Click Inserir em curva (13). The form hides; you click near the curve (whole-curve mode) or on the two points of the stretch.
7. The command line reports how many signs were inserted.
8. Atualizar (15) erases the previous set and redraws it; Redefinir (14) only erases.

Sign sets: one sign every N metres

1. On the Conjuntos page, Placas em trechos tab, choose the sign in Placa (16) — the two listed codes prefill A cada (17) with 10000 and 500 respectively, and both select the Trecho mode.
2. Give the distance in A cada (17) and, if you want, the value of the EXTRA attribute in Extra (18).
3. Click Inserir em curva (13) and mark the two points of the stretch.
4. The command divides the stretch and inserts the sign in both directions at each station, 8 units off the alignment.

Sign sets: the speed-reduction chain

1. Go to the Mudanças velocidade page. Choose v0 (19), the operating speed, and vf (20), the final speed; the vf list only offers speeds below v0.
2. Check the Dp (21) and the Dr range (22 to 24) the tables return, and choose which reserve to apply with buttons 26 to 29.
3. Choose the sign Diâmetro (30) — it is what sets the legibility distance.
4. Click Ponto em eixo (35) and click the critical point on the alignment; or Lote (38), which walks every design-speed transition recorded on the alignment.
5. The command inserts the staged speed-limit signs and shows a summary of what it did.

The form

Numbers are the same in every screenshot of this page.

These forms show Portuguese captions in every language, so the tables below quote the caption you will see and give its English meaning beside it.

Opening state: the Conjuntos page, Curvas tab. No insertion mode is preselected.

The Placas em trechos tab: the three fields on the left (16 to 18) replace the four on the Curvas tab; everything on the right is shared.

The Mudanças velocidade page: the table readouts on the left and at the top, the method options below.

The Tabelas page: the method's three tables (Dp, Dr and DL) as an image, with no controls.

The Explica page (43): the method's text, for reading only.

Conjuntos page, Curvas tab

Which of the two goes to each end depends on the direction of the curve:

The lateral offset of the two signs from the alignment is fixed at 8 units in this version.

Conjuntos page, Placas em trechos tab

Each station receives two signs, one for each direction of travel, both 8 units off the alignment.

Conjuntos page, the Inserção and Eixo frames (shared by both tabs)

Mudanças velocidade page

This page builds a staged speed-reduction chain: from an operating speed v0 down to a regulated final speed vf, it places one speed-limit sign per intermediate step, working back from the critical point. The distances come from three tables — Dp (perception, reaction and braking, per v0 → vf pair), Dr (reserve distance, per final speed) and DL (legibility distance, per sign diameter) — shown as an image on the Tabelas page. The tables and the sign code used are those of the Brazilian profile; the Portuguese edition of this page carries them.

The Tabelas and Explica pages

The other form: Conjuntos de placas

The form CAPCAD_SIGN_SET_PLACE opens when the answer is No — and the only one that appears under a non-Brazilian country profile.

It inserts alignment markers and delineator posts along a curve or a stretch, with presets, radius-based spacing formulae and a representation with or without leader lines. The marker list offers MA, MA-I and CHEVRON; on the drawing the block actually used follows the active country profile, exactly as in Kilometre posts and alignment markers.

Before clicking Inserir placas, click usar o mesmo poste (use the same post): it mirrors the second row of the double assembly, and that combination is what the command needs in order to proceed — with the two rows identical it refuses the insertion with "As duas linhas do conjunto duplo são idênticas." Stretch insertion is not available in this version: it shows the computed plan instead.

How the options combine

The figures below came from the command's own engine, with a reference sign 4 units tall.

CAPCAD_SIGN_ASSEMBLY with no options: the command looks for the reference sign's post and grows the assembly the other way. On the left, post below and new sign above; on the right, post above and new sign below. With no post found, the default is above.

The four keywords of CAPCAD_SIGN_ASSEMBLY_OPTIONS, with a gap of 5. Above and below draw the connecting line; left and right draw nothing between the two signs.

The gap changes only the distance, never the side: 5 for the automatic gap, 15 for the automatic gap under the paradigm that raises it, then a typed value, and the zero case, which becomes 0.001.

Remembered between sessions

CAPCAD_SIGN_ASSEMBLY and CAPCAD_SIGN_ASSEMBLY_OPTIONS keep nothing: code, side and gap are asked for on every run.

The CAPCAD_SIGN_SET_PLACE form stays open and keeps everything you typed for as long as the CAD session lasts — the values are not written to disk, so it comes back to its opening state in the next AutoCAD.

The Ext.linha field on the Conjunto tab of sign insertion is written to the user preferences and restored when the form opens.

Notes

• The reference can be any block. The click accepts any block reference, and the height, the point and the rotation come from it. On a block that is not a sign there are no attributes to inherit and no paired post, so the new sign goes above, with no inherited station or coordinates.
• With no post identified, the assembly grows upwards. Automatic detection uses the post paired with the sign (tolerance of 1 unit). With no post nearby, the new sign goes above.
• Only the second quadrant sends the sign downwards. The detection rule looks at the angle from the sign to the post relative to the sign's own rotation: only the second quadrant puts the new sign below; every other quadrant puts it above.
• The connecting line follows the action. It goes to the implant, keep or remove layer according to the situation of the sign being inserted into the assembly. In a substitution, under the paradigm that has one, it goes to the substitution layer.
• The measured height ignores hatches in this version. The command measures the vertical extent of the inserted block; if the sign carries a hatch taller than its outline, the end of the connecting line ends up slightly displaced.
• Check the post after building an assembly. The second sign is inserted like a new sign, which also draws a post at its point; run Fix Traffic Signs to check the sign-to-post pairing and clear duplicates.
• The in an existing assembly method of sign insertion does the same stacking — sign above the reference, gap 5, no post of its own — but does not draw the connecting line in this version. For the complete assembly, use CJ.
• Related pages: sign insertion, sign actions, swap and substitute, Fix Traffic Signs and sign management.