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Regional Boards => International Highways => Topic started by: Quillz on September 10, 2010, 12:05:29 PM

Title: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: Quillz on September 10, 2010, 12:05:29 PM
I looked through all the highway shields I have from other countries and see I don't have any from Mexico. Do any official vectors exist anywhere? I'm looking primarily for the shield used on the federal highways or autopistas. There are unofficial vector traces available on Wikipedia, but the quality isn't as good as an official shield would be.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: agentsteel53 on September 10, 2010, 12:16:26 PM
Quote from: Quillz on September 10, 2010, 12:05:29 PM
I looked through all the highway shields I have from other countries and see I don't have any from Mexico. Do any official vectors exist anywhere? I'm looking primarily for the shield used on the federal highways or autopistas. There are unofficial vector traces available on Wikipedia, but the quality isn't as good as an official shield would be.

I do not remember the exact online source (JN Winkler might) but I made some vectors based on their 1986 MUTCD.  The problem is, their description is internally inconsistent - the radii and lengths do not perfectly add up!  So I had to make some subtle changes based on aesthetics.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: Quillz on September 10, 2010, 12:20:34 PM
Quote from: agentsteel53 on September 10, 2010, 12:16:26 PM
Quote from: Quillz on September 10, 2010, 12:05:29 PM
I looked through all the highway shields I have from other countries and see I don't have any from Mexico. Do any official vectors exist anywhere? I'm looking primarily for the shield used on the federal highways or autopistas. There are unofficial vector traces available on Wikipedia, but the quality isn't as good as an official shield would be.

I do not remember the exact online source (JN Winkler might) but I made some vectors based on their 1986 MUTCD.  The problem is, their description is internally inconsistent - the radii and lengths do not perfectly add up!  So I had to make some subtle changes based on aesthetics.
Do you think you could send me a copy of what you have? The ones on Wikipedia may or may not be similar to the one you made. The ones on Wikipedia don't appear to be based off any standardized specs, rather just drawn by hand to what they think the shield is supposed to look like.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: agentsteel53 on September 10, 2010, 01:14:13 PM
yeah I'll send when I get home.  might be another late day at work...
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: Quillz on September 10, 2010, 01:57:46 PM
Okay, thanks a lot.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: J N Winkler on September 11, 2010, 05:04:20 AM
Official vectors:  no.  (It is possible to download Mexican signing plans through CompraNET.gob.mx, but they are never ever pattern-accurate.)  Unofficial vectors:  yes.  I have a shield done to MDCT specifications and it is correct bar the substitution of FHWA alphabet series for the correct Mexican alphabet series (the inconsistency Jake refers to is a result of overspecification and the erroneous dimension can be safely ignored), but at the moment my Internet access is limited since my computer lost its ISP feed.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: treichard on September 12, 2010, 10:56:26 PM
Have you stumbled across any signing plans or patterns for the Mexican state shields?  I've been looking for these, even for just one state, to obtain an accurate state shield pattern.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: agentsteel53 on September 12, 2010, 11:13:52 PM
I never have - but I get the idea that the state shield is a superset of the federal shield - fill in the corners and the four missing scalloped sections.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: J N Winkler on September 13, 2010, 07:19:14 AM
I have.  The state shield is in the MDCT (it is federally mandated--there is no "state option" as in the US).  There are also nationally standardized shields for what I think is a classification of farm-to-market highway.  However, I have not yet tried drawing the shields for either type of highway yet.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: kphoger on November 22, 2011, 08:14:08 PM
JN Winkler, those must be the ones marked "Rural" on the top.  ? ? ?
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: J N Winkler on November 22, 2011, 08:27:33 PM
Yup, those are the ones.  I don't think I have ever seen one in the field.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: agentsteel53 on November 22, 2011, 09:03:07 PM
Quote from: J N Winkler on November 22, 2011, 08:27:33 PM
Yup, those are the ones.  I don't think I have ever seen one in the field.

I never even noticed it in the manual.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: kphoger on November 22, 2011, 09:27:47 PM
I see them on the free road between Saltillo and La Paila.
That's the only place I've seen them, though.

Here's a Google street view of one along that stretch:
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1092.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi410%2Fkphoger%2Frural.png&hash=64621e5efb9f847fc34d72b61e01f3da3d0b715c)
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: Scott5114 on May 15, 2013, 06:50:44 PM
Is there someone that could post the MDCT specs for federal and state highway shields? I'm having trouble finding them.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: kphoger on May 15, 2013, 08:38:57 PM
Thanks for bumping.  It made me realize I now have a better view of those tertiary route shields.  I posted this picture in another thread, but not in this thread.  Interestingly, without realizing it until now, I managed to snap a shot of the exact same location I had found on GMSV seven months earlier.  The signs were less than 15 months old when I photographed them in June 2012.  (That's our van in the background.)

(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1092.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi410%2Fkphoger%2FMexico_2.png&hash=3c620ee96602e4468c93a09891099a48cc240c4f)
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: kphoger on May 15, 2013, 08:46:31 PM
Here's a closer view:

(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1092.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi410%2Fkphoger%2Fmajada_zpsa8458891.jpg&hash=cd32bf39be5ad38d4898a976a207926402d33dfd)
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: Scott5114 on May 16, 2013, 02:21:58 AM
I believe Jake is currently happily munching on his hat.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: J N Winkler on May 16, 2013, 10:34:32 AM
To answer Scott's question upthread, here is the URL of the page where various parts of the MDCT can be downloaded:

http://dgst.sct.gob.mx/index.php?id=602

Edit:  The signs Kphoger has posted look like quality work, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say they were fabricated by Semex.  They use the actual SCT alphabet series, not Arial or the FHWA series (I can tell because the valley in the "M" does not go all the way to the baseline).  I am going to guess SCT Series 1 for the green-background legend and Series 2 for the route numbers.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: Quillz on February 04, 2016, 01:16:25 PM
I seem to have lost the 1986 MUTCD that I used to have showing the dimensions of the Mexican route shields... Does anyone still have a copy, or can at least tell me the proper placement of the numeral legend and the "D" legend?
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: RaulMtz on February 11, 2016, 12:48:58 AM
Quote from: Quillz on February 04, 2016, 01:16:25 PM
I seem to have lost the 1986 MUTCD that I used to have showing the dimensions of the Mexican route shields... Does anyone still have a copy, or can at least tell me the proper placement of the numeral legend and the "D" legend?

Here ya go:

http://sct.gob.mx/fileadmin/DireccionesGrales/DGST/Manuales/NUEVO-SENALAMIENTO/manualSenalamientoVialDispositivosSeguridad.pdf
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: US 41 on February 11, 2016, 01:06:28 AM
There's also this one on Mexican Highway 30. Are Rural routes only in Coahuila? Coahuila is the only estado I've seen them in on GSV.

(https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/12688363_219231225086915_8491864853218742898_n.jpg?oh=82711c088f0de7069168f13f618ab825&oe=577031C5)
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: dcbjms on February 11, 2016, 02:18:19 PM
Quote from: US 41 on February 11, 2016, 01:06:28 AM
There's also this one on Mexican Highway 30. Are Rural routes only in Coahuila? Coahuila is the only estado I've seen them in on GSV.

Basically, rural routes are to Mexico what farm-to-market roads are to Texas, so they show up in very random or isolated areas.  The best one can do is basically take a Taiwanese highway shield from Wikimedia Commons, get rid of all the colours, fill the border in with black, and then guess as to the rest of the measurements.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: J N Winkler on February 11, 2016, 02:55:45 PM
Just to add to what MancoMtz posted above--on SCT DGST's manuals page, there is a link not just to the manual, but also to a digital image bank of traffic sign images that allows them to be downloaded in AutoCAD DWG format:

http://www.sct.gob.mx/carreteras/direccion-general-de-servicios-tecnicos/normativa/manuales/

The images include full sets of glyphs for SCT Series 1-5 and Lowercase which, contrary to what the Wikipedia Highway Gothic article will tell you, are not identical to the FHWA series.

The 1986 MDCT seems no longer to be available on the live website (though it is possibly still retrievable through the Web Archive)--the manual currently available for download dates from 2014.  The text and formatting is clean, but unfortunately the images are still rasters.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: dcbjms on February 14, 2016, 10:01:41 AM
Quote from: J N Winkler on February 11, 2016, 02:55:45 PMThe images include full sets of glyphs for SCT Series 1-5 and Lowercase which, contrary to what the Wikipedia Highway Gothic article will tell you, are not identical to the FHWA series.

Which leaves the question open if someone has taken the time to create a font based on those glyphs?  (That would make an interesting addition to the Roadgeek 2014 fonts.)  And although they are not identical, is there a potential comparison to the FHWA Series that can be used?
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: kphoger on April 05, 2016, 10:37:46 PM
Quote from: US 41 on February 11, 2016, 01:06:28 AMAre Rural routes only in Coahuila?

No. I've seen GSV of them in San Luis Potosí, and perhaps one or two others that I can't think of offhand.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: kphoger on April 07, 2016, 06:57:02 PM
Looking through the Goog, I'm not seeing any states other than Coahuila and SLP that use the shields, but it's not like I've done an exhaustive search or anything.

Examples along highway 57 in San Luis Potosí, which doesn't appear to care about route numbers:
https://goo.gl/maps/1cCSjc9QuG52
https://goo.gl/maps/uBxPEWd1rBM2
https://goo.gl/maps/KkW44EW9FS12
https://goo.gl/maps/ZFy5PaJxaK12
https://goo.gl/maps/maMaLFnT1zr
https://goo.gl/maps/LhW1UQSgHHs
https://goo.gl/maps/WW5Vxsi8deD2
https://goo.gl/maps/rUpWqvcSHM12
https://goo.gl/maps/puZeq7622CR2
https://goo.gl/maps/nZ9GMzZ7yfm
https://goo.gl/maps/s5YkSaYQJ9R2
https://goo.gl/maps/kmiiT4rAq3A2
https://goo.gl/maps/NbvGhbHfJgt
https://goo.gl/maps/qcAXZF7txyz
https://goo.gl/maps/rNyhxCwxwuE2
https://goo.gl/maps/1fQqfSFQzh82
https://goo.gl/maps/rrmG5oxaBNu
https://goo.gl/maps/51i8T5sa61K2
https://goo.gl/maps/djMAFCrCp512
https://goo.gl/maps/4JibCRAHeVK2
https://goo.gl/maps/wgu6Nfha4Cw
https://goo.gl/maps/Nqx9ZmC6TtP2
https://goo.gl/maps/8Jj1d6hzJ5R2
https://goo.gl/maps/9fmWw5uxfh22
https://goo.gl/maps/PQYzf1moy2T2
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: US 41 on April 07, 2016, 07:29:44 PM
Wow thanks for all the links! It seems like most of these Rural routes are no more than just gravel roads. Someone compared them to FM / RM roads in Texas. I've drove on some FM roads in Texas and to me they seemed just as good as a state highway. It makes me wonder if these Rural routes are actually municipal (county) roads.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: kphoger on April 07, 2016, 09:11:32 PM
I remember some of the SLP ones having a black state shape in the place a route number would typically appear, but all those links I posted show blank space instead. I might be remembering older GSV, meaning those were replaced with newer shields. Too lazy to look through Google Maps' timeline, though.

In answer to the issue upthread about a lack of specs for state highway shields, I agree that it is simply a matter of smoothing out the edges of the federal highway shield. That's what I do, anyway, and the outcome looks very much like real life.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: kphoger on April 08, 2016, 11:17:07 AM
Quote from: US 41 on April 07, 2016, 07:29:44 PM
Wow thanks for all the links! It seems like most of these Rural routes are no more than just gravel roads. Someone compared them to FM / RM roads in Texas. I've drove on some FM roads in Texas and to me they seemed just as good as a state highway. It makes me wonder if these Rural routes are actually municipal (county) roads.

Well, I stopped posting links once I got tired of looking them up yesterday.  Ironically (perhaps), I started up again, working my way south from the city of San Luis Potosí (which is where I left off), and I'm not finding any south of that point.  So it appears to be less of a state thing than a district thing.  That matches up with my firsthand experience in Coahuila:  I've only encountered the tertiary route shields in one part of the state.

And I agree that they appear to be municipal routes rather than state routes.  However, the interplay between state and municipality in México is not something I'm all that much of an expert on, so I can't say for certain there isn't state involvement in funding or maintenance; in fact, I'd assume there is at least some state involvement in both regards.  As to their purpose, I'd say they function basically as FAS routes do in the US:  you could call them tertiary routes or secondary rural routes, and they serve to connect small communities to the main highway network.  If Missouri were in México (rather than Mexico being a town in Missouri, ha!), then I'm guessing most of their lettered SSRs would be similarly unpaved.
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: US 41 on April 08, 2016, 04:47:27 PM
Quote from: kphoger on April 08, 2016, 11:17:07 AM
Quote from: US 41 on April 07, 2016, 07:29:44 PM
Wow thanks for all the links! It seems like most of these Rural routes are no more than just gravel roads. Someone compared them to FM / RM roads in Texas. I've drove on some FM roads in Texas and to me they seemed just as good as a state highway. It makes me wonder if these Rural routes are actually municipal (county) roads.

Well, I stopped posting links once I got tired of looking them up yesterday.  Ironically (perhaps), I started up again, working my way south from the city of San Luis Potosí (which is where I left off), and I'm not finding any south of that point.  So it appears to be less of a state thing than a district thing.  That matches up with my firsthand experience in Coahuila:  I've only encountered the tertiary route shields in one part of the state.

And I agree that they appear to be municipal routes rather than state routes.  However, the interplay between state and municipality in México is not something I'm all that much of an expert on, so I can't say for certain there isn't state involvement in funding or maintenance; in fact, I'd assume there is at least some state involvement in both regards.  As to their purpose, I'd say they function basically as FAS routes do in the US:  you could call them tertiary routes or secondary rural routes, and they serve to connect small communities to the main highway network.  If Missouri were in México (rather than Mexico being a town in Missouri, ha!), then I'm guessing most of their lettered SSRs would be similarly unpaved.

I found this one on MX 63.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.6138064,-101.1488381,3a,18.7y,21.17h,91.86t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sOyM4bXjh5vq_uw5OipHW4w!2e0

This one is in the estado of Zactatecas on MX 54. It's kind of blurry but I'm pretty sure it says Rural 28.

https://www.google.com/maps/@24.1587751,-101.4947352,3a,18.7y,227.42h,86.19t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sINqI6fro5QhmHG4z9HXafg!2e0

EDIT: This one is a little clearer. This is looking northbound instead of southbound on MX 54.

https://www.google.com/maps/@24.1575615,-101.4956021,3a,18.7y,60.28h,85.49t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1spsuJX_DVpJRvmXhAK_BZWQ!2e0
Title: Re: Mexican Highway Shield Vectors
Post by: kphoger on April 08, 2016, 05:00:40 PM
Quote from: US 41 on April 08, 2016, 04:47:27 PM
I found this one on MX 63.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.6138064,-101.1488381,3a,18.7y,21.17h,91.86t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sOyM4bXjh5vq_uw5OipHW4w!2e0

But still north of Cd San Luis Potosí.  It still appears to be a regional thing.

Quote from: US 41 on April 08, 2016, 04:47:27 PM
This one is in the estado of Zactatecas on MX 54. It's kind of blurry but I'm pretty sure it says Rural 28.

https://www.google.com/maps/@24.1587751,-101.4947352,3a,18.7y,227.42h,86.19t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sINqI6fro5QhmHG4z9HXafg!2e0

EDIT: This one is a little clearer. This is looking northbound instead of southbound on MX 54.

https://www.google.com/maps/@24.1575615,-101.4956021,3a,18.7y,60.28h,85.49t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1spsuJX_DVpJRvmXhAK_BZWQ!2e0

Yes, that definitely says Rural.  Definitely not very professional looking, a lot like this one a little farther down the road (https://goo.gl/maps/2kkM8s69srS2).