# How to get the Reinforced symbols?

Recently, An asistant asked me a question that how to get the Reinforced symbols?

I can not find it in sym­bols-a4.pdf. Maybe it is not universal notation.

• It would help if you knew the names of these symbols. Where are they used? – user10274 Dec 31 '12 at 9:17
• In chinese building engineering, reinforcing steel symbols is used to design the building. – TeX.pig Dec 31 '12 at 9:39

The creation of such symbols are fairly straight forward if you follow the "\ooalign tutorial| in \subseteq + \circ as a single symbol (“open subset”):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}% http://ctan.org/pkg/graphicx
\newcommand{\symbolA}{{%
\ooalign{\raisebox{.3ex}{\scalebox{.9}{o}}\cr\hss\rule{.4pt}{1.5ex}\hss}}}
\newcommand{\symbolB}{{%
\ooalign{\hss\raisebox{.3ex}{\scalebox{.9}{o}}\hss\cr\hss\rule{.4pt}{1.5ex}\hss\cr\rule{1.5ex}{.4pt}}}}
\newcommand{\symbolC}{{%
\ooalign{\hss\raisebox{.3ex}{\scalebox{.9}{o}}\hss\cr\hss\rule{.4pt}{1.5ex}\kern1pt\rule{.4pt}{1.5ex}\hss\cr\rule{1.5ex}{.4pt}}}}
\begin{document}
Some text \symbolA{} \symbolB{} \symbolC{} and some more text.
\end{document}


However, these symbols do not scale properly if used as exponents in math mode.

A possible improvement of Werner's solution. The key point is that it's not necessary to specify some of the dimensions, while keeping the vertical rules as high as capital letters.

Redefine \reinforcedmain at will, maybe you can find a better way to draw the circle.

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand{\reinforcedmain}{\raisebox{.3ex}{o}}
\newcommand{\reinforcedrule}{\vrule height\fontcharht\font\A }
\newcommand{\reinforcedA}{{\normalfont
\ooalign{\reinforcedmain\cr
\hss\reinforcedrule\hss
}%
}}
\newcommand{\reinforcedB}{{\normalfont
\ooalign{\reinforcedmain\cr
\hss\reinforcedrule\hss\cr
\noalign{\hrule}%
}%
}}
\newcommand{\reinforcedC}{{\normalfont
\ooalign{\reinforcedmain\cr
\hss\reinforcedrule\kern.4pt\reinforcedrule\hss\cr
\noalign{\hrule}%
}%
}}

\begin{document}
Text \reinforcedA{} \reinforcedB{} \reinforcedC{} end.
\end{document}


Following the suggestion of Marc van Dongen, here's a possibly improved version where the thickness of the rules varies according to the type size; the rule thickness is in the \reinforcedthickness parameter.

\newcommand{\reinforcedmain}{\raisebox{.3ex}{o}}
\newcommand{\reinforcedrule}{%
\vrule height\fontcharht\font\A width \reinforcedthickness\relax}
\newcommand{\reinforcedthickness}{0.04em}

\newcommand{\reinforcedA}{{\normalfont
\ooalign{\reinforcedmain\cr
\hss\reinforcedrule\hss
}%
}}
\newcommand{\reinforcedB}{{\normalfont
\ooalign{\reinforcedmain\cr
\hss\reinforcedrule\hss\cr
\noalign{\hrule height\reinforcedthickness}%
}%
}}
\newcommand{\reinforcedC}{{\normalfont
\ooalign{\reinforcedmain\cr
\hss\reinforcedrule\kern\reinforcedthickness\reinforcedrule\hss\cr
\noalign{\hrule height\reinforcedthickness}%
}%
}}

• I agree this is an improvement but the vertical and horizontal rules don't scale with tiny, small, and so on. Perhaps this can be fixed by using some thickness and width for the rules that depend on the typesize. – user10274 Dec 31 '12 at 15:08
• One could use width 0.04em in the definition of \reinforcedrule and \kern0.04em in the definition of \reinforcedC. I'll add this refinement. – egreg Dec 31 '12 at 15:12
• Thanks. I think the OP would need scaling at some stage or another. – user10274 Dec 31 '12 at 15:14