Complex Line Types with Polygons vs Polylines

[Guillemot]

The enclosed image shows the same shape, the one on the left is a polyline, the one on the right is a polygon. Both have the exact same complex line type showing in blue. I am hovering over the polyline on the left to show the orange shape. 

 

The complex line type on the polyline displays as a series of the line definitions situated around the polyline, they are straight and do not follow the shape of the polyline. I.e. it is completely unusable. I can convert it to a polygon, but this loses information and makes it less editable.

 

Is this a known issue? Is it intentional?

[Pat Stanford]

Check your line type. It appears to have too long of straight sections in the Type to allow it to rotate around the curve.

 

In the following image Left are Polylines, right are Polygons made using Convert.

 

Top are using an edited Line Type with long straight sections. Bottom are using the default Fill Line Type.

 

[Guillemot]

50 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

Check your line type. It appears to have too long of straight sections in the Type to allow it to rotate around the curve.

 

The line length is the length that I want for the appearance I am seeking. It does help if I break the line into shorter segments by chopping it up with the Split Tool, but it really only makes the errors harder to notice. The Type does not have trouble rotating around the curve on a polygon.

 

The sample on the left is polyline with short split segments in the Line Type, the right is polygon with the same Line Type. 

 

The line does match better, but at hard corners and around arc segments the line varies off the intended path.

 

Converting to Polygon is a viable workaround in a lot of situations but loses information, and it would seem to be appropriate to be able to use Line Styles on polylines and have them actually follow the path shape. It took me quite a bit of time to figure out that the problem was caused by the polyline. It isn't obvious that one should work and the other should not.