Help with hatching

[phxtheatre]

Hello, I am a novice using vectorworks 9.0 to create a floor plan of the theatre where I work. I know enough to do simple drawings, but little else. I created the basic shape of the theatre walls using lines instead of polygons, asit is complex and has alot of bends in it. Now that I am finished, I wanted to hatch the walls I created. I have grouped the lines so that they are one unit, but it won't let me hatch, or do any sort of fill to the group. I only grouped lines that created closed shapes, so what I actually have is several individual objects on the page. Is there anyway to hatch them? If not, is there a better way for me to create the plan using something other than lines grouped together?

Any help would be appreciated.

Brad, Phoenix Theatre

[MullinRJ]

Hi Brad, Select the lines of one enclosed area, ungroup them if they are grouped, and use the 'Combine Into Surface...' command under the 'Tool' menu. You will get a paint bucket. Click anynwhere inside the lines with the paint bucket. You will get an additional Polygon object on top of your lines. Voila! You may now edit to you hearts content.

if it doesn't work, make sure all your lines are touching end to end, or crossing. The path has to be perfectly closed for the tool to work. Use the 'Snap To Object' constraint when drawing or editing.

Happy drawing,Raymond Mullin

[phxtheatre]

Thanks Raymond. I have tried to use that command before, it has never worked. I never knew that it created a new object, and didn't actually combine your lines into 1 surface. I guess that explains all the random polygons all over my drawing. I couldn't figure out where they were coming from. So it works now. Thanks. I'll post again if I have any other questions.

Brad

[phxtheatre]

Raymond- Is there any way to select everything in my drawnig and make sure that all the lines connect or do I have to just go through and look at every one individually.

Brad

[MullinRJ]

Brad,There is am Extend Tool that will extend objects you click on to a previously selected object, but it is manual. I know of no automated way to achieve your goal. It is possible to write a script to do it, but it would be tedious at best, and unless you are going to do this task repeatedly, you can do it manually in a lot less time. Just zoom in and walk your perimeter. Keep your Snap to Object constraint on, but be careful when editing groups of lines, if more than one line is selected, dragging a handle acts like resizing a group. This means that all the selected lines will move, so you have to resize lines one at a time. Editing polygon vertices is a lot easier, only the node(s) you intentionally drag move while the rest stay still.

Another method to consider if your point count is not too overwhelming, retrace the outlines of your building with the polygon tool. You will be guaranteed that all vertices are closed. Use another color for the poly and you'll know when you've gotten all the walls retraced.

Good luck and have fun,Raymond

[Matthew Giampapa]

While it's not as automated as you probably would like. When I have to check a file to see if points are connected, I will select everything and use the Compose command in the tool menu. (It was called "Compose curve" in 9.0.0->9.5.0)

This command takes any selected objects, and if they are touching, will turn them into a single polyline. IF your lines aren't all touching, it should connect all of the ones it can and leave the rest. You can then move the object or change it's colors to find the breaks. Connect those, and you can use the command again to join them.

Matthew GiampapaNNA Technical Support