Vectorworks, Inc Employee Robert Anderson Posted December 18, 2001 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted December 18, 2001 There is a 'stipple' hatch created by the Select Wall Type... command (in the Edit Wall Type dialog) but like all repetitive hatches, the repetition of the pattern is relatively easy to discern over large areas. I recommend instead using the "Concrete Fill..." command on the Drafting Tools submenu of the Tool menu. This provides a true random gravel-type stipple. Quote Link to comment
MikeN Posted December 18, 2001 Author Share Posted December 18, 2001 Let me get this straight...you suggest I use a concrete fill for my gravel/backfill dilema. Then what do you suggest I use for my concrete hatch? Quote Link to comment
CipesDesign Posted December 18, 2001 Share Posted December 18, 2001 mnelson, GOOD QUESTION! What if you used a modified version of the "soil" hatch. You could scale it up or down to make it different from soil, or add a different background color. In fact you could use a different background shade with the concrete fill as well. PLC Quote Link to comment
MikeN Posted December 18, 2001 Author Share Posted December 18, 2001 brilliant! i could also mask-off the area on my monitor, use a can of spray-glue and throw dirt on it. that would work too! Quote Link to comment
CipesDesign Posted December 19, 2001 Share Posted December 19, 2001 Or why not just get rid of the stupid thing and go back to drawing with a pencil? 1 Quote Link to comment
wdickert Posted December 19, 2001 Share Posted December 19, 2001 Maybe I am missing something here, but the last time I looked there were a couple of gravel hatches in 9.5. I just used one the other day for backfill. Quote Link to comment
MikeB Posted December 19, 2001 Share Posted December 19, 2001 In VW 9.5, Open the resources paletteIn the VW 9.5 DirectoryIn the resouces directory There is a file called Hatches which has 2 versions of gravel. They are OK, not great but OK. Or you could open the manual and learn how to use the hatch creation dialogue and make a hatch that suits your needs. Good Luck Quote Link to comment
Greg Thompson Posted December 20, 2001 Share Posted December 20, 2001 One reply mentioned the hatches.mcd file with the two gravel hatches. He's right -- they aren't so great. But -- and here's my big but -- if you're using Architect 9.x, go to the Resources palette, find the Object Library folder, and in there you should find a file called 00_Arch__Tiles.mcd. This file contains an Aggregate pattern that looks good on wall sections (3/4"=1'-0" or similar). Click import. In the drawing, make a polygon, go to the Design menu and select Tile... Select Aggregate, click OK. See what happens. I always need to change the view to see the results (for some danged reason). Get rid of the polygon -- or not. 1 Quote Link to comment
MikeN Posted December 20, 2001 Author Share Posted December 20, 2001 Greg. Thank you! Aggregate is what I should have asked for in the first place to avoid frustration and confusion. I'm interested in knowing why the aggreagate is used in Tiles rather than a Hatch. Seems like for every one good thing Vectorworks develops, they make some questionable moves. It makes me wonder if they have an Architect or even a draftsman on the Nemetchek staff to consult. Quote Link to comment
MikeB Posted December 20, 2001 Share Posted December 20, 2001 I think Robert's an Architect. Quote Link to comment
CEA Posted December 21, 2001 Share Posted December 21, 2001 Greg has a great idea to use the "Tile" function to create hatches. I purchased an add on product called "Motivo" from a company name Sintac about two years ago. "Motivo" allows the user to simply draw a pattern and then save it as a hatch. This solved a lot of problems for me; I was going crazy trying to use the Vectorworks hatch creation tools. I used "Motivo" to quickly create a library of hatches in VW version 8.5, but I have not used it with VW version 9. I have however been successfully using my library of custom hatches that were created in VW version 8 with VW version 9. I found "Motivo" on the Nemetschek web site, and it has been very useful, and was well worth the ?$50 cost. I will try the tile command to see if it accomplishes the same thing. This also raises the point that the Vectorworks hatch creation tools could be improved and made easier to use. I think this has been a fairly common complaint. Quote Link to comment
jnr Posted December 21, 2001 Share Posted December 21, 2001 The vectorworks hatch command flat out stinks. I have spoken to several other firms who use this software and all agree and are all extremely frustrated with the hatch dialog/ tool. In fact it and a few other irritations have driven one firm to choose another more expensive software package. They simply could not afford to lose fee in time spent diagnosing all the problems this software seems to have. Quote Link to comment
Davide Posted December 21, 2001 Share Posted December 21, 2001 The hatch creation interface in VW is complex to grab as a concept, but once you do, you can create a lot of nice effects. It requires some arithmetic and geometric dexterity. Is it true though that the "draw something, convert it to a hatch pattern" is the most obvious approach. VW should definitely adopt Motivo approach and implement it. That allows for curves to be used. Leaving VW because of the hatch is really a signal to me that someone would never get the grasp of a full potential of any sophisticated software, especially a more expensive and complex one. Quote Link to comment
Davide Posted December 21, 2001 Share Posted December 21, 2001 Oh, and by the way, I just recalled that only 2-3 years ago a major expensive cad couldn?t even have a solid fill, something given for granted on most Mac applications (including Minicad) since ever; that great cad had to use a very dense hatch pattern to simulate it. And try getting shadow-like, transparent hatches with that too. Quote Link to comment
jnr Posted December 21, 2001 Share Posted December 21, 2001 mnelson: I'm ready to bail after four years dedicated to this software not just based solely on hatch insanity, but on the myriad of other problems; for example severe lack of program stability across windows 95,98,98 se and now win 2000, (I can't speak for mac users)(witness excessive runtime errors,the program vaporizing off the screen, radio buttons turning black, etc). This is not to mention all the time and money spent diagnosing problems stemming from lousy quality control issues (9.0 need I say more), printing problems, etc. Its too bad, the program used to be a pretty good deal for the money. Unfortunately I don't know how much more I can take. If 9 and its offspring were a car I'd be exercising my rights under the lemmon laws.... Quote Link to comment
MikeN Posted December 22, 2001 Author Share Posted December 22, 2001 JNR, don't bail on VW just because of hatching. The hatch program in VW is one of the best for more complicated issues but ridiculously stupid for simple aspects. One example: Developing a hatch for your brick dimensions with an exact mortar size lets you see what an elevation would look like with the "finished product" as well as more accuratly estimate brick quantity. Quote Link to comment
ixplorer Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Can someone please let me know the answer to where do i stick a hatch file in my VW directory so its available ? Driving me nuts. TIA Quote Link to comment
ixplorer Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Figured it out... you just open the file doh. Some of the files in Vector Depot don't have the hatch in the actual hatch dialog menu thingy. Can anyone give me a hint how I get them to appear in there ? Quote Link to comment
islandmon Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Our office just rec'd an Acad file with various Stonework Hatches = many thousands of polygons for each elevation ! There's an easier more efficient solution. Use Image Fills . I sent some over to Vectordeport. They can be scaled from rocks > aggregated. KISS Quote Link to comment
jan15 Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 quote: Originally posted by ixplorer: ...hatch dialog menu thingy. Can anyone give me a hint how I get them to appear in there? There are actually at least 3 such thingies. There's the list of hatches in the "Attributes" palette. That palette fills a 2D object with a hatch which is part of the object, i.e. the object's "fill attribute". It changes size and shape automatically as the object changes. The same list of hatches shows up in the Resource Browser palette. To see the hatches in any disk file, select that file from "Files and Folders" > "Browse a Document". Or you can select any open file from "Open Files", at the top of the top pull-down list (you have to scroll up to it). You can make any hatch in the Resource Browser the fill attribute of any object by right-clicking on it and selecting "Apply". Then there's the same list of hatches in the "Select Hatch" palette of the "Hatch..." pull-down command. But that command creates a different kind of hatch. It's not an attribute of the boundary object, and not associated with it in any way. It's just a Group of lines using the specified hatch pattern. The thing is that all 3 lists show you what hatch patterns are stored in the drawing file. If a hatch pattern doesn't show up in those 3 lists, then it's not in the file. And VW hatches are stored only in drawing files, not in some other type of file that gets lost when you send the drawing file to a colleague. To get a hatch into the current file from another file, you can use the Resource Browser thingy, by finding the hatch in the other file, then right-clicking on it and clicking "Import". That method allows you to import a lot of hatches with one click. Or, if you know of another file where that hatch is used as a fill attribute of some object, you can Copy that object and then Paste it into the current file. But that trick won't work if the hatch was just a Group of lines and not a hatch attribute. [ 04-11-2006, 07:22 PM: Message edited by: jan15 ] Quote Link to comment
Ramon PG Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 quote: Originally posted by mnelson: Greg. Thank you! Aggregate is what I should have asked for in the first place to avoid frustration and confusion. Pardon if this is a dumb suggestion but, why not scale a (concrete or similar) hatch? Tiles I don't get; They're nice looking, but how the heck can you do a large surface with them? Quote Link to comment
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