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Conventional hatches and patterns


Lynda

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Are there any preset conventional hatches or patterns available for topsoil, subsoil, concrete, hoggin etc.? This is for section details and specifications.

The create hatch module is very hit and miss and I can't find a way of scaling the patterns at all.

I've checked out some of the 3rd party sites and can't find anything that appears this simple.

I can create them in Adobe illustartor but can't can only bring them in as an image file.

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  • 2 months later...

Mitchell,

Pull down the list of hatches in the Attributes palette, and click on "Hatch..." at the bottom. In the window that pops up, click "New" (or select an existing hatch that's similar to what you want) and then click "Duplicate". Then click "Edit", and the Edit Hatch window pops up.

A Hatch consists of one or more "Levels". Each Level consists of an array of identical and equally spaced parallel lines. The lines can be dashed or solid. The Levels are related to each other by a common Origin.

Each "Level" is defined by:

-- color & lineweight attributes as for any line,

-- a DASH FACTOR (1.0 for a solid line)

-- 3 vectors

The 3 vectors are:

1. START POINT vector = angle and distance from the Origin to the start point of a dash. For a simple one-Level Hatch, or a two-Level cross-hatch, this vector can be set to 0,0.

2. REPEAT vector = angle of the line itself, and distance along the line itself from the start of a dash to the start of the next dash. DASH FACTOR is applied to REPEAT distance, so the length of a dash = DASH FACTOR x REPEAT. For a solid line, DASH FACTOR and REPEAT distance can both be set to 1.

3. OFFSET vector = angle and distance from any point on a line to the equivalent point on the next parallel line. Usually OFFSET angle = REPEAT angle + 90 degrees, in which case OFFSET distance has the same meaning as in the Offset tool.

The linear distances of the vectors can be:

-- WORLD = "to scale" (for example, brick coursing or ceiling grid)

-- PAGE = relative to print-out size (for example, shading or poche).

A Hatch can be either background-filled (any color) or not.

For simple one- or two-Level Hatches, it's easy to just fill in numbers and see what it looks like, changing the numbers until it looks right.

For a complicated multi-Level Hatch, I usually draw (in VectorWorks) a small sample of the pattern I want, making each Level a different color for easy identification. I don't use dashed lines, but actually draw a dash and then repeat it a few times, so that I can later snap to the ends of the dashes. I group the set of dashes that represent one line, and then group all the lines that represent one Level. Then I draw X and Y axes, and for each Level I draw a thick polyline representing the 3 vectors. Then I print that out, and write the angle and distance of each vector next to it.

It sounds more complicated than it really is.

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