Last week Steve sent me a hatch file for the Flagstone pattern I was looking for. I have this crummy cold, no idea how I caught it, but this morning I took the hatch command that Steve sent me and converted it to General Cad Pro.
I was using the Gravel hatch, which does have it's place, but this new pattern does look a lot better.
A hatch file is just a text file of line drawing commands. If anyone wants to use this pattern just cut and paste the following into Notepad and save it as a .PAT file (make sure that ALL FILES is the save as type option) with ANSI as the encoding. The .PAT is an Autocad hatch file extension.
*K14,MOSAIC
284.0362435,6.4219188,12.0863789,-12.2237955,3.0559489,0.9975858,-50.953545
255.9637565,6.6638689,11.1185785,-12.2237955,-3.0559489,2.0075406,-49.9435903
345.9637565,4.1641811,12.6508134,-12.2237955,-3.0559489,2.3272228,-49.6239081
315,0,8.3854119,-8.9095454,8.9095454,1.496295,-16.3227958
243.4349488,1.0580404,7.3273715,-11.2697826,-5.6348913,2.3658502,-25.8086063
14.0362435,11.803004,9.7149661,12.2237955,-3.0559489,0.8215247,-51.1296062
345.9637565,7.9663449,10.6741309,-12.2237955,-3.0559489,3.9547377,-47.9963932
243.4349488,1.3428924,12.6,-11.2697826,-5.6348913,3.0027988,-25.1716577
116.5650512,0.8155202,2.1094891,11.2697826,-5.6348913,1.8235585,-26.350898
284.0362435,0.8155202,2.1094891,-12.2237955,3.0559489,2.1744116,-49.7767193
116.5650512,2.5107515,0.6167585,11.2697826,-5.6348913,3.583988,-24.5904686
284.0362435,7.4848776,12.6,-12.2237955,3.0559489,1.9851405,-49.9659904
14.0362435,8.8915913,2.8134273,12.2237955,-3.0559489,3.8225402,-48.1285907
333.4349488,10.0175763,9.6766237,-11.2697826,-5.6348913,2.8872374,-25.2872191
26.5650512,9.5571301,3.6898558,11.2697826,-5.6348913,3.402032,-24.7724245
90,7.6594876,2.401525,12.6,12.6,1.1510596,-11.4489404
63.4349488,6.7671043,0.6167585,11.2697826,5.6348913,1.9954296,-26.1790269
63.4349488,7.4848776,0,11.2697826,5.6348913,3.1455073,-25.0289492
315,0.4252643,9.4144489,-8.9095454,8.9095454,2.259329,-15.5597619
63.4349488,0.4252643,9.4144489,11.2697826,5.6348913,2.9409217,-25.2335349
14.0362435,1.7404845,12.0448892,12.2237955,-3.0559489,2.4982893,-49.4528416
63.4349488,5.1135709,7.0441821,11.2697826,5.6348913,2.3778301,-25.7966264
345.9637565,2.0228512,7.8168621,-12.2237955,-3.0559489,3.185841,-48.7652899
345.9637565,8.1111443,4.0513522,-12.2237955,-3.0559489,1.490488,-50.4606429
0,7.2731611,9.6766237,12.6,12.6,2.7444152,-9.8555848
63.4349488,5.6773984,6.4850982,11.2697826,5.6348913,3.568234,-24.6062225
315,5.6773984,6.4850982,-8.9095454,8.9095454,3.4418366,-14.3772543
0,2.5107515,0.6167585,12.6,12.6,4.2563528,-8.3436472
315,4.5787237,6.6333485,-8.9095454,8.9095454,4.356858,-13.4622328
0,1.6106867,6.6333485,12.6,12.6,2.9680369,-9.6319631
75.9637565,0.9079433,3.8223748,12.2237955,3.0559489,2.8974854,-49.0536455
To rename the file to Flagstone for instance, just change *K14 to *FLAGSTONE
Just a note, but to all out there adding it...make sure you save the file in notepad with a space on the bottom. Just go to the last letter in the last line of text, hit enter and save.
WOW, would be awesome if we could have more educated posts of this nature involving LINETYPES and HATCHES! Would be interesting to see what other customizations are out there!
I created a ton of custom linetypes a few years ago for various utilities and such. I wonder if I can dig them up...
Flagstone Hatch - Darrell
Im not sure if you were poking fun at me or not, but here is a breakdown on a hatch line courtesy of the General Cad Pro help file.
The Format for Creating or Adjusting Hatch Patterns
Here’s the definition of a hatch line:
angle, xorigin, yorigin, deltax, deltay [, dash-1, dash-2,…]
The angle is measured from the positive x axis
The xorigin and yorigin allow you to start the hatch line drawing offset from the others in the definition
The delta-x value indicates the displacement pattern lines in the direction of the line; it is used only for dashed lines.
The delta-y value indicates the spacing between pattern lines, it is measured perpendicular to the lines.
Hatch pattern line definitions need at least 5 parameters – any parameters past 5 are defined as dashes. Positive numbers in a dash are line segments, negative numbers are spaces (similar to linetypes). If a hatch pattern line only contains 5 parameters, then it’s a solid line (a hatch line with no dashes).
For example: NET, only has 5 parameters defining its two hatch lines:
*NET, SIMPLE HATCH
0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
90.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
Flagstone Hatch - Darrell
No I wasn't poking fun at all. I like learning new ideas. I just don't use General CAD. Does this work for Hatches in general or is this method only applicable to GenCAD?
Flagstone Hatch - Darrell
> No I wasn't poking fun at all. I like learning new ideas. I just don't use General CAD. Does this work for Hatches in general or is this method only applicable to GenCAD?
I dont know if it will work for other cad platforms other than Acad and General Cad, but it seems to me that if it works with Acad it would probably work for any other cad design platform since copying Acad seems to be the trend.
From what I have experienced since 1987 hatches were always generated in a simple text file format then given the correct extension for use in whatever cad platform one wanted to use it in.
Another thing is the decimal place value of the string lines. It seems like overkill but I think that to keep a hatch intact when it's placed in an area that has a high coordinate value, like X50,000 Y100,000, the strings need those extra decimal values or they could fragment.
I would love any hatch or linetype files. I have been too busy at work to experiment with creating my own.
Flagstone Hatch - Darrell
Thank You!!! I was trying to use a gravel hatch in a drawing at state plane coordinates just the other day and it was fragmenting and I had no idea why. After reading your post, I created a polyline at 5000,5000 and hatched it no problem. I moved the same polyline to 600,000;2,500,000 and tried to hatch it and it was fragmented. Quick and dirty work around is to polyline the area to be hatched, move it to (0,0), hatch it, and move it back where it belongs.
