Create Hatch In Cad 2008

Can Someone Give Me A Step By Step On How To Create A Custom Hatch Please, I've Gave It My Best Shot, But It Is Not

Seeing My Hatch I Think I Am Missing A Step.

In 2008 i find it easy enough to use superhatch... in the express commands

or here's a great article on making them

http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/autocad/tutorials/select/parsai_hatch_patterns.htm

Thank You Guys I Will Try It And Let You Know.

As you can notice in Hatches dialog windows, you can choose to use custom hatches. The problems are two: the first how to create them, the latter how to access them? I will start from the second: all hatch pattern definitions are included in .pat files, but you can access them even if you don't directly see this files...

To access custom hatches you can take a look to the patterns graphical list: clicking the "Swatch" area in the Hatch dialog box. Here you can find 3 tabs: the first and the second contain all hatches defined in acad.pat file (or acadiso.pat file if your drawing is metric). These file are somewhere in your support paths (usually in a deep folder in your "documents and settings" profile). The thirth tab of the windows showing the previews is where you can see all custom patterns, defined in various customized .pat files located in your support path (one .pat file for each pattern).

Seems uncomfortable? Well you can access patterns in a much simple way:

TO ACCESS PATTERNS USE AUTOCAD DESIGN CENTER, browse folders, find your .pat files and use them, or use the same way the default hatches in acad.pat and acadiso.pat.

Why I say it's simpler? because this way you can use any .pat definition file without worring about where you put them. Remember also that Design Center has a "Favorites" button, thath's customizable the same way you customize favorites in Internet Explorer.

And now: how to create Hatches?

It's really hard. If you take a look to some of avaible .pat files (you can use notepad) you see that aree fulls of numbers and commas.

For instance:

*ANGLE, Angolare acciaio

0, 0,0, 0,.275, .2,-.075

90, 0,0, 0,.275, .2,-.075

*ANSI31, ANSI Ferro, Mattone, Muratura in pietra

45, 0,0, 0,.125

are the italian versions for ANGLE and ANSI31 patterns.

Every pattern is defined through bundles of parallel lines. Every line of you see in the .pat file represents a bundle. For instance the line

45,0,0,0,.125

represents

angle=45

origin X =0

origin Y =0

sliding=0 (mysteriuos? go on readin for now..)

offset (distance between lines)=0.125

If there are more lines, every one is a bundle. for the pattern

If there are more numbers in a line, they represent a linetype (i.e. like slash dot) These numbers are indicating how long are slashes (positive numbers), spaces (negative numbers) or dots (zeroes). This is why tou have a "Sliding" parameter. It represents the sliding between two consecutive lines.

For example

*ANGLE, Angolare acciaio

0, 0,0, 0,.275, .2,-.075

90, 0,0, 0,.275, .2,-.075

are 2 bundles, one perpendicular to the other (angles 0 and 90), with something like an hidden line type (0.2 slash, 0.075 space) an 0 sliding, offset 0.275. If you try to draw them (both start from X=0, Y=0), you will see the "ANGLE" hatch, made up by some like

LLLLL

LLLLL

LLLLL

That's why you can't manually create custom hatches: too difficult to calculate. You need a software like this (MyHatch addon for AutoCAD, it's free) to create .pat files, that you can then use i.e. with AutoCAD Design Center.

SO, thanks to ABC AUTOCAD for its free software, even if it may be sometimes buggy, it works good!

As you can notice in Hatches dialog windows, you can choose to use custom hatches. The problems are two: the first how to create them, the latter how to access them? I will start from the second: all hatch pattern definitions are included in .pat files, but you can access them even if you don't directly see this files...

To access custom hatches you can take a look to the patterns graphical list: clicking the "Swatch" area in the Hatch dialog box. Here you can find 3 tabs: the first and the second contain all hatches defined in acad.pat file (or acadiso.pat file if your drawing is metric). These file are somewhere in your support paths (usually in a deep folder in your "documents and settings" profile). The thirth tab of the windows showing the previews is where you can see all custom patterns, defined in various customized .pat files located in your support path (one .pat file for each pattern).

Seems uncomfortable? Well you can access patterns in a much simple way:

TO ACCESS PATTERNS USE AUTOCAD DESIGN CENTER, browse folders, find your .pat files and use them, or use the same way the default hatches in acad.pat and acadiso.pat.

Why I say it's simpler? because this way you can use any .pat definition file without worring about where you put them. Remember also that Design Center has a "Favorites" button, thath's customizable the same way you customize favorites in Internet Explorer.

And now: how to create Hatches?

It's really hard. If you take a look to some of avaible .pat files (you can use notepad) you see that aree fulls of numbers and commas.

For instance:

*ANGLE, Angolare acciaio

0, 0,0, 0,.275, .2,-.075

90, 0,0, 0,.275, .2,-.075

*ANSI31, ANSI Ferro, Mattone, Muratura in pietra

45, 0,0, 0,.125

are the italian versions for ANGLE and ANSI31 patterns.

Every pattern is defined through bundles of parallel lines. Every line of you see in the .pat file represents a bundle. For instance the line

45,0,0,0,.125

represents

angle=45

origin X =0

origin Y =0

sliding=0 (mysteriuos? go on readin for now..)

offset (distance between lines)=0.125

If there are more lines, every one is a bundle. for the pattern

If there are more numbers in a line, they represent a linetype (i.e. like slash dot) These numbers are indicating how long are slashes (positive numbers), spaces (negative numbers) or dots (zeroes). This is why tou have a "Sliding" parameter. It represents the sliding between two consecutive lines.

For example

*ANGLE, Angolare acciaio

0, 0,0, 0,.275, .2,-.075

90, 0,0, 0,.275, .2,-.075

are 2 bundles, one perpendicular to the other (angles 0 and 90), with something like an hidden line type (0.2 slash, 0.075 space) an 0 sliding, offset 0.275. If you try to draw them (both start from X=0, Y=0), you will see the "ANGLE" hatch, made up by some like

LLLLL

LLLLL

LLLLL

That's why you can't manually create custom hatches: too difficult to calculate. You need a software like this (MyHatch addon for AutoCAD, it's free) to create .pat files, that you can then use i.e. with AutoCAD Design Center.

SO, thanks to ABC AUTOCAD for its free software, even if it may be sometimes buggy, it works good!