line type managing and customizing

[RONK79]

i work for a survey company, we need to make a line type for a fence line... i was trying to use the existing fence with the circ1 on it.. but not quite working... how can i customize to look like this...( ---x---x---x---x-- )

[eldon]

Here is one that I wrote earlier, but you can alter it to suit.

 

*BARBEDWIRE1,Fenceline -X-X-X

A,.5,-.25,["X",STANDARD,S=.24,R=0,X=-0.12,Y=-.12],-.25,.5,-.25,.05,-.25,.5,-.25,.05,-.25

[RONK79]

awesome.. how do you alter it... i want to know how to customize these things.. and what all the numbers and symbols mean.. is there a book i reference..

[RONK79]

thanks for that info.. i played with it and i now have a little better understanding.. i would like to learn how to start one from scratch and like last post.. what all that stuff means...

 

i did modify the line to be a continuous line between each "x"

 

thanks again.. many more posts to come im sure... i have found this website to be the best in getting correct answers in a timely manner.. and soo friendly...

[eldon]

Finding out about these matters is all about searching the Help files with the right key words.

 

If you look in the Help section under Linetype definition files, complex and Linetype definition files, simple. There you will find good information that should answer the above queries.

[dugg]

Here are some old notes of mine RONK79 that might help you...

 

A linetype is a series of positive and negative numbers that tell a plotter how long to lower or raise a pen. Positive numbers lower the pen, and negative numbers raise it. The normal length of a dash is .5; a dot is 0.

e.g. 0,-.25 would produce a series of dots. The first 0 produces the dot; the -.25 raises the pen .25 of a unit. The series then repeats itself.

 

Open your acad.lin file (Usually stored in your autocad support directory) with wordpad.

Scroll down to the bottom of the file and lets create a new section like this....

 

;; My Custom Linetypes

;;

;; The following are custom linetypes. Each time we upgrade our version of AutoCAD we wiil

;; need to copy and paste this into our new acad.lin file

;;

*RIGHT_OF_WAY,Right of Way ---- R/W ---- R/W ---- R/W ----

A,.5,-.2,["ROW",STANDARD,S=.1,R=0.0,X=-0.1,Y=-.05],-.2

 

In the above example everything in a line that starts with semi-colons is ignored. This is where you put notes or comments usually. Also, blank lines are ignored just incase you decide that you want to add one.

 

Now lets move on to this line:

*RIGHT_OF_WAY,Right of Way ---- R/W ---- R/W ---- R/W ----

 

I have no idea what the "*" is for but basically this whole line is to identify what it is and what it does.

 

RIGHT_OF_WAY is the linetype name. This is what you will see on the dropdown in autocad when you load this linetype.

 

Right of Way ---- R/W ---- R/W ---- R/W ---- is the description. Make sure the comma is there with no spaces between the name and the description. You can omit the description if you want. If you do omit it then leave the comma out. This description can be anything but usually you try to type out what the line will look like. If you open your linetypes dialog box in autocad you will see two columns. One has the name and one has the description.

 

Now lets move on to the next line. This is where the magic happens.

A,.5,-.2,["ROW",STANDARD,S=.1,R=0.0,X=-0.1,Y=-.05],-.2

 

A stands for alignment. I think they were gonna have options kinda like justifications here but never did from what I know. But until I find out differently this line always starts with A.

Now you need a comma to start the next "field" in the line. No spaces remember.

.5 is a dash

comma

-.2 is a blank space

comma

 

Now you get into the "complex" part of the linetype. They call it complex because you can add text, shapes or whatever you want.

This is how it works if your interested.

["string" , stylename] or

["string" , stylename , transform]

So in the above example the bracket would start the beginning of the complex part of the linetype.

"ROW" is the text part of the linetype. Always put this in quotes.

comma

STANDARD is the font style. If this is omited it will default to the current style.

comma

S=.1 is the scale of the style. The scale of the style is used as a scale factor by which the style's height is multiplied. If the style's height is 0, the S=value alone is used as the scale.

comma

R=0.0 This signifies relative or tangential rotation with respect to the lines elaboration. If this is omited, which we coulda done in this example, then 0 rotation is the default.

comma

X=-0.1 This field specifies the shift of the text in the X axis of the linetype computed from the end of the linetype definition vertex. If xoffset is omitted or is 0, the text is elaborated by using the lower-left corner of the text as the offset. Include this field if you want a continuous line with text. This value is not scaled by the scale factor that is defined by S=.

comma

Y=-.05 This field specifies the shift of the text in the Y axis of the linetype computed from the end of the linetype definition vertex. If yoffset is omitted or is 0, the text is elaborated by using the lower-left corner of the text as the offset. This value is not scaled by the scale factor that is defined by S=.

Now the closing bracket.

comma

-.2 The ending blank space.

 

Hope this helps somewhat. I've had this in my notes for a long time so some of this might not work anymore and from what I understand there is a new fangled way to do linetypes since '06 or so.

[CAD Library]

very nice of you dugg!