Hi Folks,
Our office has a mystery involving a linetype, specifically a treeline type. I've attached a screenshot of the issue. What you'll see there is a polyline that is displaying as dots that should be displaying as a series of half circles. The desired linetype is also in the screenshot, displaying correctly, which is coming from an xref drawing.
When working in the xref drawing, the linetype works as expected. No problems.
When working in the active drawing, the linetype appears as dots.
We have purged the problem linetype and then brought it back in with the same results.
We've also copied the linetype from the xref drawing into the current drawing. Same results.
In my research, I'm suspicious that the shapes that are used to create this linetype are somehow wacky or improperly defined in the current drawing. So, when AutoCAD attempts to display the half-circle shapes, they don't appear. I'm pretty fuzzy on how to verify this theory or correct the problem, if that is the issue.
Any insight or suggestions would be most welcome!
Solved! Go to Solution.
Solved by AllenJessup. Go to Solution.
Try enabling linetype generation using the LTGEN option in PEDIT command or at the bottom of Properties Palette with
the problem Polylines selected > Linetype Generation > Enabled.
We have a similar Tree Linetype here and short segment polylines can appear as dots if Linetype Generation is off/disabled.
Another possibility is improper Linetype scale system variable settings.
Jay,
I've never paid attention to LTGEN before. I selected the problem polyline, enabled LTGEN and then did a regen of the drawing. No change.
Daryl,
Do the following Setting Variables match in both the current dwg and xref dwg, using the listed values?
Also does the Model Space scale of Xref match the Viewport scale?
LTSCALE=1
PSLTSCALE=1
MSLTSCALE=1
Jay,
LTSCALE, PSLTSCALE AND MSLTSCALE are all set to 1 for both the active drawing and the xref.
Are you possibly missing a shape file for the line type? Upon loading the drawing did you get a warning about a missing .shx file?
Is this a survey figure created from survey points? We had a similar issue -- the linetype wouldn't display properly per the ltscale. But once the featureline was set to use one z elevation throughout, it worked fine.
Don Ireland
Engineering Design Technician
Don,
That's interesting, but no, it's not a survey figure. It's a simple 2D polyline.
John,
Upon load, these two lines repeat about 30-40 times:
Substituting [simplex.shx] for [OA_Edina.shx].
Substituting [simplex.shx] for [OA_2007.shx].
There is not a warning other than those lines.
I'm suspicious this situation is due to something amiss with shape files. How could it be that the linetype works in one drawing, but not the other? How could I be certain that the shapes needed by this linetype are in the right place?
These Linetype display issues can be tough without seeing all related files and options settings.
If you draw a new line in the layout drawing using this tree linetype does it display correctly?
If a scaling issue, there could also be an object level Linetype Scale override applied which can be checked in properties palette.
A 3d Polyline of differing Z values could also cause to display incorrectly.
To see the available custom linetype shapes available try SHAPE @ command line > ? > Enter > Enter shape name(s) to list <*>: > Enter.
All available Ltype shapes in the drawing are listed here (including the path where found) unless a standard Acad support location.
Ie: Ltypeshp.shx may not have a path as it comes with Autocad.
Any file path's listed here should also appear in Options > Files tab > Support File Search Path.
Assuming your using the same Acad profile the available shapes should be the same list in dwg & in xref.
Jay,
New lines drawn in the current drawing do not display correctly. They show as dots.
Checked object level scale and it's set to 1.
The incorrect lines are 2D polylines.
Before I go hunting for shapes, is there a way to identify the shape in my linetype that should be displaying?
If you are using 2012 you will need all of the service packs installed. One of them has a fix for complex linetypes. The issue is noticeable with the linetype definition found in the old LDD files. Aeccland.lin and Aeccland.shx
John Mayo
I have created a drawing with the offending polyline. The attached drawing was created with wblock beginning with my drawing of interest.
I don't know if this is gonna help you, Daryl, but I had a client send in a file where the linetype was not displaying properly. It ended up they had some text styles referring to the shx file that held the shapes for the linetypes. Changing those styles so that they were looking at actual font shx files made the difference. It's a shot in the dark, but will only take you a minute to take a look.
Best regards,
Tim
Myself I have gotten to the point were I just code a ttf shpe into the linetype, just so that I dont have to use shape files at all. Ship a drawing to some one they got I need the shape file. Make it native and your golden. Its not like Windows is going away any time soon.
BTW: I have had issues were no matter where the shapefile is ACAD (C3D not tyring to lay blame) would not read the location NO MATTER WHAT
Rick Jackson
Survey CAD Technician VI
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