Copying Autocad Hatches from acad.pat into own pat

[Bica.Bogdan]

Hi!

While exporting some of our own hatch patterns(they're in a different format) i noticed some of the more complex patterns, difficult to recreate, are very similar to some of the default hatches provided by Autocad. Considering i cannot know for use all our users have the acad.pat file that contains that particular hatch pattern, is it ok for me to copy the hatch pattern into our own file? I am asking from a legal point of view.

Thank you

[Balaji_Ram]

This is an old post, but just wanted to post the discussion we had on this topic with Bica Bogdan as part of another case on the same topic.

Just in case this is of any help.

<<<

Sorry, I do not understand the need to have the standard hatch patterns provided by AutoCAD copied to your .pat file. Those standard hatch patterns should be available in users systems unless the .pat file somehow got modified.

It is also possible to find the list of hatch patterns that are available using code. Here is a sample code snippet :

<code>

Editor ed = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument.Editor;

foreach (string str in Autodesk.AutoCAD.Windows.Data.HatchPatterns.Instance.AllPatterns)

{

    ed.WriteMessage("\n - " + str);

}

</code>

I am not certain if it is permitted to copy the standard hatch patterns from a legal stand point. If you can explain to me the need to do that, I can enquire to find out.

>>>

<<<

User are permitted to add user defined hatch patterns to acad.pat and acadiso.pat.

Removing existing standard hatch patterns is not recommended but there is no way to prevent it.

Here is a note from the AutoCAD user documentation:

<<< 

The hatch patterns supplied by AutoCAD are stored in the acad.pat and acadiso.pat text files. You can add hatch pattern definitions to this file or create your own files.

>>> 

The hatch patterns that you mentioned are almost certainly going to be available unless the user has removed them. So, this can be handled as you would handle any other exception in your code.

You can retrieve the list of hatch patterns and display an error message or rely on an existing hatch pattern.

>>>

Regards,

Balaji