topic Re: Custom Hatch Not Working in AutoCAD Forum

Custom Hatch Not Working

trEQ4GG — Fri, 10 May 2024 16:26:29 GMT

Hi there! Not sure if where to really post about this. I am trying to create 3"x12" custom subway tile hatch with no grout and a 33% offset. I have attached below the directions I have in the .pat file. 3 of my coworkers have tried creating the same hatch from scratch and get the same result as me.

Essentially what happens is when I go to put in the hatch I will select the custom one I made, and it shows up diagonally and when I complete the hatch and click on it, it defaults to it being on the "ANSI31" and not the custom hatch I built. It's almost as if it just does not want to complete the hatch as the custom one I made.

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you! Additionally if someone could make this pattern successfully, I would greatly appreciate it too!

Re: Custom Hatch Not Working

Kent1Cooper — Fri, 10 May 2024 16:33:57 GMT

I haven't tried it, not wanting to type out the whole definition [you could have included the text instead of an image of it], but a guess: It may not like your zero-length pen-up number at the end of the 0-direction lineset. Try just this for that line, for continuous horizontal joint lines instead of 12-unit-long individual pieces:

0, 0,0, 0,3

Re: Custom Hatch Not Working

trEQ4GG — Fri, 10 May 2024 16:39:01 GMT

Thank you so much! are you meaning to try this?

*TILE 3x12 33% Offset, TILE Pattern
0, 0,0, 4,3, 0, 0,0, 0,3
90, 0,0, 3,4, 3,-6

I apologize if I am not understanding correctly, could you type it out? Thank you!

Re: Custom Hatch Not Working

Kent1Cooper — Fri, 10 May 2024 16:54:50 GMT

No, my suggestion was for the entire line. It's not necessary to have pen-down/pen-up entries at the end for continuous lines.

*TILE 3x12 33% Offset, TILE Pattern
0, 0,0, 0,3
90, 0,0, 3,4, 3,-6

And the file needs to end with a blank line, if that may be part of the problem. Or could it be that % is not allowed as part of a pattern name? Or a file name, if you have it in its own file? Or in that case that the file and pattern names don't match?

You may be interested in a Running-Bond Hatch Pattern Generator, available >here<. You give it the unit [in your case tile] size, and the amount and direction of offset, and it makes the .pat file, named appropriately to the specifics.

Re: Custom Hatch Not Working

pendean — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:04:33 GMT

Is your hatch saved as a single PAT file, or did you type all of that it with your ACAD.PAT file?

If the former, is he PAT file name exactly as the pattern name? And is there a blank like at the end?

BTW, ever notice the lack if spaces in the names of hatch patterns in the ACAD.PAT file for example, and all PAT files you download from the internet?

Re: Custom Hatch Not Working

trEQ4GG — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:07:44 GMT

Hello, I just tried this out, it still does not work 😞

Re: Custom Hatch Not Working

trEQ4GG — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:09:33 GMT

It is a .PAT file. I have it saved as "TILE 3x12 33% Offset" should I have it saved as "TILE 3x12 33% Offset," with the comma at the end?

Re: Custom Hatch Not Working

pendean — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:20:00 GMT

@trEQ4GG wrote:
It is a .PAT file. I have it saved as "TILE 3x12 33% Offset" should I have it saved as "TILE 3x12 33% Offset," with the comma at the end?

I did not test your code, nor Kent's, but attached inside the ZIP is the PAT file formatted for AutoCAD, test it out.

Remember to always use LINETYPE command to reload it between each edit and change.

Re: Custom Hatch Not Working

trEQ4GG — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:25:30 GMT

This works! Super odd, but we basically did the same thing with a different name. Not sure why ours did not work out.

Re: Custom Hatch Not Working

pendean — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:42:18 GMT

@trEQ4GG wrote:
...same thing with a different name..

As I noted in my first reply perhaps... no spaces, no special characters etc.

Glad it worked. Enjoy.

Re: Custom Hatch Not Working

Kent1Cooper — Fri, 10 May 2024 18:57:30 GMT

It would not need the comma at the end. I don't see it written anywhere in Help, but it seems pattern names cannot contain spaces [and I'm not sure about the %], even if file names can.

Re: Custom Hatch Not Working

hugha — Sun, 12 May 2024 03:25:00 GMT

@Kent1Cooper

This page:

https://help.autodesk.com/view/OARX/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-A6F2E6FF-1717-44B6-A476-0CA817ADD77E

contains this, the only guide I've ever found:

Each line in a pattern definition can contain up to 80 characters. You can include letters, numbers, and the special characters underline (_), hyphen (-), and dollar sign ($). However, you must begin a pattern definition with a letter or number, not a special character.

Badly worded but implies no spaces, just [A-Z,a-z,0-9,_-$], commencing with a letter or number. Anything after a comma goes to the comment.

Also constrained by Windows filenaming restrictions as pattern name needs match its containing filename.

Max pattern name length may be defined elsewhere but IIRC it's 31 characters.

ed: limit mentioned here:

https://help.autodesk.com/view/OARX/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-5774FB71-1FD7-4BFD-AFEE-A435DBDCB449

Revit pattern naming is less restrictive.

hth,

Hugh Adamson