Custom Hatch Pattern for a tile wall project

[bwhisenhunt]

I am trying to create a custom hatch pattern that represents a specific tile wall pattern that a client uses in multiple projects/locations.   The reason I need this is that we have varies loations of equipment that appear and I need to trim the pattern around.   Currently we have to draw these as individual lines which causes real headaches when a wall moves or equipment locations are altered.   As you can imagine the individual lines end up stretched when they shouldn't be and conflict ensues.   I have tried writing a custom pattern with no useble results.  Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

[pendean]

Try SUPERHATCH command in AutoCAD's Express Tools and see if it can help.

[bwhisenhunt]

I tried that but this does not allow me to trim the hatch after placement.   I need to be able to drop blocks on the wall and trim the hatch around them.

[Kent1Cooper]

That looks like an easy-enough pattern to define, but a question:

Is it really supposed to have two rows of square tiles between the two lowest rows of long ones and three rows of square tiles between the others?  If it's really supposed to be three [or perhaps two?] everywhere, it will be simple enough.  If it is supposed to be two in that one space and three above, it could be defined to do that with the origin presumably at the "floor" level, but it would take more code.  Or it could be more simply defined with three in all spaces, and you could get that result with careful defining of the boundary and positioning of the origin, and do the bottom row of long tiles with a simple User-defined pattern of vertical lines.

EDIT:  And another question:  The first row of square tiles above a row of long ones does not have the same horizontal relationship of its joints to the long-tile joints -- .  Is that intended, or can they be the same?  Again, the same would be much easier for the pattern definition.

FURTHER EDIT:  This [reflecting the easier options above] does it with three rows of squares between each row of long tiles, and with all vertical joints staggered:

*TileSpecial1,Tile pattern custom 1
0, 0,0, 0,42
0, 0,6, 0,42
0, 0,18, 0,42
0, 0,30, 0,42
90, 0,0, 0,24, 6,-12,12,-12
90, 6,6, 0,12, 12,-12,12,-6
90, 0,18, 0,12, 12,-30

[If you put it in a separate file, rather than build it into ACAD.pat, make sure you have an empty line at the end.]

[bwhisenhunt]

Unfortunately, YES.  that is exactly how the client has directed the pattern to be.    I've tried doing multiple hatches for each group of tiles but it gets really messy with origin snapping and we've gotten some bad results.   I'm a novice at writing hatch patterns and I've tried extrapolating from existing standard patterns but I obviously am not getting the parameters right for this complex of a hatch.   Because we are often manipulating these walls with client equipment changes, we really need the single pattern where we can just set it and trim and not have to worry about individual lines being out of place.   

It's always those "Simple" little things that seem to cause the biggest headache.

[bwhisenhunt]

OK, upon looking at that pattern, it appears where I am having parameter problems is with the third and fourth set of variables. looking at the sixth line, my understanding is that the line will be drawn vertical, it's origin is 0,0, it will start 24 units to the right.   Then the "6" means draw a 6 unit line but I'm not sure how the "-12" and the "12,-12" parameters are working.   I apologize for the noob questions, but this is something I haven't had to do before.   I appreciate the help AND the patience.

[Kent1Cooper · Accepted solution]

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@bwhisenhunt wrote:

Unfortunately, YES.  that is exactly how the client has directed the pattern to be.    ....

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My first step would be to ask the client whether there's some critical reason for that, and whether a regular pattern [like the last Edit in my previous Reply] can serve.

But if it can't, I'll assume that if any area ever goes beyond the 9'-6" overall height shown, it can repeat again from the bottom.  With the irregularity of vertical repetition within the pattern, lots of elements have to be defined separately that didn't above, and on-off cycles are more convoluted, and some even had to be split into two lines because of too many dash specifications in the cycle to do them in one.  But this seems to do it [not as much additional code required as I was expecting]:

*TileSpecial2,Tile pattern custom 2
0, 0,0, 0,114
0, 0,6, 0,114
0, 0,18, 0,114
0, 0,30, 0,114
0, 0,36, 0,114
0, 0,48, 0,114
0, 0,60, 0,114
0, 0,72, 0,114
0, 0,78, 0,114
0, 0,90, 0,114
0, 0,102, 0,114
90, 0,0, 0,24, 6,-24,6,-36,6,-36
90, 6,6, 0,12, 12,-18,12,-72
90, 6,60, 0,12, 12,-18,12,-72
90, 0,18, 0,12, 12,-18,12,-72
90, 0,78, 0,12, 12,-12,12,-78

The origin is at the floor at the left end of a long tile [the lower left corner of your image].

[bwhisenhunt]

Sir, you are an absolute genius.   I have spent HOURS trying to code what you did in MINUTES.   

THANK YOU!!!

[Kent1Cooper]

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@bwhisenhunt wrote:

Sir, you are an absolute genius.   I have spent HOURS trying to code what you did in MINUTES.   

THANK YOU!!!

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[Welcome to these Forums, by the way -- if I'm counting right, this appears to be your first foray.]

Get some practice by making your own patterns now an then, and by the time you've been doing it for 32 years, you'll be able to do something like that in minutes, too!

One reason a lot of people have trouble is a confusing aspect of the way patterns are defined, which needs to be kept consciously in mind.  I've written about it before, for instance here and this.

[pendean]

Any reason you don't just use a wipeout on all of your blocks, then DRAWORDER fix the positions to they wipe-out that hatch pattern/

You do not ever have to waste any time trimming hatches around a block, that's not productive at all.

Cool hatch pattern either way, just find a way to stop wasting time trimming it 🙂

[bwhisenhunt]

I have been slowly starting to get some things implemented like Wipeouts.   I am not the one directing the projects and the powers that be have had some very bad experiences with Wipeouts and are EXTREMELY reluctant to use them on a consistent basis.   I have only recently gotten their acceptance of me using WBlocks for equipment instead of generic rectangles.   They are starting to see the benefits of that and I have one light fixture block we use on exterior elevations where we've put in a wipeout and is working fine.   Its just a matter of them getting used to them being done RIGHT.