Eldorado Stone Hatches are freezing AutoCAD 2016

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am using AutoCAD 2016.

I have tried multiple methods of importing a particular hatch pattern (European Ledge from Eldorado Stone) into AutoCAD.  It's there under my list of hatches, I'm able to do that just fine.  But when I do the HATCH command, any time I try to either 1) create a new hatch with this European Ledge hatch pattern, or 2) change an existing hatch to this European Ledge hatch pattern, the program just freezes.  Like the hatch pattern just freaks the program out and the program can't handle it.  And I have to force quit the program.  

In other words, I can import the hatch pattern into my DWG file.  But I cannot actually use the hatch pattern because it freezes the program.  

I tried turning HPDLGMODE to 1, and then hatching the object, but when I try that, the command line shows this:

----------------------

Command: H
HATCH
Pick internal point or [Select objects/remove Boundaries]: Selecting everything...
Selecting everything visible...
Analyzing the selected data...
Analyzing internal islands...
Pick internal point or [Select objects/remove Boundaries]:
Bad pattern definition file:
Missing parameter on line 4.
?

--------------------

This seems to be a recurring problem with Eldorado Stone hatches.  Our company has not been able to import any Eldorado Stone hatches into AutoCAD for a while, so we have had to just use stone hatches that look different. 

We can use our other hatch patterns.  But we cannot use the Eldorado Stone ones.  

Any help would be appreciated.  

[Anonymous]

Thank you!

So a few things.

1) The hatch patterns from the source you provided, hugha, worked.  However, Stacked Stone is extremely slow.  From when I click inside a 10' by 10' square to hatch the square using the Stacked Stone hatch, it takes over a minute for the hatch to actually appear (and for the program to unfreeze) and for me to finally be able to continue with the command.  Then once I finish the command, it takes another 22 seconds or so for the hatch to show up.  Alternatively, it takes over 20 seconds to MATCHPROP the hatch of a 10' by 10' square (source being Stacked Stone, destination being BRICK which only took a second to draw) when the Stacked Stone hatch is set to the correct scale (40 for our use).  Normally I can complete a MATCHPROP command in a few seconds. 

Unfortunately, 20 seconds for one MATCHPROP (or over a minute for a HATCH command) is just too slow for our office with the speed at which we need to get things out.  So currently, the Stacked Stone hatch is still not really usable for us.  

As a note, this is all with HPDLGMODE set to 1. 

As another note, some of these hatch patterns are faster than others.  I only tried a few, but some of them weren't that bad.  So the problem of being "too slow for our office to use" certainly applies to Stacked Stone.  It may or may not apply to the others.  

As another note, I actually found that the files that you provided (hugha) are the same files that we already have in our Hatch Patterns reference folder on our server.  (When I tested the hatch pattern, I first tried the ones you provided.  These worked, with the slow speeds that I mentioned above.  I then tried the ones from our server, and these gave me the same results of working at the same slow speeds).  I just found that these hatch patterns are usable (though very slow) with HPDLGMODE set to 1. We had been trying to use these hatch patterns with HPDLGMODE set to 2, and when you do so much as just scrolling down the list of hatch patterns (in the Hatch Editor ribbon), the program would just bug out, and the crosshair would just start flashing rapidly and the program would be completely frozen and you would have to force quit.  

I'm sure others can relate to the experience that everything in AutoCAD works quite smoothly, but the HATCH command is often quite slow.  Does anyone know if this is a "problem" that is "solvable"?  From what I've seen, it's that way for everyone in our office.  We are all using AutoCAD 2016.  If I can get the HATCH command to work a lot faster, the Stacked Stone hatch will be usable for us.  

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

Do you see the speed (or lack thereof) issues with the last pattern I attached for you? It was one that I exported from Revit.

The only Pat files I found on the manufacturer site were actually the Revit Pat files. I didn't hunt too hard though.

[Anonymous]

With the Revit pattern you attached, the speed is there, it's basically instantaneous.  However, the pattern looks a bit strange, or, at least, very different.  I have attached a screenshot.  The hatch on the left is the FP 1 file you provided.  The hatch on the right is the Stacked Stone hatch we have on our server.  

I'll check with my supervisor or whatever he's called to see if he thinks it will look good and read well.  Obviously it looks quite different.  But if it looks right to the people higher up, then the Stacked Stone problem will be solved.  And I'll also check the rest of the hatches on the list I provided to see if they're fast enough.  If that's the case, the whole thing would finally be solved (and I would mark the appropriate responses as solutions).  

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

Very interesting. This is what the pattern looks like in Revit.

Here is the Cypress Ridge exported as another example.

[hugha]

If two patterns, even from the same source,  perform or look dissimilar than they are probably different patterns as there's no rule requiring patterns with the same name to match.

Some of the patterns from the link to Eldorado's zipfile I posted upthread are huge, in terms of lines:  

                               #lines / filesize (kb)
Ashlar                        174 / 7
Coastal Reef                62  /  3
Cypress Ridge        16967  / 1121
Field Edge              20017  / 1350 
Hillstone                 10566 / 656
Ledgestone                 797 /  44
Mountainledge       20598 / 1376
Riverrock                 19502 / 1236 
Roughcut                 19011 / 1285

Rubble                       1341 /  79
Rustic                         3967 /  240
StackedStone           16543 / 1109                        

Larger pattern definitions take longer to load and to draw. Aside from Ashlar and Coastal Reef, the others when inspected with HatchKit or Notepad show much redundancy in the pattern specification as described here:  http://www.hatchkit.com.au/faq.php#Tip9

However elsewhere on their website Eldorado have embedded versions of some of the above hatch patterns within Revit projects which have much smaller linecounts::                              

Coastal Reef             21
Cypress Ridge         334
Field Edge              209
Hillstone                 307
Mountainledge       338
Riverrock                426
Roughcut               209

StackedStone        211

of which some match versions already posted to this thread in a form intended for Revit.

The difficulty here is that as far as I can determine these newer pattern definitions have not been made available for AutoCAD.

Altering a Revit pattern to suit AutoCAD can be a matter of opening it and saving it directly to a new format.

hth,

Hugh Adamson

www.hatchkit.com.au

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Just as a note, I have not had the time to look at the other suggestions and possible solutions people have provided.  Since the Stacked Stone problem got fixed, I have gotten busy with other projects at work.  I do plan to look at the other suggestions/possible solutions and see if they would work for the rest of the Eldorado Stone hatches.  After I do that, I plan to mark every post that has a solution in it as a solution; but I don't want to do so yet, since the title of the topic refers to multiple Eldorado Stone hatches, not just the Stacked Stone hatch, and that overall problem has not yet been solved, because I haven't had time to look into the suggestions yet; and I don't want to mark things as solutions yet, because when I do reply with results about the suggestions, I don't want onlookers to see a "solved" thread on the board and ignore it if it is unsolved.  

In short, I'll take a look at these suggestions hopefully sooner rather than later, and when I do and once the whole problem is solved I'll mark the appropriate posts as solutions so those that helped will get credit for it.  

Else, I might just change the title of the post or something to refer just to the Stacked Stone hatch and then just mark appropriate posts as solutions immediately.  We'll see I guess.   

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous, I admire your diligence. However, I should note that the question wasn't to get it working, necessarily but why it didn't work in the first place. I think that the fact that the hatches didn't follow the AutoCAD requirements pretty much deserves the mark. It isn't my thread though so you should use your best judgement on what might help other community members.

Thanks again for your contribution and Happy Holidays!

[arcstone]

What's particularly frustrating for me, is that these hatch patterns worked just fine for me in versions 2015 and 2016. Now they show up briefly as a preview, but then disappear when you enter the command.