DASHED LINES NOT APPEARING DASHED

[Anonymous]

I think this is a strange issue, and I may be overlooking the solution. I am wondering why my dashes lines are not appearing dashed, regardless of what line type scale I try. Has anyone else had this issue?

[Anonymous]

Do you have linetype generation enabled? (in the Misc section of properties for polylines)

[Anonymous]

Under that section I see "Fit/Smooth" and "Closed." Currently my value for "Fit/Smooth" is "None," and my value for "Closed is "No."

[Anonymous]

What type of objects are we talking about? the option i was asking about is on 2D polylines. Lines, splines, and feature lines can also display linetypes, but if you're using 3d polylines, those can't show linetypes and will just display as continuous.

[Anonymous]

That is my problem then. I am working with 3D polylines.

[ITandCADguy · Accepted solution]

Try setting a couple of system variables.

MSLTSCALE = 1

PSLTSCALE = 1

This will set you linetypes to display at the appropriate annotation scale in both Model Space and Paper Space.

[Simon_Blain]

Linetype with 3D polyline is generated with all 3 axis. That's why you dont "see" the linetype, if your rotate your view in 3d you would see the dashed line.

Either you work with 2d polyline or if you really need the 3d element, use a featureline instead, it's linetype will display correctly in 2d

[ITandCADguy]

Unless your 3D polylines have a serious elevation change in them, linetypes should appear almost normal.

For example, a 1000' long line (dashed linetype) has a visible gap of 10.0000' at 1"=40'.  Both ends of the line at the same elevation, and MSLTSCALE = 1.

Raising one end of the line 100' reduces that visible gap to 9.9504', not noticeable to the naked eye.

If you are using the 3D polylines for grading, you might start to see that gap appear smaller.  For example, changing the slope of the line to 1:1 reduces the visible gap from 10.0000' to 7.0710'.  Still looks like a dashed line though, just with a smaller LTSCALE (0.7 vs 1.0).

As @Simon_Blain mentioned, using a feature line rather than a 3D polyline will keep that gap a consistent 10.000' regardless of slope.  Just create a feature line style called Dashed and assign the appropriate linetype to it's display.

I'm still going to stick with my initial response of making sure that all three of your LTSCALE sysvars are set to 1 (LTSCAE, MSLTSCALE, PSLTSCALE).

[ChrisRS]

Linetype's for 3D Polylines was added in C3d 2016 service pack, and is available in C3d 2017 as well.

Display of 3D Polyline Linetypes is controlled by the commands LINETYPE3DPLINEON and LINETYPE3DPLINEOFF\

These commands are not documented in HELP.

Notes

1. 3d Polylines do  not have a linetype generation property, so line segments that are to short to show a full pattern group will be continuous.
2. The linetype pattern is applied to the sloping 3d line. When viewed from the top, the pattern is shorter on steep lines. (At a 1:1 or 45degree slope, the lines and gaps would be 70% of the lines and gaps on a flat line.)

This is one of the Civil 1½D features - things that are half-baked or only half-done. 🙂