Material Hatch Patterning

[NachoShaw]

Hi

Whats the deal with Material Hatch Patterning?

I created a bunch of Hatches in the styles editor but cannot assign them to any material. The list that allows you to assign a hatch to a material doesnt allow you to set a hatch scale...

Some of the built hatches are at random scales (need to change from 1 to .002 in some cases)

How can i-

Set a hatch to a material (that is set up / scaled correctly)

Use the ones i have created? (i cant see any method of using these at all)

i can set the default hatch but that doesnt affect mapped hatches.......

Thanks

Nacho

[NachoShaw]

Surely it doesn't need to be as complicated as it seems to be...

Below are 2 images. The image on the left is my screen view with the lineweights as I would like to see them as printed. I have layers applied to the relevant geometries & hatches.

The image on the right is the printed PDF version which IS NOT showing any lineweights at all. I have been through the settings and looked at the styles editor but nothing...…..

As i would like itAs im getting it

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Nacho,

I am sorry I am a little bit confused with the issue. Is it about setting up hatch style or exporting to PDF? The hatching behavior in Inventor can be confusing sometimes. Could yo share an example (idw and ipt) so I can understand the behavior better?

Many thanks!

[Cris-Ideas]

Hi,

to use hatches for materials as you expect you basically have to have hatch patterns created in the scale as you want them to see in paper space. Note that .pat files are considered in inches only. So if you are using metric system you must recalculate everything to imperial.

For material hatches you are not able to set scale nor rotation (I think).

For each material you can select different pattern (not hatch style). Hatch styles are only used in styles.

I also find this not logical and not convenient to use.  But Autodesk obviously is happy with this workflow.

As for exporting to pdf, normally lightweight get exported (I usually get the effects I want in this field).

I would need to see IDW and try to export it. If it is 2017 can you post sample.

Cris.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Guys,

I think I understand the issue better now. This is about the confusion between Hatch Pattern and Hatch Style. Strictly speaking, Inventor does not have the ability to create new Hatch Pattern (.pat file) from scratch. It relies on AutoCAD to do that. It would be great if Inventor can define its own Hatch Pattern but it will be duplicate work on top of the already exceptional 2D drafting tool, AutoCAD. I am not saying this is ideal but this is how it was designed to work.

The Hatch Style in the drawing dictates how Inventor uses these Hatch Pattern. You can view it as a secondary override. So, in order to define custom Hatch Pattern, you will need to edit .pat file in a text editor and change the settings in it (https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Creati...).

Many thanks!

[Cris-Ideas]

.pat file can be coded in notepad. No problem. So you can have any hatch pattern you desire.

I have done this many times.

Cris.

[NachoShaw]

Hi Guys

thanks for the replies. Its not so much about the hatch patterns, i am well used to creating the patterns in ACAD when i used it. I even made a hatch pattern creation tool at one point. Its not so much about understanding the hatches ether, its more about the bahavior of the hatches & lineweights & Layers.

For example:

I recently found that even though you have layers and you can assign layers to Object Defaults, you cannot control the lineweight of Visible Edges. The issue i am having is based on what you can see in the 2 images.

The image on the left os my idw screenshot. There, i can see the correct lineweights and the correct layers. Overall, this is how i want it to look on paper.

The image on the right is after i have created a PDF. You can see the the lineweights are not being used so, i get a drawing with thick edges. This happens in PDF export, Print as PDF, print on paper.

To reference the exceptional tool that is Autocad thus not wanting to duplicated a system, not evenyone uses autocad. I dont anymore and im not going to start just because of a few hatch patterns. ?I think it may be a little narrow minded of Autodesk to assume that a feature would not be suitabel in more than one package afterall, they are both development based and both are sketch based. lie i always say, 90% 🙂

Nacho

[Cris-Ideas]

Hi,

generally when I export pdfs lightweights are followed. I do not remember this being an issue in any of inventor versions I used in 10 years.

Can you post a IDW that is being exported badly for you? (if AI 2017 or older)

Cris.