revit custom hatch patterns

[Anonymous]

This is one of those things I thought Autodesk would have handled by now. It should be very easy. I have been waiting a few years and still nothing that I know of. I know there are third party plugins that do this, but they are unprofessional, usupported, and cost money. Any plans to support the creation and use of custom hatch patterns for Revit before I die? Sorry for the sarcasm, but seriously how hard can this be? If you don't think there is a need for it, just search "creat custom revit hatch patterns" and see how many people have asked this same question.

[Keith_Wilkinson]

I do agree that this is an area that needs improvement, it wouldn't be top of my list but it would be there.  

At the moment I use this app - it's free and works reasonably well especially once you've made a few.  I know it's not the point of your post but at least it's free....  ;o)

http://www.revitlog.nl/index.php/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=382:revithatchbuilder-...

[Anonymous]

Great response! Thank you for your help.

[David_W_Koch]

Custom fill patterns are supported in Revit.  With the exception of an extra line to denote whether the pattern is a Model or Drafting pattern, they follow the same rules a AutoCAD hatch patterns and can be created in any text editor that can output a plain text file, like Notepad.

PS:  If you expect professional, then you should also expect to pay for it.

[Keith_Wilkinson]

I thnk what is being asked for is a visual editor for hatch patterns - to me it really doesn't sound like an unreasonable request.    

I know I would certainly find it helpful as would the ability to adjust the scale of a hatch after it has been imported (if this is already possible I'd love someone to tell me how).

Telling users they have to use 'notepad' is a little poor, I can imagine Archicad users doubled over laughing.  

[Anonymous]

David, not trying to be a smart A, but I do have to LOL on that one. Linear hatch patters are very easy to draw. They repeat over and over, so they should be very easy to apply. Revit is already nerdy enough without generating text files/codes. How many people out there do you think firstly know that is an option, secondly would actually do that. We are designers, not computer nerds. I can honestly say that there is almost nothing in Revit that I haven't been able to do. I can also say every project I've worked on we have needed to make some kind of custom hatch pattern. I have worked for both architecture and currently interior architecture firms.

[Anonymous]

Tired of using BBYHATCH and GETPAT, going into notepad and changing filename, importing into Revit, etc.  This is the equivalent of text editor in Revit not functioning properly.  Do something simple that will make a lot of people happy and build in a custom Hatch editor into Revit.  Please for the love of God do something to help our workflow instead of making more graphics of uninhabitable forms for us to ponder while Revit is booting.

[Anonymous]

I'm not giving Autodesk any credit.  They finally took care of text editing, and now it's time to solve this problem.  Provide a visual editor within the software in which we can create a custom hatch pattern.  Using shareware plugins and AutoCAD to create a simple tile pattern for a finish plan is ridiculous.  We DO pay for professionalism, quite a lot actually, and on top of that, this task was easier in AutoCAD.  I don't see why we can't feel confident requesting the same or better workflow of Revit.

[Sahay_R]

Add HatchKit to your 2018 build.

[Anonymous]

Do we have to purchase a license do do anything useful with this plug-in?  This is not intuitive.

[Keith_Wilkinson]

according to their website a professional license is $299 (AUS?)...

I think the point from most folk on here is that this should be basic functionality not yet another purchased add-on to carry out a fairly basic task.

[Anonymous]

Yeah that price tag is too high for something in which the free version looks super janky.

[dhenkePWD9T]

Is Autodesk doing anything about this request or do we need to start another change.org petition?   In case it isn't clear, we want a solution to make a custom hatch pattern without the use of external software to Revit, without notepad, shareware, knowledge of coding, scale factor errors (too dense, too large), etc.  Ideally you would draft some detail lines, set a tile size to set the pattern repeat distance, and start using it.  If there is a display scale issue maybe the hatch goes to a default solid shade, whatever.  Anything is better than the current situation.  Thank You!

[loboarch]

You can add your vote to this on the Idea Station.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/native-drafting-and-model-hatch-pattern-creator/idi-p/660...

[Corsten.Au]

Hello

Few tricks to get hatch pattern available in Autocad to Revit.

Search of acadiso.pat file.

C:\Users\USERNAME\appdata\roaming\autodesk\AutoCAD 2018\enu\support\acadlt.pat

Pat file of AutoCAD

If you open that pat file, you will get all the hatch patterns available in Autocad like below

( opened in notepad )

Now you can pick the hatch you want and create your a pat file which can be imported while creating a new hatch pattern ( 2D or 3D ) in Revit.

some more info about hatch patterns

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/AutoCAD-Customization...

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/RevitLT-Customize/fil...

adding

 ;%TYPE=MODEL

to pat file converts the pattern into 3d hatch..

hope this will help

Cheers

[dhenkePWD9T]

I've used the AutoCAD export workflow for years.  It's problematic when you get into customized patterns.  Recent example: I wanted to create a gradient frit pattern for some glazing I was proposing; I couldn't get the PAT file to import due to scale issues.  So I sat there extending the scale factor up and down into 6 decimal places (too dense, too large, too dense, too large...) and still it wouldn't pull in.  In contrast, it was easy to do the 3D visualization aspect and assign a cutout image to the material...you have to ask, why is this?  At some point we need this cumbersome process to end and for Revit, and Revit alone to take over.  No Architect who spends money on this program, and is not involved with scripting software should be using Notepad and lines of code to do something as basic as making a hatch pattern.  This is my plea to Autodesk.  It's time to stop working around basic functions and just get it embedded into the program.

[Corsten.Au]

Hi

I totally agree..

Creating custom hatch patterns for Revit is a nightmare...

There's  a big disconnect between Hatch pattern, different scale, drafting pattern ( 2D), Model hatch (3D)...

Existing hatch patterns within Revit works pretty well,

but to get even a single new pattern right becomes a big task..

In Revit Hatch patterns are connected to 

1. Filled regions

a. Transparent (2D)

b. Opaque ( 2D)

2. Materials

a. Surface pattern ( 3D )

b. Surface Projection ( 2D)

c. Cut Pattern ( 2D) or (3D)

and next level of complicacy comes when considered

a. Scale

b. Coarse, Medium and Fine View

CoarseFine

c. Wireframe, Hidden, Shaded, Consistent, Realistic, Raytraced..and Rendering ( Visualization )

One needs to Plan carefully to get all conditions right.. 

It should be embedded in the program to get 

all these conditions worked out...

Cheers!