Herringbone Pattern .pat file

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to write a .pat file for a 4"x40" and 8"x40" herringbone file and am not getting it quite right. If someone could help, that would be great. This is what I have so far and not sure if I'm right.

*HERRINGB2, Herringbone parquet, 4" x 40"
45, 0,0, 6,6, 40,-36
135, 4.242640687,4.242640687, 6,-6, 40,-36

???

Thank you in advance

[Kent1Cooper]

No time at the moment [I have some similar ones I can compare to], but quickly....

I would suggest defining this at 0- and 90-degree directions, and using it at 45 degree rotation when that's needed.  That way the definition will be absolutely precise [no need to round to some number of decimal places] and the pattern will be "clean" even when very far from the origin.

[I think at the least your 6,6 should be 4,4 if they're 4"-wide pieces.]

[Anonymous]

Thank You! It actually worked, i made ahatch pattern at 90deg and change the angle in model space.

Thank You once again.

[Kent1Cooper · Accepted solution]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank You! It actually worked, i made ahatch pattern at 90deg and change the angle in model space.

Thank You once again.

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You're welcome.  Here's the one of my own that I was thinking of -- no doubt essentially identical except for being for 3x36 strips [because of a particular manufacturer's strip size we were specifying at the time]:

*TSTRIP-H,3" x 36" Strips, Herringbone
0,0,0,3,3,39,-33
90,3,0,3,-3,39,-33

It occurred to me that you could use that for 4"-wide strips simply by using 1-1/3 scale factor, but they'd be 48" long rather than your 40".  But you could make a generic 1:10-ratio version with the strips defined at 1 unit wide and 10 units long, and then you could use that one pattern for different sizes, at a scale factor of 4 for your example, or 3 for 3x30 strips, etc.

[Pattycake_Kyle]

Hi @aakankshaj!

I know this is semi-resolved... but it's always better to have the real 45 degree rotated version so no post-import work is needed --- so I've attached a 45 degree herringbone pattern for both 4 x 40 and 8 x 40 - pattern files for AutoCAD!

EDIT *** Autodesk forum isn't allowing me to attach a .pat file (go figure)... so the txt file is attached instead***

1. Download the text files
2. Open in a text editor (notepad works)
3. Do a 'save as'
4. Type in "Herringbone4x40.pat" and then also "Herringbone8x40.pat"
5. Note: Don't change the file name, AutoCAD requires it to match the hatch name inside the file.

 Both of your patterns are also hosted at the links below, and you can easily continue to update them and then re-download and import as needed. Go to town.

[4 x 40 - click here to edit live on pattycake.io]

[8 x 40 - click here to edit live on pattycake.io]

These pattern files were made on Pattycake.io

Pattycake is a web-based platform allowing real time edits and calculators for pattern files as well as other various tools to help decipher the mysterious .PAT format.

Please mark this as the solution if this solves what you are looking for, and let me know if I can help any other way!

- Kyle

Architecture & Application

kyle@pattycake.io

Learn more at pattycake.io

[pendean]

"pat" is the Windows screensaver file extension too, and can be malicious if desired to be so: most of us simply ZIP when sharing them around here.

Thanks for sharing your patterns.

[Kent1Cooper]

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@Pattycake_Kyle wrote:

.... 

I know this is semi-resolved... but it's always better to have the real 45 degree rotated version so no post-import work is needed ....

---

Post-import work?  What would be needed?  If you use a pattern defined for orthogonal linesets, you just use it with a 45-degree rotation -- if that is considered "work," it's if anything pre-"import" work.  If you use one defined for "real" 45-degree & 135-degree linesets, you still have to give it a rotation -- the only difference is that the 0-degree rotation is the default, which I supposed you could consider less "work."  For me, it doesn't make up for the drift  that the 45-degree-defined pattern will develop as it gets farther from the origin.  The orthogonally-defined pattern will remain precise no matter how far from the origin, and that cannot be matched in the angled-definition pattern, no matter how many decimal places it uses for the starting point of the lineset whose origin isn't 0,0.

[Pattycake_Kyle]

Windows Screensaver file... I had absolutely no idea. In all my research I never came across that. Super great info.

Big thanks to you! Next time i'll ZIP.

[Pattycake_Kyle]

Yep! The post-import work of setting the degree to the desired 45 is what I was speaking to. I definitely agree - and wasn't speaking to the amount of work (as its not much) - but rather was commenting on the fact that there is work (when you don't need it). Anytime a user is required to do something, it just adds another step where there can be a user mistake (e.g. typing '46' on accident or just forgetting to do this step - I've unfortunately seen a lot of this).

This is typically not so much an issue with the angle as you mentioned since its more obvious on screen if its wrong and also how you would adjust per the drawing layout needs, but I've run into it a lot with hatches being scaled. Someone scales the 4x8 and now its actually 6x12 but still labeled wrong - and when some other team wants the 6x12 its not easily exported or transferred between office projects. It also happens a lot for someone changing material density for drawing scale slightly and now material density not matching across the drawing set.

Unfortunately, I can't speak to your concerns about drift with a standard pattern file like herringbone. The files provided were to 8 decimal places, and when I tested 5,000 feet from the PAT origin, there was absolutely no 'drift' at all.

Maybe you are thinking of user drafted patterns that get converted in programs from say DWG to PAT files? Some programs unfortunately don't convert properly and wont auto-adjust for angle dimensional tolerances that the PAT math requires. In these outputs there can be very bad drift depending on the pattern (and quality of program).

Thanks for the thoughts though, our standard was to test all Pattycake generated patterns to a fidelity of 500 feet origin tolerance, but i'll bump this up to 5,000 and keep an extra close eye on it.

[hugha]

Going beyond 8 decimal places enhances pattern fidelity far beyond 5000 feet as shown here:

http://hatchkit.com.au/faq.php#Tip2