Scaling/Orienting Hatch Patterns

[revival architecture]

It would be wonderful if there was a quicker/easier way to lock a certain hatch pattern with the orientation of a shape to which it is being inserted. For example, when we're drawing plywood on an angle, its not possible to insert the plywood hatch pattern where the lines of the hatch pattern (which read as separate layers of the plywood), to be parallel with the board itself. As it is now, you must Convert to Objects the hatch pattern, making it individual lines, then stretch and otherwise fit it so that it looks right. Its a bit of a hassle.

On similar topic, the plywood hatch pattern looks good at a certain scale, such as 1 1/2" or 3", but the pattern itself is not "scalable" so that it reads correctly depending on the scale of the drawing. Or when Im drawing a screened porch, I am usually using some hatch pattern, manipulating it at a scale, converting to objects, then scaling back down to make it look right to the drawing, depending on the scale of the drawing.

Ive been employing these "tricks" for years, taking lots of extra steps within powercad to make it work, but if there was some way to manipulate the scale/orientation of hatch patterns within a tool, saving me extra steps, it would be an awesome change.

thanks

[patrickm]

It would be wonderful if there was a quicker/easier way to lock a certain hatch pattern with the orientation of a shape to which it is being inserted. For example, when we're drawing plywood on an angle, its not possible to insert the plywood hatch pattern where the lines of the hatch pattern (which read as separate layers of the plywood), to be parallel with the board itself. As it is now, you must Convert to Objects the hatch pattern, making it individual lines, then stretch and otherwise fit it so that it looks right. Its a bit of a hassle.

On similar topic, the plywood hatch pattern looks good at a certain scale, such as 1 1/2" or 3", but the pattern itself is not "scalable" so that it reads correctly depending on the scale of the drawing. Or when Im drawing a screened porch, I am usually using some hatch pattern, manipulating it at a scale, converting to objects, then scaling back down to make it look right to the drawing, depending on the scale of the drawing.

Ive been employing these "tricks" for years, taking lots of extra steps within powercad to make it work, but if there was some way to manipulate the scale/orientation of hatch patterns within a tool, saving me extra steps, it would be an awesome change.

thanks

There might be a simpler way to manipulate hatches:

I've created a horizontal oriented plywood hatch that I like. For sloped roof hatch, I draw the detail, with the sloped roof sheathing surface. I click on one of the sloped roof lines, hit "tab" to get into the edit box, and "copy" the slope angle. I use the bucket tool to fill the plywood area, change it to a hatched object with the horizontal plywood hatch. I then select the hatched object, go to Attr>Hatch Settings>Rotate... then paste in the copied angle. This rotates the hatch to align with the roof sheathing angle.

Similarly, if I want to just the scale of the hatch, I go to Attr>Hatch Settings>Scale... and adjust the scale. The scale uses numbers (instead of percent) with 1.0 = 100%.

Note also that you can do all this stuff via "contextual menus", by control-clicking on the hatched object to invoke a pop-up menu that includes Hatch Settings.

Hope this helps,
Patrick

[PVETTER]

Awesome...this helps alot!