Hatch Pattern Definition in progeCAD

Creating hatch patterns has always been somewhat of a struggle. To create a hatch pattern in progeCAD you would do exactly as you would have done in AutoCAD… The hatch patterns are stored in icad.pat but you can create your own pattern files…

If you create your own .pat file, here are some points to remember:

• If you aren’t adding patterns to icad.pat, you can put only one hatch pattern in a custom .pat file; the filename and pattern name must be the same
• You can insert comments in your .pat file after a semicolon
• You must press Enter after the end of the last line of the hatch definition

Note: To find the location of icad.pat, right-click the drawing area and choose Options; then click the Files tab. Double-click the Support File Search Path item to display the location of the support files.
The syntax for hatch patterns is as follows:
*pattern-name[, description] angle, x-origin,y-origin, delta-x,delta-y [, dash1, dash2, …] Hatch-pattern definitions have a few rules:

• The description is optional; if you include one, precede it with a comma.
• Add the dash specifications only for noncontinuous lines.
• You can have more than one definition line, creating sets of hatch definitions that combine to create the hatch pattern.
• Each definition line can be no more than 80 characters.
• You can include a maximum of six dash specifications (which include spaces and dots).
• You can add spaces in the definition lines for readability.

This following explains the meaning of the terms in the definition:

• Angle: Defines the angle of the lines in the hatch pattern. If you also specify an angle in the Boundary Hatch and Gradient dialog box when you place the hatch, progeCAD adds the two angles.
• X-origin: Specifies the X coordinate of the base point of the hatch pattern. Your hatch probably won’t go through 0,0; however, this point lines up sets of lines in hatch patterns, as well as aligning hatch patterns in different areas. Because all hatch patterns are calculated from the base point, they’re always aligned, no matter where they actually appear in the drawing.
• Y-origin: Specifies the Y coordinate of the base point of the hatch pattern.
• Delta-x: Specifies the offset of successive lines. This applies only to dashed lines and is measured along the direction of the lines. Specifying a delta-x staggers each successive line by the amount that you specify so that the dashes don’t line up.
• Delta-y: Specifies the distance between lines, measured perpendicular to the direction of the lines. This applies to both continuous and dashed lines.
• Dash: Defines a noncontinuous line using the same system as linetype definitions: positive for a dash, negative for a space, and 0 for a dot.

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