Hatch Pattern Error.

[andreitanene]

Hi, I've been workin on Autocad since last year and I was using hatch patterns just perfectly, then I tried to download and install new hatch patterns, as I needed more variety. I don't know what happened, but I can't use anything now. If I try to fill in with a Hatch Autocad will tell me that it can't find a file, there arre no standard patterns available, and there is error in reading the pattern file.

 

What should I do?

I very lost. Any help would be great

[Blackfish]

Welcome to the forum, andreitanene

 

1. Any of your custom patterns need to be located in one of folders listed in Tools -> Options -> File (tab) -> Support File Search Path. It's good practice to create separate folder e.g. My_Hatches and add the path to 'Support Path' in AutoCAD.
   
2. Each custom pattern need to saved in separate .pat file or you can add all of them at the end of AutoCAD hatch file i.e. acad.pat (or acadiso.pat).
   
3. For unknown (I was not able to indentify it) reason sometimes pattern doen't work as a separate file, but works when pasted into acad.pat.
   
4. Lack of 'Return/Enter' at the of pattern causes another common error.
   

 

Please read the following tutorials about custom hatches:

• by Ralph Grabowski: http://www.upfrontezine.com/tailor/tailor12.htm
  
• by Ellen Finkelstein: http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/acadblog/creating-custom-hatch-patterns/
  

Edited June 7, 2012 by Blackfish
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[ReMark]

First run the following at the command line EXACTLY as it appears:

 

(findfile"acad.pat")

 

Then report back here with the results.

[hugha]

Did you use Notepad? If ReMarks's suggestion doesn't find ACAD.PAT you may have inadvertently saved it with a .TXT file extension.

 

Search for *PAT* to discover where it's lurking, rename it to ACAD.PAT and try again.

[andreitanene]

When I type the comman ReMark suggested all I see on the command bar is "nil".

[hugha]

That means you have deleted or renamed your ACAD.PAT so (findfile ...) cannot find it.

 

In Windows, open Windows Explorer with the keyboard combination of WindowsKey and E together.

 

Search for *.PAT* to detect all files that contain the string .PAT and see where ACAD.PAT may be lurking - either in the wrong directory or under another name.

I suspect you will find a file called ACAD.PAT.TXT which if renamed to ACAD.PAT will fix your problem.

Otherwise if it is not found do a repair install of AutoCAD to reinstate ACAD.PAT to your system.

[andreitanene]

Thank you very much!

I renamed all of the *.pat* files and moved them to the folder autocad suggests.

I still can't see some of the hatchets but I assume that is because I need to place them each individually in a folder.

Great help! (:

[hugha]

When hatching, the hatches in ACAD.PAT and ACADISO.PAT are found on the Predefined tab and all others on the Custom tab within the hatching control.