Can I find the angle of a line contained in a hatch pattern?

Hi
In lisp dxf code 53 for a hatch gave the pattern line angle.

Is it possible to retrieve this in VBA?

Thanks in advance
Dave F.

 

Hi Tom

No, that's the angle of the whole pattern.

What I'm after is the angle of an individual line that makes up the hatch
pattern.
I thought you might be able to get it from GetSubEntity but I can't work it
out.

This is the info I need. It's from the dxf reference. Hatch pattern data
group codes
Group codes Description
53 Pattern line angle
43 Pattern line base point, X component
44 Pattern line base point, Y component
45 Pattern line offset, X component
46 Pattern line offset, Y component
79 Number of dash length items
49 Dash length (multiple entries)


Any Ideas?
Thanks in advance

Dave F.

 

I was afraid that was what you were after, but thought, "No, surely noone is
that ambitious".

Serioulsy, though, I'm not sure. I thought I remembered seeing one of the
regulars here had a class that gave you that functionality, but I can't say
that is a fact. If not, maybe try passing lisp to the command line and
store it in a USER variable, as recently discussed here. That's the only
thing I can think of.

Please re-post if you find a way to directly read the DXF code values.

 

If you know starting angle of the lines that make up the Pattern...ie ANSI
all start with a 45 degree angle..using the Pattern angle you can now deduce
the angle of the line in the XY plane.

Paul

 

just an idea, don't know if actually possible

get the hatch pattern
find the .pat file
read the definition
figure out the angle (somehow?)
adjust according to the pattern angle
???

 

Tom,

If you need to create a list of constants for the line angle of each
pattern...write a separate mod that will insert pattern at a Zero angle into
empty dwg, explode, check angle of line element, write to txt file, erase
lines, and next pattern... writing this mod will be quicker than doing
manually.

write to text file in useable format that you can cut and paste into VBA..

Dim ANSI31 As Variant: ANSI31 = 0.785398
Dim ANSI32 As Variant: ANSI32 = 0.785398

you could also store these values as a txt file and find as necessary. that
way users can update file without needing to see code... AfraLisp has a good
example on using txt files parametrically.

Good Luck,

Paul

 

even eaiser... just iterate the .pat file. no need to use acad at all. All
patterns start with * which can be used as a pointer to find each pattern,
next line in .Pat contains the entity angle, so does the next if there is
more than one entity in the pattern.

 

That's certainly worth considering if I can't get the DXF directly.
I wonder if the .pat definition is stored in within the .dwg once it's used?

Cheers
Dave F.

 

Unfortunately I want to select the line on the fly.
& I use custom patterns with complicated lines

Cheers anyway.

 

Thanks to all for replying

I need to select the line interactively to get the angle so I can rotate a
piece of text so that they're aligned.

Cheers
Dave F.

 

then like someone else said, explode the pat into an array
get the object corresponding to your pick point
read the angle of that object
erase the array of hatch stuff

 

have user select hatch, and then compare the Pattern angle aganist the angle
of the entities that make up the line. Ansi31 @ a 45 degree would be a 90
degree line.

 

That, unfortunately, requires knowledge of the lines angle before writing
the routine.
I have many complicated hatches with multiple lines all at different angles.

Thanks
Dave F.

 

Dave you need to create a list of the hatch angles. Simple just iterate your
..PAT file look for the * which prefaces the name of the file, next line is
the angle. see http://www.afralisp.com/vba/extext.htm for a great example of
manipulating txt files.

Paul

 

But how in the world does this give him the angle of a specific line in the
hatch? If there are lines of more than one angle in the pattern, there are
multiple answers.

 

Thats why you'll maybe want to consider the other idea of exploding the
hatch and reading the resultant object instead.
I haven't seen you comment on that suggestion yet.

 

read my other posts. said it a few times

 

also...just prompt the user with the multiple angles that make up the hatch
and ask which one they want..

 

It's a bit messy, isn't it?

There a lot to go wrong. thought of exploded hatch lines fills me with
dread.
How would you get exploded entities into an array?

I'm hoping someone will reply to my message above asking for a couple of
routines from Frank Oquendo's site which may help me out.

Dave F.