[solved] Can’t Hatch Anything Now

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waynej
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[solved] Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by waynej » Tue Jan 25, 2022 3:29 am

Hello from Thailand! I’ve been using QCAD-Pro for almost 5 years now. Great value and quality. Just installed V3.27.1.0 (3.27.1) on my new MacBook Air M1 running Mac OS Monterey V12.1. Performance is great except…

Hatching at first was flawless but then started acting strange. Sometimes it just wouldn’t take, indicated an open loop or acted like it worked but nothing is there. I checked for and removed duplicate elements. Now it won’t hatch at all. The app has crashed a few times working with imported cad blocks (although not while hatching).

Drawing these patio pavers without a hatch tool is driving me nuts! Some were hatched until it stopped working. Please help. TIA.
20' Container Outside Kitchen.dxf
(5.64 MiB) Downloaded 401 times

waynej
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Re: Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by waynej » Tue Jan 25, 2022 3:51 am

BTW I can still hatch in another drawing- just not the one I attached. Perhaps I managed to corrupt something in the file?

CVH
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Re: Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by CVH » Tue Jan 25, 2022 5:23 am

waynej wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 3:29 am
Now it won’t hatch at all.
Zoom in on the red circles ... :wink:
Open patio boundaries.dxf
(101.14 KiB) Downloaded 416 times
waynej wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 3:29 am
or acted like it worked but nothing is there.
Maybe the rendering timed out, perhaps a scale issue, try a solid hatch to verify. :?
The timeout can be adjusted in App.Prefs. .. Graphics View .. Appearance
waynej wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 3:29 am
The app has crashed a few times working with imported cad blocks (although not while hatching).
Probably the blocks with plants.
There is a story or two of these on the forum. :wink:

The question is: Are we drawing something in CAD or are we gardening?
It is fine for a few plants like on your drawing ...
... When coded proper ...
... QCAD will choke when there are a few hundreds of them. :roll:
Andrew usually points out that the technology of QCAD can't be compared with ACAD or others.
** EDIT ** Every single entity or stroke is a javascript object. ** WRONG **
** EDIT ** All objects are stored in C++ containers **

Some are badly coded ... Some are quite demanding in rendering:
Plant12: 37 splines
Plant11: 8 hatches
Plant8 = plant7: Here is definitely something wrong with. (Green blob, red solid hatch)
Plant6: Rather slow for just 5 solid hatches, probably the scale.
Plant3: 63 splines ... Yellow uses 128 control points and the hatch too.
Bromélia maior: 36 splines + block plant12
arvore L = 49x plant4
0146: Rather slow, probably the scale.
ceco.net = overkill

Plants in a separate layer like 'cad-block.com' is a good idea.
This can be turned off or frozen to decrease lagging. :wink:
I would draw/include the plants in a usable scale especially with hatches.

Hatches in a dedicated layer is also a good habit.
Have a closer look at what entities are in the layer called 'Hatch'. :wink:

Regards,
CVH
Last edited by CVH on Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:51 am, edited 4 times in total.

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Husky
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Re: Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by Husky » Tue Jan 25, 2022 7:04 am

Hello,
waynej wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 3:29 am
Just installed V3.27.1.0 (3.27.1) on my new MacBook Air M1 running Mac OS Monterey V12.1. Performance is great except…
You are using the correct packet for your OS and you haven't mixed the new installation with the old one, correct?
waynej wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 3:29 am
Sometimes it just wouldn’t take, indicated an open loop or acted like it worked but nothing is there.
Well, an open loop is an open loop. With all respect that would be your job to avoid or fix that in your drawing.
waynej wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 3:29 am
... or acted like it worked but nothing is there.
Is nothing there or you can't see it visually? Have you checked different scales for a hatch? Please tell us exactly where you noticed this behavior in your drawing and which hatch was planed at it.
waynej wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 3:29 am
I checked for and removed duplicate elements.
I found still 85 duplicates and 94 Zero-length entities ...
waynej wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 3:29 am
Drawing these patio pavers without a hatch tool ...
Basically I can't really reproduce the issue. But I agree - this drawing is a Handful for QCAD. You can improve the performance a bit by doing simple things like put all plants (which are intense to render!) on a special "Plant" Layer. Make this layer invisible until you need it for designing or printing. Same with hatches - all on one layer, switch invisible until you need to work on a hatch or have to print the drawing.
waynej wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 3:29 am
... is driving me nuts!
When you reorganize the drawing a little bit new hatches shouldn't drive you nuts ... :wink:
Husky-2022.01.24-01.png
Husky-2022.01.24-01.png (113 KiB) Viewed 8203 times
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waynej
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Re: Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by waynej » Tue Jan 25, 2022 7:43 am

CVH and Husky...

5555 just call me farmer Wayne! :) I appreciate the excellent feedback. I did in fact find the open loops Couldn't miss it with CVH's bubbles! Patio bricks are all in in a manner of minutes.

I also appreciate the comments on the plants. I thought they added value when applied to a certain area but when I moved them to a "Plant" layer and turned them off the drawing looked better without them. I knew they were large and problematic. The drawing file performs so much better without them.

Many thanks again!

CVH
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Re: Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by CVH » Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:25 am

waynej wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 7:43 am
I knew they were large and problematic.
In fact, they are extremely small ... :lol:
... Plant8 is about 0.005 inch across.
Used scaled up 1798.56... times.

There is something with hatches in a block and scaling that induce lagging.
Zoom in/out, panning starts to lag. Even more problematic with viewports.
I suspect a hatch is rendered in the block, re-rendered at block reference scale, re-rendered at viewport scale ...
Just guessing. :wink:

One can distinguish boundary accuracy degeneration.

Regards,
CVH
Last edited by CVH on Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

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andrew
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Re: Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by andrew » Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:39 am

CVH wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 5:23 am
Every single entity or stroke is a javascript object.
Note that this is not true. All objects are stored in C++ containers and only wrapped in thin JavaScript wrappers when needed for modification. Rendering does not use JavaScript.

CVH
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Re: [solved] Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by CVH » Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:11 am

andrew wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:39 am
Note that this is not true
Corrected, and C++ is indeed faster, less demanding.

I only wanted to point out that there is an end to what can be handled.
Several years ago a user asked for a N x M block with a few elements in it.
Your answer was a limiting calculation: N x M x 'few' was an enourmous collection of entities for a single block reference.

The same would be true for several hunderd times 'Bromélia maior' with 36+37 splines.
Or hunderds of Plant3 with 36 splines of wich 4 have 128 control points and 4 hatches with 130 vertices.

Regards,
CVH

CVH
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Re: [solved] Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by CVH » Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:18 am

About hatches in blocks ... Redraw of plant8
https://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=9073
CVH

TreestumpExhaustpipe
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Re: [solved] Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by TreestumpExhaustpipe » Wed Feb 15, 2023 3:33 am

Just a comment:
This is exact issue biting me lately since I use Qcad again, and hatching is about one of the biggest reasons I usually use another cad program. It would work for a while and then you can just do what you want, you cant hatch anything.
It is one of the biggest pains I have with Qcad, which is otherwise great.

I get absolutely no hatching dialog - go figure.
Maybe the hatching routine should be rewritten to work predictably.

So, I am back at overklill using autiocad.

CVH
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Re: [solved] Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by CVH » Wed Feb 15, 2023 4:21 am

@ TreestumpExhaustpipe
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Wed Feb 15, 2023 3:33 am
It would work for a while and then you can just do what you want, you cant hatch anything.
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Wed Feb 15, 2023 3:33 am
I get absolutely no hatching dialog - go figure.
Those things should not occur .... :shock:
There is no time-frame in when it would work or when not.

When starting the HS tool the hatch dialog should always pop up.
HA won't be active without selection.
With a feasible selection it should display the dialog otherwise you should see one to more warnings in red on the Command History.
Something in the nature of: Loop not closed at point xxx/yyy.

I only can agree that QCAD is very picky about the perfectly singular and closed nature of the indicated boundary/ies.
But what is wrong with being correct?
The question is then what hatched area those other applications return when they are so much less picky ...

Please start a new topic with your specific problem ... problem file, we gladly will have a look at it.

Regards,
CVH

TreestumpExhaustpipe
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Re: [solved] Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by TreestumpExhaustpipe » Thu Feb 16, 2023 3:23 am

Hash tool is active, but no popup launched.
Double checked that the loop is closed.
I just commented to help the op, that I have the same problem regularly.
I moved it to autocad as qcad hash has been a perpetual problem in the past across several designs.

Just my opinion, but the hash tool needs be rewritten.
It severely holds back Qcad, and I dont consider using qcad for any design that needs hash.
So if it is a vanilla simple design, I will use Qcad, but for hash .. no.

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Husky
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Re: [solved] Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by Husky » Thu Feb 16, 2023 5:28 am

Hi TreestumpExhaustpipe,

here is my QCAD hatch experiance:
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Thu Feb 16, 2023 3:23 am
Hash tool is active, but no popup launched.
The "Hatch from Selection" tool dialog will never popup if the hatch contour has open loops.
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Thu Feb 16, 2023 3:23 am
Double checked that the loop is closed.
If all loops are closed the hatch dialog will always appear.
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Thu Feb 16, 2023 3:23 am
Just my opinion, but the hash tool needs be rewritten.
I would love to look into this issue. Please give us the chance with opening a new topic, an example drawing which can't be hatched in QCAD but effortless is hatched in ACAD. Thanks.
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If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."

TreestumpExhaustpipe
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Re: [solved] Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by TreestumpExhaustpipe » Mon Feb 20, 2023 5:00 am

When I run into this I will post it as you requested.
There are three things about Qcad that drives me to use autocad instead.
1) Disappearing drawing. Sometimes very sporadically my drawing just totally disappear without an undo and there is no way to get it back other than to load an older sved version. I posted about this years ago, and it still happens with new versions.
2) The disappearing blocks issue. I sometimes lose blocks I created and it returns just an empty block with no undo possible. It mighht be the same issue as above but just with blocks.
3) The hashing issue. I brought this up years ago already as I can remember and it still happens. It is not related to non closed endpoints. It is something else.

Dont know why only I seem to get these, but I did previously try to resolve some of the above without success. The disappearing drawings/blocks is sporadic and likely only happens if you use qcad a LOT as I did in the past. I dont think a casual user will encounter it often.
When I saw another user with the same hatching issues as I have been encountering for years, I though I'd comment.
I am not using Qcad much anymore due to this, but if I do again and get the same problem I will sure contact you again and will bookmark this page.

CVH
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Re: [solved] Can’t Hatch Anything Now

Post by CVH » Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:51 am

@ TreestumpExhaustpipe
1 and 2 are off topic ... We can filter on users post and this indeed comes up:
https://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=8147
With no clear example, reason nor solution ... You are the sole person to bring this up.
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Mon Feb 20, 2023 5:00 am
3) The hashing issue. I brought this up years ago already as I can remember and it still happens.
It is not related to non closed endpoints. It is something else.
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Mon Feb 20, 2023 5:00 am
When I saw another user with the same hatching issues as I have been encountering for years, I though I'd comment.
What you don't mention here is that all such issues were related to imperfect boundaries.
And to my knowledge all posted examples of such issues were solved.

Can’t Hatch Anything Now was posted at 3:29 am and solved at 7:43 am.
Not saying that the file was free of other major issues by the user.

Regards,
CVH

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