QCAD.org Forum

Hi All

I have an idea that I think would enhance the hatch tool inside Qcad, It's adding an option
for a DXF tile ( this was used by Qcad years ago ).. I think there is a place for this kind of
option for example garden screens (which I do a lot of) leafs, flowers, circular patterns
and arcs etc better for laser cutting...with no limitations on entity types..

AutoCad have a similar tool it's called "Super Hatch" but this works with blocks....
What does everyone think? the coding for this should still be available...

Could we Vote on this for future releases... see screenshot of what I think it could look like..

Cheers
John

Looks good John. Certainly has its uses.

(Only 7 most powerful 2 letter words - normalization)

Hi, all,

John stumbled on the limitation that hatches are merely line segments.
AC 'SuperHatch' behave more like the old style hatching.
This is not the first inquiry about that and I expect more to come.

For me many small segments poses no problem.
I can tune my CNC driver to go steady fast and round the corners an arbitrary bit.
I have an engraving spindle but it could drive a laser too.
A 300W professional CO2 with mirros and every thing else is stowed away.
Dangerous stuff for DIY in a backyard shed.


One could define a block and raster fill a section with blocks.
But then we don't have the boundary functionality.
A 'Crop To' function would give a solution there.
Here the trimmer should be a closed form.

Such a function can also come in handy when there is a lot of trimming to do.
I rather am missing the 'Trim all' I was used to in Cadkey.
Trimming all that cross an entity ruled by the side that that entity is addressed.
At the moment we have to trim them one by one.
Even harder when a polyline is the trimmer.
Then you have to select the correct individual trimming segment too.

Just thinking out loud.
I can not see use in tiles with pictures or surface structures like Superhatch can.
Thats something for inkscape, blender and so on.

John I'll vote for it.
Do you mind to open a feature request?

Cheers,
CVH

Hi,

John Hyslop wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 08, 2020 5:47 am

Could we Vote on this for future releases...

Sure - but I don't think it will change anything ....

Howsoever - I would vote "no".

Here are the reasons ...
1. It makes sense to stick to dxf/dwg standards. A dxf hatch isn't standard ...
2. QCAD isn't currently good enough in handling bigger files. A dxf hatch will blow up the drawing what will dramatically bring down the overall performance. I did a test - a common hatch produced a file size of 104 KB. Same drawing as a dxf hatch (exploded hatch) has around 33.5 MB.


Try to work with a 33 MB drawing - that isn't anymore productive and very soon you will think about how to get rid of unnecessary ballast ...

3. I'm pretty sure that somebody who loves coding will enjoy this challenge but I don't see any benefit for QCAD.

Hi Husky
You said
"1. It makes sense to stick to dxf/dwg standards. A dxf hatch isn't standard ..."

In AutoCad they have Super Hatch that does this exact thing but using a block created in drawing and can only be used in that drawing, that's why I think a DXF tile would be a good match it's not going away from drawing standards , it's keeping up with them

I make garden screens and the files are never that big in my 30+ years using AC the biggest file I have is 10MB and that's very unusual..they are all usually under 1 or 2MB???
I'd love to see a screen shot of this DXF file you have..
or even Dropbox it to me so I can see what's making it so big...is it purged of all blocks etc?
I still think there is a place for this as long as it's used sensibly.
Imagine the time saved on trimming on irregular shapes
Anyway I appreciate your opinion that's why I put this post up
Maybe CVH can do some of his magic and make a tool to do this...his hatch tool is working really well testing this at the moment and even at it's infant stage it's better than the AC one I used to use

Cheers
John

Hi Husky

See my findings below... Exploded Hatch is almost twice the size of DXF tiled...
and it has arc entities, Need to do some work now...

John,

I don't know what exactly you are looking for in your field of application and my example is maybe an overkill but that is the problem - you have to serve a big field of user. And I'm sure there are a lot of user out there who will do the same overkill like me ...

I don't say you shouldn't try it - I just said I can't see the benefit so far especially with a new hatch tool which is presumably in the oven (?) ...

Hi Husky
The new hatch tool will be a great add-on
But I'm talking about entities that can be lasercut nice and clean.. hatching has a disadvantage of just outputting lines and points..and as you can see the file size is almost half..if I had made the end of the pencil an arc it would of been even smaller..
Hatches serve there purpose as a visual representation, why not add more power to Qcad and put the extra option in for those that want to use it..
Google Super Hatch...the big guys do this why shouldn't the best 2d cad software offer this
Cheers
John

Feature request for a Clip2Boundary existed.
See:

https://qcad.org/bugtracker/index.php?d ... sk_id=1983

I linked it to both topics.
viewtopic.php?&t=6869

Remark: Clip2Rectangle exist.

Cheers,
CVH

Thanks CVH