Hello! if you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the SolidSmack RSS feed or to the free email updates. Thanks for visiting!
In the past 14 years of my experience in CAD the wood end grain hatch pattern has always been one of the most elusive of the nocturnal hatch patterns. At least, it has been in the 5 companies of the lower southern mid-west I’ve worked at.
I doubt it has to do with temperate zone or carbon emissions, although you can blame carbon emissions on just about anything now days. So, instead of chopping down a tree to show you some fabulous wood grain, I’m going to give you a hatch pattern you can use in SolidWorks.
All it takes is a little modification to the SolidWorks Hatch pattern file. There are two options to make it easy.
Self-Extracting Zip file
This has all the existing SolidWorks hatch patterns along with the wood end grain pattern. Download this, unzip it and extract it to your SolidWorks install folder. It looks something like this: C:\Program Files\SolidWorks 2007\lang\english
 |
sldwks_ptn.zip |
Text File
If you want to add it to your existing hatch pattern file, it pretty easy. First, copy the original file to a safe place to back it up. Open the file below, select all the text (Ctrl-A) and copy (Ctrl-C) the text. Go to the install folder (C:\Program Files\SolidWorks 2007\lang\english) and open the Sldwks.ptn file with Wordpad (Right Click, Open with…,Wordpad). Go to the end and Paste (Ctrl-V) the pattern info in the file.
|
woodgrain-hatch-pattern.txt |
Making parts look like real wood. Now that’s a good feeling.
If you haven't already, consider subscribing to SolidSmack so you can easily receive updates when new articles are published or announcements are made.
Nice Josh. I’ve installed it already. Wouldn’t it be great if your CAD tools came with the hatches you really need.
yeah, it would. Maybe I should just design everything in plastic or mc escher.
HatchKit can create and edit custom hatch patterns suitable for SolidWorks or convert hatch patterns from other systems.
One minor point - the comments at the start of the SLDWKS.PTN file suggest that user-defined patterns should start with numeric identifier running from 501 up, 500 and below being reserved.
Hugh, looks like a great resource. I downloaded the free version and it was fairly easy to create a hatch pattern. Thanks for the post!
That was great but it was only one hatch pattern. I would like a choice of about 6 or so wood types. How did you create that pattern?
Ron, Hi. You can create them in autocad or dwgeditor and then use the hatchmaker lisp to save it.
HatchMaker Lisp Download (via Cadalyst)
Extract the HTH2065.zip. Load the lisp (type APPLOAD). Then type DRAWHATCH to start the command and create a hatch pattern. Type SAVEHATCH to save the hatch as a .pat file. If you’re using DWGEditor, you may have to just copy the string produced, but you have to do this anyway if you create a .pat file.
That’s the quickest way I know to make your own. you can open a .pat file in a text editor and grab the hatch pattern coordinates from there and then add it to your sldwks.ptn file.
If you have an .SLD file you can open and save it as a .dxf with a trial version program like CadSlide from etecad.com.
I added some more hatch patterns to the Sldwks.ptn file. You can download it here.
Hope this helps!