curved fill

[Tom Krowka]

I have a circular driveway that is going to have a brick border. Imagine the border 8 inches wide, with bricks side by side around the inner and outer diameter of the circular driveay.

Is there any way to align the fill (bricks) so they will be side by side? The joints would be on the radius line to the center of the circular driveway.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Tom wrote:
Ok Now I'm having a problem creating the symbol line type. I've tried creating the "brick" from which the symbol line would be derived in 1:100 scale, as directed in the help menu. However, when drawing the symbol line, the size of the brick is nowhere near 4" x 8". Plus, the vertical 8 inch lines are extended past the 4 inch horizontal lines. Any help on that issue?

1. Set the scale to 1:100
2. Draw a rectangle with x=8", y=4"

By the way, if you put the lower left hand corner of the rectangle at the drawing origin the brick pattern will appear at the top of the drawn reference when drawing from left to right; if you place the middle of the left side of the brick at the origin the drawn reference will be at the center of the brick.

3. Select and copy
4. Paste the rectangle into the Line Type Dialogue Box (Options/Line Types; New/Symbol)

5. Setting the scale to 1:100 means that for the brick to be 8" long, you set the "dash" to 0.08 (the height will take care of itself), set the gap to "0", check the "Scale with Plan" box.

(see below)

Tom wrote:
Also, will this symbol line, assuming I ever get it drawn, show up on 3d?

No.. it will not show up in 3D... You can create a GDL object that will but you will have to do it with scripting (i.e., you will not be able to draw the rectangle and drag it to the 3D script window)

Which brings me back to the reason for the simple solution to your problem which I described in the post above. It's easy to do and it creates an object which shows up in both 2D and 3D.

Try it... you'll like it

[Tom Krowka]

Woodster:

You've convinced me. I need it for both 3d and 2d. I would never have figured out that symbol line. I learned two things today. Thanks.

[Tom Krowka]

Using the symbol line, I drew all the borders. I isolated the line, marquee, assumed it would show up in the 3d window to save it to a .dxf. However, they are lines, so they don't show up in the 3d window. How do I save the pattern to to .dxf?

Today, Archicad has kicked my butt.

[Anonymous]

Tom wrote:
Using the symbol line, I drew all the borders. I isolated the line, marquee, assumed it would show up in the 3d window to save it to a .dxf. However, they are lines, so they don't show up in the 3d window. How do I save the pattern to to .dxf?

Today, Archicad has kicked my butt.

Sorry, Tom. Custom line types can not be understood by DXF or DWG. In the example I did in my first response, I drew four circles, one of the radial lines, then used the "Multiply" command to rotate (use 8" increments) the lines breaking up the arcs.

The circles and arcs need to be on a layer all by themselves so you can hide everything else when you save it as a DXF.

I know this means that you already have the pattern in 2D but this is how you get it to appear in 3D as well. You can delete the lines when you place the object.

[Tom Krowka]

Actually, I was able to create the DXF with the symbol line. I am able to place it as well (in the 2d plan window) after creating a .gsm object. Unfortunately, I used the same color pen as the brick...duh...so I can't tell if it shows up in the 3d. I guess I have to create it again with a contrasting line color to see if it works in 3D.

I'm not going to do it tonite, gotta go trick or treating!

[Anonymous]

Tom wrote:
Actually, I was able to create the DXF with the symbol line. I am able to place it as well (in the 2d plan window) after creating a .gsm object. Unfortunately, I used the same color pen as the brick...duh...so I can't tell if it shows up in the 3d. I guess I have to create it again with a contrasting line color to see if it works in 3D.

Yes, Tom, it will show up in the 2D symbol window. If you get it to show in the 3D window as anything other than a single line, please let me know how. You will be the first person I know ever to have accomplished that

[Tom Krowka]

Unfortunately, you are right. The dxf w/ symbol line only shows up as a single line. I tried exploding the symbol line before saving as a .dxf, but I guess that does not work on the symbol linetype either.

so there really is no way to use the very handy symbol line in 3d. I just hate to use typical lines to make this 2d/3d thing work out. It seems like two steps backward for one step forward.

But thanks for the help anyway. I did make AC progress.