.PAT formats

Good day people.
LC hathces have the .dxf format. This is one of the feature that I prefere the most, because I can create my own hatches and customize my program. But other programs use the .pat format.
Now I thought that sometimes we have to exchange files with people that use other programs, so hatches are lost -at least, not shown- when they open the file. So I was asking myself if there is a method to convert the dxf to pat format and to convert the pat to dxf in order to handle the issue.
Do you think it is a bad idea? Do yout hink it would be useful?
I think it would useful, but devs can have other solutions for this.
Have a good time people
See you

Hi Claus,

do you have an example, a DXF file using a PAT file? And can you share them here or by PM?

Armin

well... I should create it with another program. Do you think that a square with a hatch inside is enough?
This is a 30 unit square with ANSI31 hatch inside. I created it using Qcad, the version of dxf is R15/LT2000.
Anyway, here the file

square.dxf

Best regards
Cla

Hi Claus,

on the AutoCAD site I found all information about the the PAT file format.

After a first look, it should be possible to write a LC plugin or a tool like ttf2lff to generate a DXF pattern file from a PAT file.
The reverse conversion from DXF to PAT is not that easy by software. In the DXF file are multiple iterations of the pattern, the PAT file has only one instance of the repeated entities.

I think the question is, if it's worth the effort.
Drawing patterns in LC is easy, if there is a printout or a PDF from other CAD's drawing.
For creating a PAT file I found some tutorials, but I have to admit, that it is not as easy as in LC.

Anyhow, I will keep your suggestion in mind.

Armin

Thank You.
Honestly I cannot understand the reason to create such a complicated format file... dxf as hatch in my opinion will be always an upside of this program.
Bye and thanks again!
Cla

Hi Claus,

from the sight of a developer the format looks very efficient:
- it needs a minimum amount of disc space
- therefor it loads fast to memory
- I reckon that it is very fast to apply to the drawing
- it is human (developer ) readable

Maybe that this format wasn't for public when it was created or simply that the developers didn't care about the users when it was created.

Perhaps there is already a tool in AutoCAD to generate the PAT file from a drawn pattern? I don't know.

Armin

I used the RC14 and the LT2008 and there was not such a tool there. Honestly time passed and I discovered Draftsight, Nanocad, Qcad and then finally Librecad, so I did not use Atodesk products anymore! The Idea is to allow to LC the max compatibility in order to put it as a real professional alternative, so all the odd request in this forum as truetype support, dimensions compatibility and this, are for this purpose
Should I find something concerning this topic that could be useful, I'll post it here.
Have a nice day friend.
Cla