QCAD.org Forum

I am drawing part drawings for tooling and the Hatch feature has been working perfectly fine for the most part. The most part means, it only works on certain libraries, even though the ones it doesn't work with are select-able in the context menu. Either way, I had setup a great workaround by choosing the shape libraries that work for me without any issues on multiple drawings. Now, on my latest drawing it is either producing hatch only on some parts of the selected areas or none at all. All this without any warning messages. Attached is a working drawing created in QCAD that works and then the latest that is not working. Can someone explain to me if the drawing is corrupted or something??

OS: Windows 7 Pro SP1
QCAD: Version: 3.21.2.0 (3.21.2)

I don't know why, but the file is somehow corrupt. If I start a new file and then import the drawing in, now it is working. I am not marking this solved until someone can review my first post and come up with a better explanation.

If you cannot hatch an area it's usually because the selected entities are not forming a closed contour or because there are duplicate entities or partially duplicate (overlapping) entities.

Here's for example the bottom part of the yellow part. I've moved one of the overlapping lines a bit to visualize the problem: Hint: Watch out for error messages produced in the command line history of QCAD:

Update 2: I installed the latest update (3.21.3)to see if that would resolve it on the existing file. I again encountered the same problem. Doesn't work on the file, but importing into a new File works. Then I went to save it, and I get a message stating I do not have permission to save into my own documents folder. I knew then something was off. I changed my shortcut to start with Administrator Privileges and I am going to say this was probably the issue. Now I can save like I did yesterday.

Thanks Andrew. Coming from an extensive CAM background 20 years, I have checked that thoroughly. No open profiles are duplicate entities. I also verified this within QCAD and checked for duplicate and zero length entities. I also know your software points out and highlights a non closed area along with the warning message you posted. Along that thought would it be possible for the highlight to stay visible until I elect the area?? Currently it stays visible for about 2 seconds and then disappears. I think my post above has more to do with it and file permissions.

The drawing is still misbehaving. If anyone has insights please do tell. For now I am re-drawing this particular tool.

I just found this post during a search and thanks to Andrew, this is a more stable way to do hatch in QCAD.

https://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic. ... nap#p19915

Quick fix:
- Delete all fills
- Select all outlines of the letters
- Draw > Polyline > Create from Selected Entities
- Create hatch from polyline outlines

Camzl1 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 28, 2018 6:33 pm

The drawing is still misbehaving. If anyone has insights please do tell. For now I am re-drawing this particular tool.

I would not recommend that fix ....

Your "Hatch not working.dwg" is confusing for a Hatch tool because there are a lot of overlapping entities.
Additional I believe that is not a pure 2D drawing because it contains 3D information. QCAD is a 2D program which is not built to handle 3D information.

How to fix?
1. Use the "Flatten Drawing to 2D" tool below Menu/Misc/Modify
2. Clean/close the hatch couture like this example. A automatic Hatch tool doesn't know what to do when a 3.05 line is built with a overlapping 2.8 + 3 line.

Thanks Husky,

This tool was drawn only with QCAD. One thing I am finding with the offsetting feature now with more time and use, is that it will overlap in certain conditions. These overlaps are so small it is difficult to see. So I just pay attention to that more. Also sometimes the precision is so fine that when I use trim that I don't see the overlaps unless I zoom in up to 3 decimal places showing on the ruler in mm. If there is a way to display non touching entities that would be great. I use to use a CAD/CAM software that would do that so you could quickly zoom to those items that need correcting before pursuing other commands.Thanks again if you can guide me in the right direction for what I am asking as it still relates to getting the geometry closed properly before issuing the hatch command.

Eric,
Hatching with any cad program can be tiresome at times that's for sure, but with QCAD the selection of tools I find are remarkable to say the least. I have used a method over and over again with constant success, please see here my method, I've posted it in the 'Tips and Tutorials' forum as it may help others in their quest to produce hatching results without the need to spend hours and hours of clean up work - it does for me anyways!

https://qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php? ... 829#p22829

Thank you Clive. This method seems very trivial and I will use it for my next drawings