Friday, September 09, 2011

Creating custom fill patterns the easy way

So out of the box Revit comes with a useful set of hatch patterns which can be used in your projects to create drafting & model fill patterns. The hatch pattern file uses the same format as AutoCAD & ends with an file extension of .PAT. These hatch pattern file can be found in the following location……

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit Architecture 2012\Data

imageYou can also create your own fill patterns directly in Revit, however you are limited to creating patterns which are either parallel lines or cross hatch.

imageWhat if you want to create custom fill patterns based on a material requirements or a specific design you have created? Well you are into writing the .PAT file, which is actually a simple plain text file. There is some great guidance on how to do this in Mastering Revit Architecture bible as well as the Revit help file.

Nether the less, architects are generally visual people, we draw & design; very few of us can write scripts & code! So this is where Hatch Kit Pro steps in. Its a $125 utility for creating hatch patterns & is well worth the money and it will save you hours of pain! Patterns can be created directly in the Hatch Kit Pro or imported as a DXF from say Revit or AutoCAD & then exported to generate the .PAT file. The following video steps through what I think is the quickest process for creating that pattern you have always wanted!

7 comments :

Klaus Munkholm said...

Hi David. Great post as always, but you should have a look at Hatch22, witch let´s you draw any pattern right inside of Revit ;-)
http://mertens3d.com/revit-2011-addin-portal/hatch22/hatch22.php

Klaus Munkholm said...

More info and "reviews" about Hatch22 at the forum:
http://revitforum.org/showthread.php/303-How-do-I-extract-a-.PAT-file-from-revit?p=2322&viewfull=1#post2322

Jason said...

Thanks for that! I purchased Hatch Kit a while ago but can't seem to get things to work out right for some reason. I'll definitely review my process and see if I can get it to work better now. Thanks!

David Kingham said...

Have you tried hatch22? http://mertens3d.com/revit-2011-addin-portal/hatch22/hatch22.php

Works great inside Revit

Gregory said...

You can also use my free Revit Add-In 'hatch22'
http://mertens3d.com/revit-2011-addin-portal/hatch22/hatch22.php

...save yourself some cash

...gregory mertens/ mertens3d.com

Jason Grant said...

Have you tried hatch22 by Gregory Mertens? Seems similar to Hatch Kit Pro except it is free and does not require the middle step of exporting and opening in another file. I have had really good results with it.

Hugh Adamson said...

Hi,

The new HatchKit Add-in for Revit totally integrates HatchKit with Revit, allowing pattern templates to be prepared in Revit and directly sent to HatchKit Version 2.7 or later for immediate return to Revit as a finished pattern. There is no upper limit on pattern size as no upper limit on scale is imposed during import.

The HatchKit Add-In for Revit is free and available from the Autodesk Exchange for Revit.

The Add-in provides valuable hatch management functions without an installed HatchKit.