How to import pattern fills into LayOut?

LayOut
1

Don’t have time to draw patterns from scratch (on deadline) but have found couple of fills from CadHatch that are just what I’m looking for. Is there a way to directly import these .pat files into LayOut?

If not, is there a work-around? Where are LO pattern fills stored and in what format?

Also, does anybody have good sources for additional LO material patterns? The native offering is awfully sparse (at least in LO 2015).

Thanks for any help.

Doug

(also posted this at the other forum —since I’m hoping for a solution ASAP— so if you answered there instead, thank you and apologies for the ‘duplicate’ post)

2

Hey
I dont believe there is any way to get .pats in natively, LO patterns are stored as png files which you can amend create etc in Photoshop or something like that, an alternative method is - if you have Skalp for Sketchup, you can import .pat files into Skalp / Sketchup and then use the option ‘export patterns to layout’. A bit circuitous but it does work - I’ve found some problems with .pats (as they are a bit ■■■■ sometimes and if the tiling has not been setup properly they look odd). Hope this helps

3

I appreciate the quick response.

I suspected that there wasn’t a direct import route. I don’t have Skalp, but I have Gimp so I’ll try to open the .pat in that and save as a .png.

Thanks.

4

If Gimp can open .pat, let me know, Ive been unable to find something to open them (on a Mac) as it seems to think they are Photoshop pattern files - which they are not and are a totally different format (a text description).

5

as I suspected - no joy with GIMP - a .pat is not an image file in that sense

6

Same here. Though there’s lots of search results that say Gimp does open .pat files (in MacOS version as well).

7

Of course you can import new patterns in layout !
Take a look at this LINK : Step 13 & next.

8

That’s true IF the files are

LayOut doesn’t import .PAT files, though, as the OP has asked for.

9

yes it opens patterns files in the sense of image pattern files - gimp .pats are compatible with PS .pats which is a totally different animal to CAD pattern .pats

10

I just learned that CAD .pats are actually text—not image—files… would be nice if an extension name was actually exclusive to one file type!

I’ve downloaded the Skalp trial and am just about to enable it, so I’ll try that route as you described. Thanks for your help.

11

no probs - you’ll need to apply the pattern after ‘import acad pattern file’ (you do this in the Skalp Pattern Designer flyout menu) to a section element, then use the Skalp Pattern Designer to set the pattern to the correct scale and line weight etc

heres a quick video walkthrough

clear as mud eh!

12

You cannot blame AutoCad .pat files for this confusion, as they have been there ever since AutoCad has supported hatching, which it certainly did back in 1986 when I started using version 2.5.

13

yep, its Photoshop to hold responsible for this particular confusion.

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