Request: Additional dash/gap boxes for line strokes

[AndreaThomas]

There are currently four boxes to create a dashed line (dash-gap-dash-gap). I am moving over from Illustrator which has a 6 dash-gap ability and with the type of artwork I do the extra dash and gap are very important.

I need to display at least 13 lines which each have very clear differences between them. If the purpose helps, I design sewing patterns and each of the lines to indicate the sizes needs to be extremely obvious as to which line they should be cutting out. The prints need to be clear when printed black/white so colour is not an option. Those extra couple of boxes would make a huge impact on my ability to show different line styles.

[Joachim_L]

Welcome to the forums. Have you ever experimented with the Appearance panel? There you can create tons of variations for your lines by stacking several strokes. See the attached image for example. But more boxes for gaps would be nice anyway

[AndreaThomas]

Thanks for the quick reply. I have been using those but although there are lots of combinations with widths of gaps and dashes, it still doesn't provide enough variety for the lines I need. With the extra dash-gap from Illustrator, for example, I currently have "dot dot dash" and "dash dot dash" options, which I can't make through Designer, from what I can tell.

I'll attach an example I made in illustrator, and this is even with easy to follow lines, whereas some of the pattern pieces I need to provide have many more areas where lines cross over each other and the person following the lines needs to be clear on which line is the one they are using. These are printed with the line about the same thickness as a regular pen. If they accidentally follow the wrong line after a corner or crossover, then they'll have the wrong size and the garment won't fit.

Edited July 30, 2020 by AndreaThomas

[carl123]

 

[selbie]

Just wanted to add my support for additional dash / gap slots.

As a draftsperson this is a very useful feature to give efficient control over line types and I was sad to see it is only limited to 4.

In addition, it would be very useful to be able to export Stroke and Appearance arrangements similar to Palettes so they can be quickly loaded between projects.