Vector Hatch Fill

[S E Scott]

Hi,

I know that questions have been asked about this topic previously but wonder, following the recent update, if it is now possible to fill a vector polygon with hatch patterns. I have the task of making archaeological/ geological drawings and would like to create a range of different hatch types to show different soil and rock types etc. I have DrawPlus v6 and Affinity Designer but haven't managed to get a satisfactory solution to this problem yet.

Any help would be much appreciated.

I know that this feature is available in Illustrator but I am doing all I can to resist Adobe's move to the Cloud!

Many thanks,

Stephen

 

BTW. I think that the interface of Affinity is spectacular.

[Dave Harris]

This hasn't changed recently, nor is likely to in the near future. You can only use a raster fill pattern, or some clumsy manual clipping.

[MichaelK]

Hi Stephen,

 

you could try Artboard from Mapdiva. It has a Style inspector, where you can create hatchfills or crosshatches.

 

From Artboard you can copy and paste into AD, but you'll have to adjust stroke width and grouping.

 

Would be great to see hatch fills as a native AD function.

 

 

[MattP]

Vector fills (and hatching) are definitely coming - have no fear!

 

In the meantime, do you definitely, definitely need vector hatching? If not, you can get away with it by using a bitmap fill with repeating extend mode. This is obviously no use at all if you need vector output though and isn't intended to be a 'solution' in any way - just an idea for if you want the same effect but without having to manually create the hatch for the time-being...

[achilles177]

Vector fills (and hatching) are definitely coming - have no fear!

 

This would be GREAT!!!  B)

[Alferic-1]

hope it will come soon, as it's an important feature e.g. for technical drawings

[PavelH]

"Vector fill (and hatching) are definitely coming..."

 

This is from 2015; any news on this topic so far? (Yes I know there is fill, but no hatching so far...) 

[MichaelK]

Anything new about this? Original post was from 2014! When will hatchfills finally come?

[lukejanicke]

Definitely, definitely need vector hatch fills. Workarounds are fine for now but custom defined vector fill patterns (with some predefined typical hatch and thatch patterns shipped with the app) would be useful for both technical and creative drawers. Lines get the dash feature. A simple hatch/thatch fill feature would look like that. An ultimate flexible feature would be to create custom fill patterns, like you do for brushes or symbols.

[firstdefence]

Bet the serif/affinity programmers fingers are going like bee's wings lol! with red bull cans, coke cans and costa coffee cups all over the place.

 

I live in Nottinghamshire and I'd love to pop in to serif to see the unsung hero's of "Affinity" < (said in a movie trailer voice with added epic-ness)

[firstdefence]

Maybe make hatch patterns as symbols would suffice?

 

Hatching with symbols.mp4

[Guest]

Hello,

 

Why not create the different hatches and save them as "Assets"?

It is then enough to insert them inside the different shapes.

[R C-R]

29 minutes ago, reglico said:

Why not create the different hatches and save them as "Assets"?

Although it might not be as convenient as built in hatch patterns, it seems to get the job done. Plus, 1 & 2 are really the same pattern just rotated differently, as are 3 & 4, so you may not need as many as you might think.

[Guest]

Hello R-C-R,

 

Yes, I have created only two types of stripes as an example, but as you can imagine, the choice is much wider, just for lines the spacing and orientation can vary, and the pattern can be of another kind: circles, crosses, tree or bush patterns, stones, etc.....

 

This method is not as practical as a dedicated tool, nor as fast since you have to create the pattern before using it, but while waiting for this tool (if it comes one day), these patterns are reusable at will and remain vectorial.

[DoctorX]

Hello everyone,

now is there or is there not a vector hatch fill as mentioned initially by S E Scott? I'm also working in cartography and badly need this function. Having recently turned my back on Illustrator, I'm now looking for this feature in Affinity Designer, which apart from that really does its job amazingly well. But I do need vector fills... Anything having to do with bitmap does definitely not work for me.

@reglico: How do you save vectors as assets? I am only able to do so with bitmaps (png, jpg, gif).

Any help appreciated! Thanks in advance.

[gdenby]

Hi, DoctorX,

I just group the vectors, and drag them into the asset studio. Then rename. You can also save symbols as assets

[Guest]

Hello DoctorX,

Draw your lines (for example), group them and keep them selected.
In the "assets" panel click on the "Hamburger" to the right of the name of the category in which you want to place the lines and choose from the "Add from Selection" drop-down list.
If you are on Mac the method proposed by @gdenby will work since it offers it, but if you are on Windows, dragging the drawing directly into the "Assets" window does not work, you have to go through the "Hamburger".

[DoctorX]

Hi reglico and gdenby,

thanks so much for your help. I think I understood what you mean and successfully reproduced your proposed workflow. Maybe there is still a gap in my understanding of the process, but: Do I have to know in advance the size of the area I want to fill? If I create a group of lines for my hatching that fill a square of e.g. 3x3cm and turn that into an asset following your description above and I then drag and drop the asset on a (e.g.) circle of 10 cm diameter the asset will fill a 3x3cm square. Yes, of course, I can resize my hatching fill and then clip it to the shape I want to fill (e.g. circle). But is that really the way things are supposed to work? Or am I still getting something wrong here?

Cheers, DoctorX

[Guest]

DoctorX,

I think it is better to create a large asset, so that it can be used if necessary on large forms.
You can then pull the asset out so that it completely covers the form to be filled in. Cut (Ctrl/Cmd + X") the asset, select the shape, "Layer", "Insertion", "Inside". In this way the shape will be filled by the lines that will always be modifiable in size, spacing, color or orientation. This method only creates one mask and will not be suitable for all situations.

Another method is to bring the asset on the shape, "Ungroup", reduce the thickness of the lines, "Expand Stroke", then adjust the thickness of the lines to obtain the desired dimension, adjust the orientation, the spacing between the lines and then do "Add". Finally, select the shape and lines and press "Subtract".  In this way the shape obtained does not have a mask but all adjustments must be made before "Add".

[BGSvM]

Quick suggestion: Pick up the predecessor drawing program Serif DrawPlus X8 for a few € from the Affinity Shop. It has all the hatches and many more cool fill methods. The objects can be pasted into Designer. Unfortunately, they will show up as a group of vectors the way the workaround is described above, but the result is good.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, BGSvM said:

Quick suggestion: Pick up the predecessor drawing program Serif DrawPlus X8 for a few € from the Affinity Shop.

A good suggestion for those of us who are on Windows, but unfortunately no use for anyone on OS X or macOS.

[Pariah73]

58 minutes ago, Alfred said:

A good suggestion for those of us who are on Windows, but unfortunately no use for anyone on OS X or macOS.

There seems to be more options on the mac ecosystem to choose from as far as graphic design software so I'm sure there's already a fantastic alternative for mac.

[Alfred]

40 minutes ago, Pariah73 said:

There seems to be more options on the mac ecosystem to choose from as far as graphic design software so I'm sure there's already a fantastic alternative for mac.

There are some very capable graphic design alternatives for Windows, but a major stumbling block is the cost. As a ‘legacy’ application, DrawPlus X8 costs only US$25.

[BGSvM]

After the post and discussion, I tried a few things when pasting hatched objects from DrawPlus to Designer. I posted that "Unfortunately, they will show up as a group of vectors". This is not unfortunate at all! The hatches are not pasted as lines but as curves with a fill and no outline. When one combines these objects with the effects of Designer, really cool graphics can be made very quickly.

In the attached file, I took a flat brick wall pattern from DrawPlus and pasted it into Designer. The outline curve is moved to the background and given a noisy brick red color. Now the original line pattern of bricks, which actually are a group of curves is given a noisy gray mortar color and pillow bevel/emboss. The result is a surprisingly nice brick wall after just a few clicks.

In the second (less cool) graph, I tried to use the effect to make a honeycomb with depth effect.

HatchSample.afdesign

[firstdefence]

...and from drawls to affinity you can make assets.  because I'm on Mac I use an awesome program called Patternodes it's pattern creation with muscles.