Hi! I started using hatches in rhino instead as a friend passed me some good ones but when I exported it I noticed the hatches were not exported, at least not very good. I realized then I could explode it and then it would export but then that would create 250 000 new curves causing a major lag in illustrator.
Anyone knows a better solution to this? Using live paint in illustrator for fills/hatches is a smoother process in applying than working in rhino but I got this set of rhino hatches that is not as easy to import into illustrator and also controlling the color of the hatch is easier in rhino IMO.
there is not much choice here since this is a long known issue. the problem is that the pattern would have to be translated into an illustrator format to be usable as such.
dxf exports the hatches without having to explode them first wich does nothing more than doing the job for you basically, also leading to performance issues in illustrator.
one trick i have found is that when you import the drawing into illu then select the hatch pattern use divide from the pathfinder and reassign a stroke weight thickness, the performance gets much better again.
If you have large expanses of hatched areas you could use the CurveBoolean command to create closed areas on a separate layer which you can then apply a fill to when you open it in Illustrator. It’s a ball ache and work around but it could free up the load on your machine?
Having all the hatches on different layers and in groups would speed up the process.
Okay that is very sad. I assume I could explode the smaller hatches while trying to recreate some of the hatches as patterns in illustrator. What a nightmare though. I guess I have to invest the summer doing my own patterns in illustrator but wont have time for tomorrows presentation. Or next weeks presentation.
You could save/print the hatches as PDF and in Illustrator you could place the hatches as a link, that way your file wouldn’t be so heavy.
Also, If you need to change any hatches’ properties like line weight​ or colour, you could open that file, and using Select> Same fill and stroke, you could adjust all hatches the way you need.
Thanks for the suggestions. Feels like there should be better ways for rhino to improve the software. Using exploded axos is quite standard nowadays and if we dont want to use colors, we must use hatches. And as it does not print in a nice format directly from rhino, it should work nicer with illustrator. At least make some easy way to export hatches as patterns. Or perhaps someone know how to easily make hatches into patterns? I am worried about making them seamless.