sketch lines

L

larry

not exactly what I mean. I'm talking about a line type tool that looks
"sketchy". Sort of like drawing with a marker instead of hardlines. Makes
it look more preliminary/conceptual.

Larry
 
P

Paul Herber

ah, select the line and then menu Format -> Line
then select the pattern you require.
 
L

larry

I guess I'm still not being clear. Well aare of the pattern menu, but there
is no"sketchy" line type. Basically, more of a freehand looking line drawn
with a marker. If you were an architect, the sort of line work you do on
yellow trace. If your familiar with googles sketchup, you would know exactly
waht I mean.
 
L

larry

John, well this is a nice find...but for other things. Was just basically
hoping I could select a line type with a sketchy quality and point to the
drawing or items in the drawing and have them take that quality. Almost
like a style of drawing - preliminary/hand versus computer hard lined.

Larry
 
J

John Goldsmith

Hi Larry,

As we're having trouble understanding, could you point to a web link as an
example of what you're after?

Alas, I'm not an architect :)

Best regards

John


John Goldsmith
www.visualSignals.typepad.co.uk
www.visualSignals.co.uk

larry said:
John, well this is a nice find...but for other things. Was just
basically
hoping I could select a line type with a sketchy quality and point to the
drawing or items in the drawing and have them take that quality. Almost
like a style of drawing - preliminary/hand versus computer hard lined.

Larry
Click to expand...
 
L

larry

not really, what I can do if its possible is just upload or email two images
if you tell me where and how. But again, picture a simple drawing in visio.
Lines are crisp, clean, like a cadd drawing. same drawing, same lines, but
just change the line quality so it looks more hand drawn - with a marker/felt
tip pen...a little waviness, overlap at intersections etc.

Larry
 
J

John Marshall, MVP

I understand what he is looking for, but Visio is missing a random property
in the line patterns. Create a line pattern in Visio and it is nice, neat,
clean and organized. Larry is looking for a way to change the line pattern
so that it has the random pattern of a hand drawn line. There have been
times when I have created preliminary sketches and the client has considered
them as final drawings and has wasted time concentrating on the details of
the line measurements rather than the overall layout of the drawing. Being
able to switch the line pattern to a hand drawn one would deemphasis the
details and make the overall drawing more important.

This line pattern would be handy in being able to differentiated finished
portions of a drawing from the preliminary portion. For now I use colour to
indicate portions that are to be highlighted (green) or ignored (red).

Back in the old days, Cindy L created something, I'll see if I can dig it
out of the archives.

Another thing to consider is to change the text font, there are many that
look like they are hand drawn.

John... Visio MVP

Need stencils or ideas? http://visio.mvps.org/3rdparty.htm
Need VBA examples? http://visio.mvps.org/VBA.htm
Visio Wishlist http://visio.mvps.org/wish_list.htm
 
L

larry

John, you hit in on the head. Its simply to give the client the perception
of the drawings not being finalized as a cadd drawing typically does, but
more of a sketch. Nothing changes in the drawing except the "line
type/quality", but the client feels its still preliminary/conceptual in
nature as oppsoed to hard line. Again the best analogy I can give is
google's sketchup. You can draw anything, then apply a style and I can
create a 3d model and submit it in various "stages" of compeltion, just by
changing the line style. I tried importing the visio drawing as a jpg and
recreating it, but its added work that I was hoping would be unnecessary.
Alternately, importing it as a jpg into photoshop allows certain filters to
be applied, but not quite the results i'm looking for. Look forward to
hearing back on what you find from Cindy
 
J

John Marshall, MVP

That looks good. You seem to have made it long enough that the repeating of
the pattern is not noticable. So that may be the secret to creating an
apparently random pattern.

I could not find Cindy's stencil in my archive (it is probably there, I just
can not remember the corect name), I've dropped Cindy a message to see if
she still has a copy. Since this was before Microsoft, I'm hoping she is as
much of a pack rat for Visio files as I.

John... Visio MVP

Need stencils or ideas? http://visio.mvps.org/3rdparty.htm
Need VBA examples? http://visio.mvps.org/VBA.htm
Visio Wishlist http://visio.mvps.org/wish_list.htm
 
L

larry

John,

that's it. can you also attach the jpg you created to your resposne. I
couoldn't follow the directions in the link as it didn't see a reference to
usign a jpg, but I've printed it out and will look again. But your
instructions seem clear. From an archtiects perspective, I've given so many
recs toVisio in the past which they haven't used, it probably doesn't pay to
submit this one, but it still would sure be nice to just apply this style to
any drawing.

Larry
 
J

John Goldsmith

Hello Larry,

Here's the jpg, and for anyone else who's interested I think I'll write this
up as a blog post to show the steps in details, but basically it's as
follows:

1) Click View / Drawing Explorer Window

2) Right click on the Line pattern folder and add a new line pattern and
name it 'Pencil'

3) In the dialog under the 'Behavior' section click on the continous arch
button (3rd from left) and check the 'Scaled' option.

4) Click OK and then right click the new 'Pencil' pattern that appears in
the explorer and select 'Edit Pattern Shape'

5) Insert / Picture / From file... and select the jpg

6) Close the edit window clicking 'Yes' to the Update message box

7) Now select you lines, and select Format / Line... / Pattern drop down /
'Pencil'

Best regards

John


John Goldsmith
www.visualSignals.typepad.co.uk
www.visualSignals.co.uk
 
J

John Marshall, MVP

L

larry

well good news/bad news ;-) . Installed the line, works perfectly
except...... can not change thicknesses or patterns. and even worse, only
really works in a 1 to 1 scale. Most of my drawings are in a scale for plans
etc. Tried using it in a 1/2"-1'-0" scale adn it was hardly readable. Are
these easy fixes?

Larry
 
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