Creating Custom Line Styles

[tasc21]

How can I create a basic line style of my own (or a custom one).

It's quite particular what I want. I'm doing spome CAD illustrations and I
need a line style which is of any length but that length is made of three
dashes (and hopefully I can still control ther line thickness as usual), e.g:

Solid dash of 20% the width
no dash of 20% the width
Solid dash of 20% the width
no dash of 20% the width
Solid dash of 20% the width

I also want to create one of:

Solid dash of 40% the width
no dash of 5% the width
Solid dash of 5% the width
no dash of 5% the width
Solid dash of 5% the width
no dash of 5% the width
Solid dash of 5% the width
no dash of 5% the width
Solid dash of 40% the width

Though my maths may be out on the last example, you get the idea and the
control I'm looking for...

I do not want htese lines to be postscript but to see then onscreen and when I
expoert from Freehand (MX 11) as .gif and .psd too.

Not too much to ask, is it?

[David Plank]

I don't know if FH can do what you want. I know Illustrator can
make custom dashed lines in which you can specify the length of
the dash and the size of the gap between them.

dp

tasc21 wrote:

> How can I create a basic line style of my own (or a custom one).
>
> It's quite particular what I want. I'm doing spome CAD illustrations and I
> need a line style which is of any length but that length is made of three
> dashes (and hopefully I can still control ther line thickness as usual), e.g:
>
> Solid dash of 20% the width
> no dash of 20% the width
> Solid dash of 20% the width
> no dash of 20% the width
> Solid dash of 20% the width
>
> I also want to create one of:
>
> Solid dash of 40% the width
> no dash of 5% the width
> Solid dash of 5% the width
> no dash of 5% the width
> Solid dash of 5% the width
> no dash of 5% the width
> Solid dash of 5% the width
> no dash of 5% the width
> Solid dash of 40% the width
>
> Though my maths may be out on the last example, you get the idea and the
> control I'm looking for...
>
> I do not want htese lines to be postscript but to see then onscreen and when I
> expoert from Freehand (MX 11) as .gif and .psd too.
>
> Not too much to ask, is it?
>
>
>

[Jennifer Milyko]

tasc21 wrote:

> How can I create a basic line style of my own (or a custom one).

This can be done with the dash editor. It will appear if you hold the
alt/option key and select a one of the preset dashed lines from the
object panel. This is using FHMX 11.0.2 and Mac OS 10.3.4.

HTH,
..Jennifer.

[Judy Arndt]

Have you tried making a brush? Create three evenly spaced black-filled
rectangles. Group. Make brush. Apply to path as Brush stroke. (Make a Style
of the brush if it works.)

Use scale settings in the Brush in the brush dialog to make it wider or
narrower brushes based on the same Symbol.

See the FHMX Help files under creating Brushes.

Judy Arndt


tasc21 wrote:

> How can I create a basic line style of my own (or a custom one).
>
> It's quite particular what I want. I'm doing spome CAD illustrations and I
> need a line style which is of any length but that length is made of three
> dashes (and hopefully I can still control ther line thickness as usual), e.g:

[Judy Arndt]

tasc21 wrote:

> It's quite particular what I want. I'm doing spome CAD illustrations and I
> need a line style which is of any length but that length is made of three
> dashes (and hopefully I can still control ther line thickness as usual), e.g:

Can you clarify this please? I understood that you want _only_ three dashes
on the entire path. Do you want the width to increase proportionately with
the length of the path?

Judy Arndt