Create pattern legend
This function allows you to insert a pattern legend item into a plotting title block. Pattern legends can be horizontal or vertical in orientation, and they can consist of one or more patterns that are defined in the SSI_PLOTTING:patterns.ssi file.
Prerequisites: A title block is displayed in the Plot Sheet Setup window.
To run this function: In the Plot Sheet Setup window, choose Title Blocks > Create > Pattern legend, or...
You may have any number of pattern legends in a title block definition.
The following message is displayed.
Click and drag to define the location for a title block pattern legend
Using the mouse, click and drag to define a rectangle that will define the location, size and orientation of the pattern legend. If the rectangle that is created using the mouse is longer than it is high, the pattern legend will have a horizontal alignment and the text will be vertically aligned. This is useful for title blocks positioned such that they are viewed from the right edge of the map sheet. If the rectangle that is created using the mouse is higher than it is long, the pattern legend will have a vertical alignment and the text will be horizontally aligned. This is useful for title blocks positioned such that they are viewed from the bottom edge of the map sheet. Define the legend location to display the PATTERN LEGEND PROPERTIES form.
Fields on the Pattern legend properties form
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| X position |
The distance, in the X axis, of the left side of the pattern legend, relative to the lower left corner of the title block. Both X position and Y position are set after you have dragged an area for the legend with the mouse, but you can edit them. |
| Y position | The distance, in the Y axis, of the lower side of the pattern legend, relative to the lower left corner of the title block. |
| X size |
The width of the legend. That is, the width of the box that contains all the legend entries. If X size is greater than Y size, the legend is rotated 90 degrees. |
| Y size | The height of the legend. |
| Priority |
An integer between 0 and 125 that determines which lines will overwrite any text in the legend. When a line and some text would be drawn in the same space, the entity that has the higher priority is drawn. |
| Font Name | The font used for the labels of the legend. |
| Bold | Whether or not to use bold formatting for the labels of the legend. |
| Italic | Whether or not to use italics for the labels of the legend. |
| Underline | Whether or not to underline the labels of the legend. |
| Text height | The height of the labels of the legend in centimetres. |
| Define the patterns to be used in the legend | You can add up to 100 rows in this section - one row for each pattern you want to see in the legend. The patterns are drawn into boxes of equal size in the rectangle reserved for the patterns. Each of these patterns are defined in the SSI_PLOTTING:patterns.ssi file and a summary of the pattern names is available here. |
| Pattern |
The pattern to display in the legend. The right arrow button in the Pattern field displays the Pattern form that shows an example of each pattern.
|
| Label | The text to appear beside the pattern in the legend. |
| Scale |
You can use the pattern scale to alter the size at which the hatch pattern is produced. The pattern is usually defined in units of centimetres although this is not necessarily the case. It is important that you use a scale value here which will scale the pattern definition units to the appropriate real-world values when you take into consideration the scale at which the plan is to be plotted. The reason for this is that the hatch pattern is produced before you get the opportunity to specify the scale at which the map is to be drawn, hence the need to specify the pattern scale. If you are producing a plot at a scale of 1:1000, a Pattern scale of 1000 is appropriate. You can however use any value you like to cause the pattern to be `looser' or `tighter' for different effects. If the plan scale is 1:1000 then a pattern scale of 2000 will cause the pattern spacing to increase, while a pattern scale of 500 will cause the pattern spacing to decrease by a factor of 2. |
| Angle | The rotation angle alters the orientation of the hatching scale. Valid entries range between 0 and 360. A value of zero does not alter the orientation of the pattern. Values other than 0 result in a rotation of the pattern by the amount of the specified angle. |
| Pen | The pen number is associated with a colour through a pen file that you can easily modify to suit your requirements. The pen number is used to draw both the pattern and the associated descriptive text. |
Output
A pattern legend is created on the title block, showing the label beside each pattern.