Linetypes

The linetype defines the pattern of a line. The linetype of an entity can be specified by the DXF attribute linetype, this can be an explicit named linetype or the entity can inherit its line type from the assigned layer by setting linetype to 'BYLAYER', which is also the default value. CONTINUOUS is the default line type for layers with unspecified line type.

ezdxf creates several standard linetypes, if the argument setup is True at calling new(), this simple line types are supported by all DXF versions:

doc = ezdxf.new('R2007', setup=True)
../_images/all_std_line_types.png

In DXF R13 Autodesk introduced complex linetypes, containing TEXT or SHAPES in linetypes. ezdxf v0.8.4 and later supports complex linetypes.

See also

Tutorial for Linetypes

Linetype Scaling

Global linetype scaling can be changed by setting the header variable doc.header['$LTSCALE'] = 2, which stretches the line pattern by factor 2.

To change the linetype scaling for single entities set scaling factor by DXF attribute ltscale, which is supported since DXF version R2000.