Well, since line "rope" doesn't seem to work, I ended up using the user rope line from the sample metapost code
http://therion.speleo.sk/wiki/doku.php/metapost#colour_dependant_visualization_of_symbols
It is Christian Jackson's code with slight modification of the pattern.

code metapost
    def l_u_rope (expr P) =
      T:=identity;
      pickup pensquare scaled (0.8*u/10);
      if known colour_rope:
        thdraw P withcolor colour_rope;
      else:
        thdraw P withcolor 0.1black+0.7white;
      fi;
      pickup PenD;
      thdraw P dashed dashpattern(on 1bp off 3bp on 1bp off 1bp);
    enddef;

endcode

Vladimir

On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 11:03 AM, Владимир Георгиев <vld.georgiev@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi

I was trying to add a line:rope to a map, but without any success.
In the data.mp file I see there is a definition of the "l_rope" line, which is equal to the "l_rope_SKBB", but the rope line I drew didn't appear with either the UIS or the SKBB symbol-set.

I also tried including some metapost code in the layout to define the line, but again without result. The metapost worked for other line types like ropeladder, but not for rope.

A workaround is to define a custom symbol "u:rope", but I wonder why the built-in one doesn't work.
Any ideas?

Vladimir