Creating Hatches

Use the Hatch command to fill enclosed areas or specified entities with a hatch pattern. Hatching a drawing adds meaning and helps to differentiate the materials and areas. Some drawing applications such as construction drawings require hatch patterns which can increase the clarity and legibility of a drawing. Along with patterns, you can apply solid hatches to fill in a bounded area with the current color by selecting Solid from the Pattern list.

See Customizing Hatch Patterns to modify existing hatch patterns.

To hatch an area, do the following:

• Set a hatch pattern
• Set the angle and scale
• Set the hatch starting point
• Specify the boundary

To set a hatch pattern:

1. Select Draw > Hatch/Fill (or type Hatch).
2. In the Hatch/Fill dialog box, from the Type list, select a pattern type.
   • Predefined. Lets you select from predefined patterns including ISO and ANSI conforming patterns, as well as patterns commonly used in specific industries.
   • User-defined. Lets you select a pattern you or your enterprise created.
   • Custom. Lets you specify a pattern determined by your Angle and Spacing specifications.
3. If you selected a Predefined type from the Pattern list, select a pattern.

   The Preview pane beside the Pattern list displays the selected pattern.

   You can instead use the Select Pattern Style dialog box to select a type and a pattern by clicking .

To set the angle and scale the hatch pattern:

1. In the Angle list, specify an angle for the hatch pattern.

   Standard hatch patterns are made up of horizontal or vertical lines or drawn at an angle. A hatch angle of 0 degrees defines a horizontal line. The Angle list contains angle values between 0 and 360 in 15 degree increments. A positive angle rotates the pattern counter-clockwise.

2. Use the Scale list to specify a value by which to scale the hatch pattern.

   The Scale list contains values between .25 and 2 in .25 unit increments (default is 1). For example, 2 doubles the distances in the pattern and .25 reduces the original dimensions by 1/4.

   Note: User-defined patterns cannot be scaled. To change distances in user-defined patterns, use the Spacing list.

3. If you selected a User-defined type, in Spacing specify the distance between lines in the hatch pattern.

   Specify the distance in drawing units (default is 1). Change the line spacing to customize the pattern proportions for specific graphics areas.

4. If you selected an ISO Pattern type, use the ISO pen width list to select a pen width.
5. Click Scale based on sheet's units to adapt the units to the sheet.

To set the hatch pattern start point:

• In Pattern start point, specify one of the following:
  • Current drawing origin. Keeps the current hatch origin (default).
  • User-defined location. Click Specify coordinates to specify a point in the graphics area or select a location from the Use boundary list. To save the specified location, click Set as default.

To set boundaries for hatch patterns:

• In Boundary settings, select a method to specify boundaries:
  • Specify entities . Lets you select the entities that form the boundary.
  • Specify points . Lets you click points in enclosed areas to define the boundaries.
  • Rebuild boundary . Replaces a boundary after removing (enabled only when using the EditHatch command).
  • Delete boundary entities . Removes boundaries from the set of entities that form the boundaries.
  • Highlight boundary entities . Displays the boundaries in the drawing.

To further customize hatch pattern options:

Specify additional options for hatch and boundary:

• See Setting Additional Options for Hatches and Gradient Fills (annotative scaling, placement, transparency).
• See Setting Behavior Options for Hatch and Fill Boundaries.

Access

Command: Hatch

Menu: Draw > Hatch