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:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • On the menu, click Draw > Hatch/Fill.
    • Type Hatch.
    • On the toolbar, click Hatch/Fill.

    The Hatch / Fill dialog box appears.

    When the ribbon is active, the Hatch Creation contextual ribbon tab appears. Otherwise, the Hatch / Fill dialog box appears.

  2. Do the following:
  3. Optionally, specify additional options for hatch and boundary:
  4. Click OK.

To hatch entities using properties of a selected hatch:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • On the menu, click Draw > Hatch/Fill.
    • Type Hatch.
    • On the toolbar, click Hatch/Fill.

    The Hatch / Fill dialog box appears.

    When the ribbon is active, the Hatch Creation contextual ribbon tab appears. Otherwise, the Hatch / Fill dialog box appears.

  2. On the ribbon, click Hatch Creation > Mode > Match properties.
  3. On the Hatch tab, click Use properties of selected hatch.
  4. In the graphics area, specify the source hatch entity.
  5. In the Hatch / Fill dialog box, in Boundary settings, select a method to specify boundaries.
  6. Specify one or more internal points.
  7. In the graphics area, specify one or more boundaries.
  8. Press Enter.
  9. In the Hatch / Fill dialog box, click OK.

To set a hatch pattern:

  1. On the ribbon, click Hatch Creation > Pattern > Hatch pattern type.
  2. In the Hatch / Fill dialog box, click on the Hatch tab.
  3. Select a pattern type from the list.
    • 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.
  4. If you selected a Predefined type, select a pattern from the Pattern list. Alternatively, you can select and preview patterns in the Select Pattern Style dialog box.
    1. Click Select Pattern Style next to the Pattern list.
    2. In the Select Pattern Style dialog box, browse through the available pattern style categories: ANSI, ISO, Sample, and Custom.
    3. Click on a pattern style to select it.
    4. Click OK.

    5. The preview area displays the selected pattern.

To set hatch pattern alignment and scale:

  1. On the ribbon, click Hatch Creation > Properties.
  2. In the Hatch / Fill dialog box, on the Hatch tab, in Angle and Scale.
  3. Do the following:
    • In Angle, 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.

    • 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.

  4. 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.

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

To set the hatch pattern start point:

  1. On the ribbon, click Hatch Creation > Pattern Start Point.
  2. In the Hatch / Fill dialog box, on the Hatch tab, in Pattern start point.
  3. Specify one of the following:
    • Current drawing origin. Keeps the current hatch origin (default).
    • User-defined location. Select Specify coordinates to specify a point in the graphics area or select User-defined location and specify a location relative to the boundary from the Use boundary list.

    To save the specified location, enable Set as default.

To specify boundaries for hatch patterns:

On Hatch Creation, in Boundary Settings, select a method to specify boundaries.

In the Hatch dialog box, on the Hatch tab, select a method to specify boundaries.

Button Function Description
Specify entities Specify entities Lets you select the entities that form the boundary.
Specify points Specify points Lets you click points in enclosed areas to define the boundaries.
Rebuild boundary Rebuild boundary Replaces a boundary after removing (enabled only when using the EditHatch command).
Delete boundary entities Delete boundary entities Removes boundaries from the set of entities that form the boundaries.
Highlight boundary entities Highlight boundary entities Displays the boundaries in the drawing.

Access

Command: Hatch

Menu: Draw > Hatch/Fill

Ribbon: Home > Draw > (Flyout) Hatch

Toolbar: Hatch/Fill

Tool Palettes: Draw > Hatch

Related Topics

-Hatch (command window variant)

Creating Color Gradient Fills

Editing Hatches

Creating Area Boundaries

«Hatch Creation» and «Hatch Editor» Contextual Ribbon Tabs

Hatching with Open Boundaries

Displaying All Hatches Behind Other Entities

Parent Topic

Working with Hatches and Color Fills