Hatch and gradient system variables

System variables can be set using the Settings dialog box.

Variable Name Variable Title Description
MEASUREINIT Measurement initial Sets drawing units as Imperial or Metric for new created drawings (also controls which hatch pattern and linetype files are used: ANSI for Imperial and ISO for Metric units).
MEASUREMENT Measurement Sets drawing units as Imperial or Metric for the current drawing. Measurement controls whether ANSI or ISO hatch pattern and linetype files are used.
OSOPTIONS Entity snap options Suppresses entity snaps on certain entity types.

The value is stored as a bitcode using the sum of the values of all selected options.

PICKSTYLE Pick style Controls the selection of groups and associative hatches.

The value of PICKSTYLE is stored as a bitcode using the sum of the values of all selected options.

Note: Ctrl+H toggles PICKSTYLE 0/1 if 0 or 1 and 2/3 if 2 or 3
PREVIEWFILTER Selection preview filter Controls which entity types are excluded from selection previewing.

The value is stored as a bitcode using the sum of the values of all selected options.

FILLMODE Fill mode Determines whether multilines, traces, solids, hatches (including solid-fill), and wide polylines are filled in.
GFANG Gradient fill angle Determines the angle of a gradient fill.
GFCLR1 Gradient fill primary color The first color of a gradient fill.
GFCLR2 Gradient fill secondary color The second color of a gradient fill.
GFCLRLUM Gradient fill tint level Controls the tint intensity in a one-color gradient fill.
GFCLRSTATE Number of colors for a gradient fill Defines number of colors (one or two) for a gradient fill.
GFNAME Gradient fill name Determines the pattern of a gradient fill.
GFSHIFT Gradient fill shift Specifies whether the pattern in a gradient fill is centered or is shifted up and to the left.
HPANG Hatch pattern angle Stores the hatch pattern angle.
HPANNOTATIVE Hatch pattern annotative Controls whether a new hatch pattern is annotative.
HPASSOC Hatch pattern associativity Determines whether new hatch patterns and gradient fills are associative or not.

Associative hatches and gradient fills are updated automatically when their boundaries change.

HPBACKGROUNDCOLOR Hatch background default color The background color of a hatch.

Enter '.' for none.

HPBOUNDRETAIN Hatch pattern boundary retain Determines whether HATCH/BHATCH commands will create boundary entities.
HPBOUND Hatch pattern boundary Determines the entity type (region or polyline) created by BHATCH and BOUNDARY.
HPCOLOR Hatch default color The foreground color of a hatch.

Enter '.' to use the current color, as defined in CECOLOR.

HPDOUBLE Hatch pattern doubling Controls whether user-defined patterns create a single hatch or a cross hatch.
HPDRAWORDER Hatch pattern draw order Sets the draw order of hatches and gradient fills. The Draw Order setting from the Hatch and Gradient dialog is saved here.
HPGAPTOL Hatch pattern gap tolerance Defines a tolerance to be used when entities are not completely closed when generating a boundary for BHATCH or BOUNDARY. The Tolerance setting from the Hatch and Gradient dialog is saved here.

The default value is 0: the tolerance is set by the application, based on the current view size. When zoomed in closely, boundary detection will fail; when zooming out further so the contour 'looks' closed, the boundary will become detected. Values greater than 0 define the maximum gap in drawing units.

Values between 0 and 5000 are accepted.

HPISLANDDETECTION Hatch pattern island detection Specifies islands processing within the hatch boundary.
HPLAYER Default layer for new hatches Stores the default layer for new hatches.
HPLINETYPE Hatch pattern linetype Controls the display of non-continuous linetypes in hatch objects. When off (0, default), linetypes will be displayed continuous, ignoring the assigned linetype. When on (1), non-continuous linetypes will be applied. (Not recommended, decreases performance. You can choose a predefined hatch pattern with a non-continuous linetype instead).
HPMAXAREAS Fill mode for sparse hatches Controls how sparse hatches are filled.
HPMAXCONTOURPOINTS Maximum number of points on a hatch contour Specifies the maximum number of points on a contour (outline) that a hatch entity can contain and still be rendered. Hatches do not render if the number of points exceeds the specified value.

Values between 0 and 10000000 are accepted. The default value of this variable is 100000. Setting to 0 disables the check, i.e. variable is not used.

HPNAME Hatch pattern name Stores the default hatch pattern name.
HPOBJWARNING Hatch pattern object warning Specifies how many hatch boundary entities can be selected before a warning message appears.

Values between 1 and 100000000 are accepted. The default value of this variable is 10000.

HPORIGIN Hatch pattern origin Stores the origin point for new hatches, relative to the current UCS.
HPSCALE Hatch pattern scale Stores the hatch pattern scale factor.
HPSEPARATE Hatch pattern separate Determines whether the HATCH command creates a single hatch pattern object or separate objects when several hatch boundaries are selected.
HPSPACE Hatch pattern spacing Sets the hatch pattern line spacing for user-defined hatch patterns.
HPTRANSPARENCY Default transparency for new hatches Stores the default transparency level for new hatches.

Following values are accepted: '.' (for 'use current', the default), ByLayer , ByBlock, 0 (fully opaque) and 1-90 (transparency percentage).

MAXHATCH Maximum hatch dashes Specifies the maximum number of dashes in a hatch pattern. Hatches of which the number of dashes exceeds the maximum number of dashes cannot be created.

Values between 100 and 10000000 are accepted. The default value of this variable is 100000.

MIRRHATCH Hatch pattern mirroring Determines whether the MIRROR command mirrors hatch patterns.
SRCHPATH Support file search path Specifies the folder(s) to search for text fonts, customization files, plugins, drawings to insert, linetypes, and hatch patterns that are not in the current folder. Search paths are separated by semicolons (;).
PdfImportVectorGeometry Vector geometry Ignore or Import vector geometry. PDF geometric data types include linear paths, Beziér curves, and solid-filled areas, which are imported as polylines, and 2D solids or solid-filled hatches. Within a tolerance, curves that resemble arcs, circles, and ellipses are interpolated as such. Patterned hatches are imported as many separate objects.
PdfImportSolidFills Solid fills Ignore or import solid-filled areas. If these filled areas were originally exported into PDF format from AutoCAD®, the solid areas would include solid-filled hatches, 2D solids, wipeout objects, wide polylines, and triangular arrowheads.
Note: Note: Solid-filled hatches are assigned a 50% transparency so that objects on top or underneath can be easily seen
PdfImportConvertSolidsToHatches Convert solid fills to hatches Converts 2D solid objects into solid-filled hatches.