Fills closed 2D areas with repeating patterns or solid colors; displays the Hatch and Gradient dialog box.
Note: 3D entities cannot be hatched.
Examples of hatch patterns:
Accessing the Command
command bar: hatch
aliases: h, bh
menu bar: Draw | Hatch
ribbon: Draw | Hatch | Hatch
toolbar: Draw |
: Hatch
Displays a dialog box:
Choose options, and then click OK.
Command Options
Pattern Options | Description |
Type |
Select a source of the hatch pattern from the droplist:
|
Name |
Specify the name of the predefined hatch pattern by one of these methods:
This option is unavailable for the User-defined pattern. |
Swatch |
Click to display the Hatch Pattern Palette dialog box:
This option is unavailable for the User-defined pattern. |
Scale |
Specifies the scale factor of the pattern:
The scale factor of hatch patterns is generally the same as that for text and linetypes. |
Angle |
Specifies the angle of the pattern:
This angle is measured relative to the positive x-axis of the current UCS. |
Color |
Specifies the color of the hatch lines:
|
Background Color |
Specifies the background color under the hatching:
|
Spacing |
Specify the distance between hatch lines; this option is available for only user defined patterns |
ISO pen width |
Specifies the lineweight; this option is available only for ISO hatch patterns |
Cross Hatch |
Determines whether the pattern is crossed:
This option is available for only user defined patterns |
Hatch Origin Section | Description |
Specified origin |
Uses a point other than the drawings's origin (0,) for the lower-left corner where the pattern begins:
Use this option to begin the hatch pattern at the corner of a wall or other location where the placement of the pattern is critical. |
Use current origin | Uses the drawing's origin (0,0) as the origin of the hatch pattern. |
Pick new origin |
Dismisses the dialog box temporarily, and then prompts you at the command bar:
This option is available for only the specified (user defined) origin. |
Boundaries Section |
Description |
Pick points in boundaries |
Specifies the closed areas (boundaries) in which to place the pattern:
You cannot pick an area that already contains a hatch pattern, or areas that are not closed (whose gap is larger than the value specified by Boundary Tolerance). |
Select boundary entities |
Selects the entities that make up the hatching boundary to constrain the extent of the pattern:
This option allows you to hatch closed areas, including ones that already contain a hatch. It hatches open areas whose gap is less than the value specified by Boundary Tolerance. |
Remove boundary entities |
Remove entities from the detected boundary set:
|
Boundary Tolerance |
Specifies the largest gap the program ignores when hatching a boundary that is not fully closed:
The value is saved in the HPGAPTOL system variable. |
Current View/ Boundary Set |
Specifies where the program should search for entities that make up the boundary:
|
New |
Creates a new selection set of entities that make up the pattern boundary:
The next step is to click the Pick Points in Boundaries button to choose the hatch area. |
Retain boundaries |
Determines what happens to boundaries:
|
Islands Section | Description |
Nested | When a closed hatch boundary contains other boundaries, BricsCAD hatches alternating areas. |
Outer | When a closed hatch boundary contains other boundaries, BricsCAD hatches only the outermost area. |
Ignore | When a closed hatch boundary contains other boundaries, BricsCAD hatches all interior areas, as if they were not present. |
Options Section | Description |
Annotative |
Toggles the the Annotative property of the hatch:
When this option is turned on, the Associative option is unavailable |
Associative |
Toggles the associativity of hatch patterns: when the boundary is changed, the pattern automatically updates itself.
This option is not available for annotative hatches. |
Create separate hatches |
Toggles how multiple hatches are treated:
|
Draw order |
Specifies where the pattern should be placed relative to overlapping entities:
|
Layer |
Specifies the layer on which the hatch should be placed:
|
Transparency |
Set the transparency property of the hatch:
The transparency level is limited to 90% to avoid confusion with layers that are frozen or turned off. The transparency value for new hatches is saved by the HPTRANSPARENCY system variable. |
Inherit properties |
Copies the properties of another existing hatch pattern to use with this pattern:
This button is useful for quickly setting options of a new hatch based on existing hatches. |
Tutorial: Use the Quad to simplify working with Hatch
Click here to watch
Grips Editing
Non-associative hatches can be edited directly through grips:
-
Select the hatch.
Notice that it has one central grip (1), grips on each boundary vertex (2) and grips in the midpoint of each boundary segment (3 and 4). -
Drag the central grip (1) to move the hatch.
-
Drag a vertex grip (2) or a midpoint grip (3 and 4) to change the hatch boundary.
-
Center grip: moves the hatch
-
Vertex grip: moves the vertex
-
Midpoint grip: moves the boundary segment
-
Arc midpoint grip: modifies the arc radius
Procedures
- General procedure to create hatches and gradient fills
- To define hatch properties
- To define the boundary for a hatch or gradient fill
- To edit a hatch or gradient fill
- Defining the MAXHATCH setting
Related Commands
Gradient - places a gradient fill through a dialog box.
-Hatch - places hatch patterns through the command bar.
HatchEdit - edits hatches and gradient fills in a dialog box.
-HatchEdit - edits the boundaries of hatch and gradient entities; displays prompts in the command bar.
HatchGenerateBoundary - generates a boundary around a hatch or gradient fill.
Properties - changes the properties of hatch patterns.
Settings - specifies the default parameters for hatch patterns.
Solid - draws 3- and 4-side solid-filled areas.