2004

450 | Chapter 18 Hatches, Fills, and Wipeouts
Overview of Hatch Patterns and Fills
You can drag and drop hatches from a tool palette, or use a dialog box with
additional options.
You can choose among several methods to specify the boundaries of a hatch,
and you can control whether the hatch automatically adjusts when the
boundary changes (associative hatching).
To reduce file size, a hatch pattern is defined in the drawing database as a
single graphic object.
Add Hatch Patterns and Solid Fills
You can use several methods to add hatch patterns to your drawing. The
BHATCH command provides the most options. Use tool palettes when you
need additional speed and convenience.
With the Tool Palettes window open, you can right-click a pattern tool to
access the Tool Properties dialog box from the shortcut menu. This dialog
box contains several hatch pattern options that are also available through
BHATCH. For instance, you can specify the scale and spacing for the hatch
pattern.
Create Associative Hatches
An associative hatch is updated when you change the boundary. Hatched
areas created with
BHATCH are associative by default. You can remove hatch
associativity at any time or use
HATCH to create a nonassociative hatch.
AutoCAD automatically removes associativity if editing creates an open
boundary.
When you hatch a drawing, whole or partial objects that are not part of the
object boundary are ignored.
If a hatch line encounters a text, attribute, shape, or solid-fill object, and if
the object is selected as part of the boundary set, AutoCAD hatches around
the object. Therefore, if you draw a pie slice, label it with text, and hatch it,
the "island" of text remains readable. You can override the automatic exclu-
sion of the text.
You can use
HATCH to create nonassociative hatches, which are independent
of their boundaries.
HATCH is useful for hatching areas that do not have
closed boundaries.