0 Hatch

“Hatch” The "Hatch" command is used to fill the closed figures with patterns of various kinds. The area to be filled can theoretically be of any shape and can be closed off by a polyline or normal lines, the only rule to follow is that the figures to be filled are perfectly closed, otherwise, the hatch will not be created. In fact with the latest versions of Autocad you can set a tolerance, below which, although a figure to fill was not properly closed the program still managed to create the pattern, but it is good practice to respect the basic rules. For closed figure so I do not mean a geometry independent, such as a single polygon, but also an area within a design more complex bounded by lines that intersect. We can then fill a drawing of a square, as well as a square area in the drawing of a chessboard. An other features to keep in mind, remaining example of the board, is that Autocad to create the patterning, process all enclosed areas that will be visible in the screen. If we select a picture of the board fully displayed on the screen and wanted to fill a square of this, when we are going to select, Autocad will prepare all the other losing more time. But once this process is complete and the square is selected, we will now can select more, this time very quickly because all the visible areas have already been pre-processed. If the board so this can benefit us because we want to probably fill half of the net with the squares, but if we were facing a more complex design and large, such as the drawing of a floor which also contains arcs or circles to his internal, the processing time to fill one part with the hatch, while it is fully displayed on the screen, might get quite long. It will therefore be convenient to perform a zoom on one or a few parts to be filled before applying the hatch, then fill all the areas concerned in several steps. Let's see how to implement this command. Draw a closed geometric figure on the screen, circle or rectangle. Then activating the command "hatch" with the key  , the following window will appear: This window is divided into several sections: Type and pattern In this first section, choose what type of patterning we're going to use, clicking on the small window next to the word "swatch", where is a preview of the pattern used, it will open another window on which we will choose the type of pattern to use:: In this window there are some tables that contain many types of patterns, to select just a double click on what we want to use. Angle and scale In this section, we will decide if the scale factor and the rotation angle by which the hatch is drawn. Keep in mind that if we use a scale too small compared to the area to be filled, Autocad fails to generate the net, same thing if the scale is too large the screen will not be displayed. You can still enter decimal values (0.1) or hundredths (0.01) and so on. The angle of rotation should be considered counter-clockwise. Boundaries With the first two buttons of the "boundaries" select the area to fill: "Add: Pick points" After we pressed, click inside the area (or areas) to be filled so that the program develops and highlight the edges *. * Depending on the areas to be developed that will be present on the screen right now, before you begin processing it can happen that we are asked on the command line if you really want to continue with the transaction. Then read : Do you really want to do this? <N> The questions by tapping  Y followed by Enter to continue to develop the area to fill. We see the second key: "Add: Select Objects" After click it, we must select lines or shapes that enclose the area to fill. Run one of these two commands and selected the area to fill, press "Enter", (or right click>enter) to confirm the selection and return to the main window of the command. On this window, click the bottom left button "preview" , and our pattern will display "preview" in the selected area. At this point if you hit enter the pattern is confirmed and exits the command, if we want to make other changes, the scale or angle of rotation, pressing the "Esc" key on your keyboard to go back to the previous window and we can change the settings again. Summary: - You start the command "hatch"   - Sets the type of texture or pattern, scale and rotation if necessary. - You select the area with "pick points" or "select objects" and press enter to confirm the selection (*) - You press "preview" - You press Enter again to confirm the pattern and exit the command (*) at this point if instead of "Enter" press the right mouse button, it opens a drop down menu where, among other items found at the bottom "preview". This is a small shortcut without having to return to the main window of the command. Then there is the section Options and Hatch origin and clicking the little arrow key at the bottom right, it can expand the main window showing more options. At the moment, left out to not create too much confusion, just add an explanation of the first flag "Associative" in the "Options". In practice, an "associative" pattern, can be stretched with the "stretch" command, with its perimeter, while a hatch created by the "associative" removed, it can not be stretched along its perimeter, but will remain fixed.