Ch 8: Hatching

AutoCAD 2012and

AutoCAD LT 2012 Essentials

By Scott Onstott

Ch 8: Hatching

Types of Hatch Objects• Hatch objects can be filled with solid color, tiling

line patterns, or gradients• Line patterns can optionally include a solid

background color, making them hybrid solid/line hatches

• Gradients can fade from one color to a set percentage of white (called tint) or you can create two-color gradients that fade from one specified color to another

• There are a variety of gradient “patterns” that fade linearly, cylindrically, or spherically

• Gradients can fade from the center or off to one side

Ch 8: Hatching

Island Detection Options• Islands are nested bounded areas• You have options on how to hatch nested

islands• Normal island detection alternates hatching

(hatch, no hatch, hatch, and so on) within each nested boundary

• Ignore island detection hatches all nested boundaries as one

• Outer island detection hatches only the outermost hatch boundary, leaving all other nested boundaries without hatching

Ch 8: Hatching

Associative Hatching• Associative is a toggle in the Hatch Creation tab of the ribbon that appears

when using the HATCH command• Associative hatches link the boundary object to the hatch itself so that the

extents of the hatch effect is controlled by the boundary object• Altering the shape of a boundary object automatically alters the extents of the

associated hatch effect

Ch 8: Hatching

Grayscale Colors• Colors 250-255 represent six

gradations of gray in Index color• You can choose any gray value when

using True Color• Index color is most often used in

AutoCAD because of its relative simplicity (255 colors plus ByLayer or ByBlock)

Ch 8: Hatching

Overriding Properties with Hatch• The HATCH and GRADIENT commands are unique in

their ability to override the following object properties: Color, Transparency, and perhaps most surprisingly: Layer

• Objects are usually assigned to the current layer but this is not necessarily the case with the HATCH and GRADIENT commands

• It doesn’t matter which layer is current when you issue the HATCH or GRADIENT commands

Ch 8: Hatching

Varying Transparency of Hatch Objects• By dragging the Transparency slider in the Properties

panel on the ribbon’s Hatch Creation tab, you have the ability to control the relative opacity/darkness of hatch objects

• Transparent overlapping hatch objects blend• You must toggle on the Show/Hide Transparency button

on the status bar to see transparent effects in the drawing canvas

Ch 8: Hatching

Creating Separate Hatches• Use the Create Separate Hatches toggle in the

expanded Options panel on the ribbon’s Hatch Creation tab to break multiple bounded areas into separate hatch objects

• Before creating separate hatches it is more efficient to style multiple bounded areas as a single hatch object. When you are satisfied with the pattern, scale, color, and so on, click Create Separate Hatches to break the multiple bounded areas into separate objects

• Each hatch object can be edited independently

Ch 8: Hatching

Manually Setting the Hatch Origin• Click the Set Origin point to manually

select a point that the pattern begins from• Setting the origin is especially helpful with

ceramic floor tiles, acoustical ceiling panels, and cross hatched mating parts

Ch 8: Hatching

Creating Gradient Hatches• Use the HATCH command and select a gradient in the Pattern

panel, or use the GRADIENT command• Gradients can fade from one color to white (i.e. blue to white), or

from one specified color to another (i.e. red to blue) • Click the button next to the Tint slider to toggle between 1-color and

2-color gradients• Adjust the Tint slider to adjust the amount of white mixed in 1-color

gradients