Overview of Hatch Boundaries (Concept)

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Overview of Hatch Boundaries

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Concept

Quick Reference

You can hatch an enclosed area or hatch within a specified boundary using HATCH. By default, HATCH creates associative hatches that are updated when the boundary is changed.

You create a hatch by selecting an object to hatch or by defining a boundary and then specifying an internal point. A hatch boundary can be any combination of objects, such as lines, arcs, circles, and polylines, that forms an enclosed area.

Enclosed areas within the hatch area are referred to as islands. You can hatch them or leave them unhatched depending on the Islands setting in the Hatch and Gradient dialog box.

If you are hatching a small area in a complex drawing, you can use boundary sets to speed the process.

Objects can be hatched only if they are in a plane parallel to the XY plane of the current UCS.

NoteIf you want to hatch an area that is not completely enclosed, you can set a gap tolerance (HPGAPTOL system variable). Any gaps equal to or smaller than the value you specify in the gap tolerance are ignored, and the boundary is treated as closed.

Invalid Hatch Boundaries

When a hatch boundary cannot be determined, it might be because the specified internal point is not within a fully enclosed area. Red circles are displayed around unconnected endpoints of the boundary to identify gaps in the hatch boundary.

NoteIf a boundary is outside a screen display, you must zoom out to ensure the point selected is within a fully enclosed area.

The red circles remain displayed even after you exit the HATCH command. They are removed when you select another internal point for the hatch, or by using the REDRAW, REGEN, or REGENALL command.