Hatching

Hatching functions, typically used to identify sections, are used to fill a closed area. A simple hatch consists of lines at a specified angle and separation distance. You can also select a predefined hatch pattern and density, or create your own pattern. Hatch boundaries can be defined by selecting individual segments, by automatic boundary detection, or by automatic detection of 3D section boundaries exported to 2D. Hatch boundaries must be closed, and any entities that are partially inside the boundary are not used. Hatch boundaries may contain islands.


Solid Fill

To use a solid fill, choose the horizontal line pattern and define a hatch distance smaller than the thickness of printed lines.


Hatching 2D Objects

Simple Hatch - HAT

Uses a pattern of straight lines. You can define the distance between lines and the line angle. Select each segment of the hatch boundary. For segments that need to be trimmed for the hatch (such as overlapping lines), reselect the segments that are to remain in the boundary. (This trimming is used for hatching only, the original objects do not change.) The following additional options are available during boundary selection:

Create Temporary Boundary Part - creates temporary lines and arcs for hatch boundary segments. These objects will be removed after hatching. You can also select single segments from a multi-segmented line.
Change Previous Hatch - change previously created hatches.
Pattern Hatch - PHA

Pattern Hatch is similar to Simple Hatch, except that you can select a predefined hatch pattern and specify the density.



Hatch Patterns Window


Simple Hatch - Find Boundary - AHB

Like Simple Hatch, the hatch pattern consists of straight lines. Rather than select each boundary segment, click just one segment. Then select a point on the side of the segment within the desired boundary. You can continue selecting more boundaries, or add islands. Press Enter or right-click to finish the boundary definition. The following additional options are available during boundary selection:

Set Boundary Detection - ignores any open segments crossing the area boundary, and ignores any small gaps.
Remove Objects Temporarily - ignores selected objects. Select these objects first. Before hatching, the objects will be removed temporarily, and will be reinserted after hatching is complete.
Pattern Hatch - Find Boundary - APH

Similarly to Simple Hatch, Find Boundary, you can select a pattern to fill a detected boundary.


Hatching 3D Sections

Sections from 3D objects that are exported as views to 2D can be hatched the same way as objects created in 2D. In addition, 3D section boundaries can be automatically defined.

Simple Hatch - 3D Section - HSE

The hatch pattern is the same as for Simple Hatch. Select a segment of the 3D section, and the entire boundary is automatically identified. If a 3D section is created from more than one plane, it may be necessary to remove some of the automatically detected lines inside the boundary.

Add/Remove - removes objects from the temporary set. Because the boundary is selected automatically, you can use this option to remove any restraining lines across the area.

For more information see Selecting 2D Objects.

Pattern Hatch - 3D Section - HPSE

Similarly to Simple Hatch - 3D Section, you can select a pattern to fill a detected boundary.


Creating a Hatch Pattern

Create Pattern - CHP

Create your own pattern or edit existing patterns. Each pattern is created as up to eight groups of lines. Each group is defined by an angle and a basic distance. You can define some lines in the group to be blanked. Each line can be assigned a line style, consisting of a number of line segments of specified length.