Positioning Hatch Patterns Accurately

Positioning Hatch Patterns Accurately
In the previous exercise, you placed the hatch pattern in the bathroom without regard for the location
of the lines that make up the pattern. In most cases, however, you’ll want accurate control over
where the lines of the pattern are placed.
TIP You can also click the Swatch button in the upper half of the Hatch And Gradient dialog box
to browse through a graphical representation of the predefined hatch patterns.
By default, hatch patterns use the drawing origin (0,0) as the pattern origin. This means that
the corner of the hatch pattern starts at the 0,0 coordinate, even though the pattern is only displayed
in the area you select. The Hatch And Gradient dialog box offers a set of options that give
you control over the hatch origin, thereby allowing you to control the exact positioning of the
hatch pattern in the area you’re hatching. This can be crucial for laying out tile patterns on a floor
or ceiling, for example.
The following exercise guides you through the process of placing a hatch pattern accurately,
using the example of adding floor tile to the kitchenette. You’ll start by drawing the area of the tile
pattern and then go on to select a pattern for the tile:
1. Pan your view so that you can see the area below the kitchenette. Using the Rectangle
tool in the Draw toolbar, draw the 3´-0˝ × 8´-0˝ outline of the floor tile area, as shown in
Figure 7.5. Metric users should create a rectangle that is 91 cm × 228 cm. You can also use
a closed polyline.
2. Click the Hatch tool in the Draw toolbar.
3. In the Hatch And Gradient dialog box, make sure Predefined is selected in the Type dropdown
list box.


4. Click the button labeled with the ellipses (…) just to the right of the Pattern drop-down list.


The Hatch Pattern Palette dialog box opens. This dialog box lets you select a predefined pattern
from a graphic that shows what the pattern looks like.
TIP If you know the name of the pattern you want, you can select it from the Pattern drop-down
list in the Hatch And Gradient dialog box.
5. Click the Other Predefined tab, and then locate and click AR-PARQ1.


6. Click OK to exit the dialog box.
You’ve selected the hatch pattern. The next thing is to place the pattern in the drawing. First,
you’ll select the location for the hatch pattern, and then you’ll experiment with the origin settings
to see how they affect the positioning of the pattern:
1. Click the Add: Pick Points button in the Hatch and Gradient dialog box.
2. Click the interior of the area to be hatched, and press ↵. Metric users should double-click the
Scale input box and enter 2.54 to scale this pattern appropriately to match the proportions of
the Imperial measurement example.
3. In the Hatch Origin group, make sure the Use Current Origin option is selected, and then
click the Preview button. Notice that the hatch pattern doesn’t fit evenly in the hatch area.
Some of the tiles along the edges are only partially drawn, as if they were cut off.
4. Press the Esc key to return to the Hatch And Gradient dialog box.
5. In the Hatch Origin group, turn on the Specified Origin option and the Default To Boundary
Extents option.
NOTE Another method is to indicate the origin of the hatch pattern. Turn on the Specified Origin
option, click the Click To Set New Origin tool, and select the lower-left origin point for your hatch
pattern. This can also be accomplished by using the HPORIGIN system variable.
6. Click Preview again. This time, the pattern fits completely in the boundary, with no incomplete
tiles appearing around the edges.
7. Right-click the mouse to accept the hatch pattern location. A parquet-style tile pattern
appears in the defined area.
8. Save the Unit file but keep it open.
TIP You can use the Solid predefined hatch pattern at the top of the list to create solid fills. And
don’t forget that you can drag and drop solid fills and hatch patterns from the Tool palettes you
saw in Chapter 1.
Notice that each tile is shown whole; none of the tiles are cut off as in the bathroom example. This
is the result of using the Specified Origin option and the Default To Boundary Extents option in the
Hatch And Gradient dialog box.
The Specified Origin option gives you access to a number of hatch pattern features. In the previous
exercise, you used the Default To Boundary Extents feature, which is best suited to rectangular
areas. This option assumes you’re hatching a rectangular area, and it lets you place the
boundary hatch origin in one of the four corners of a rectangle or directly in the center. The default
option is Bottom Left, as shown in the drop-down list. The graphic to the right of the list also shows
a cross where the origin is located in a rectangular area.


The Click To Set New Origin option lets you select a point in your drawing to specify the hatch
origin. When you click this option, the dialog box temporarily closes to allow you to select a point.
Finally, the Store As Default Origin option lets you save your selected origin as the default origin
for future hatch patterns in the current drawing.
In the previous exercise, you used a predefined hatch pattern. Figure 7.6 shows you all the patterns
available. You can also create your own custom patterns, as described in Chapter 26.


In the next exercise, you’ll use this updated 07a-unit file to update all the units in the Plan file.
TIP The predefined patterns with the AR prefix are architectural patterns that are drawn to full
scale. In general, you should leave their Scale settings at 1. You can adjust the scale after you place
the hatch pattern by using the Properties palette, as described later in this chapter.