AutoCAD 2008 User's Guide > Annotate Drawings > Hatches, Fills, and Wipeouts > Define Hatch Boundaries > 
Overview of Hatch Boundaries
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.