Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
The previous exercise showed the effect of freezing on blocks. When a block's layer is frozen,
the entire block is made invisible regardless of the layer assignments of the objects contained in
the block.
Keep in mind that when blocks are on layers that aren't frozen, the individual objects that
are part of the block are still affected by the status of the layer to which they're assigned. This
means that if some objects in a block are on a layer called Wall and the Wall layer is turned off
or frozen, then those objects become invisible. Objects within the block that aren't on the layer
that is off or frozen remain visible.
Using Hatch Patterns in Your Drawings
To help communicate your ideas to others, you'll want to add graphic elements that represent
types of materials, special regions, or textures. AutoCAD provides hatch patterns for quickly
placing a texture over an area of your drawing. In the following sections, you'll add a hatch pat-
tern to the floor of the studio apartment unit, thereby instantly enhancing the appearance of one
drawing. In the process, you'll learn how to update all the units in the overall floor plan quickly
to reflect the changes in the unit.
Placing a Hatch Pattern in a Specific Area
It's always a good idea to provide a separate layer for hatch patterns. By doing so, you can turn
them off if you need to. For example, the floor paving pattern might be displayed in one draw-
ing but be turned off in another so it won't distract from other information.
In the following exercises, you'll set up a layer for a hatch pattern representing floor tile and
then add that pattern to your drawing. This will give you the opportunity to learn the different
methods of creating and controlling hatch patterns.
Follow these steps to set up the layer:
1.
Open the 07a-unit.dwg file. Metric users should open 07a-unit-metric.dwg. These
files are similar to the Unit drawing you created in earlier chapters and are used to create
the overall plan in the 07b-plan and 07b-plan-metric files. Remember that you also still
have the 07b-plan or 07b-plan-metric file open.
2.
Zoom in to the bathroom and kitchen area.
3.
Create a new layer called Flr-pat.
4.
Make Flr-pat the current layer.
Now that you've set up the layer for the hatch pattern, you can place the pattern in the drawing:
1.
Click the Hatch tool on the Tool Sets palette, or type
H
↵. The Hatch And Gradient dialog
box appears (Figure 7.6).
2.
In the Type pop-up menu (see Figure 7.6), select User Defined. The User Defined option
lets you define a simple crosshatch pattern by specifying the line spacing of the hatch and
whether it's a single- or double-hatch pattern.
3.
Highlight the value in the Spacing input box, and enter
6
(metric users should enter
15
).
This tells AutoCAD you want the hatch's line spacing to be 6 inches, or 15 cm. Leave the
Angle value at 0 because you want the pattern to be aligned with the bathroom.
