Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
In this exercise, you were able to change the hatch just by double-clicking it. Although you
changed only the pattern type, other options are available. You can, for example, change a pre-
defined pattern to a user-defined one by selecting User Defined from the Type pop-up menu in
the Hatch Edit dialog box.
You can then enter angle and scale values for your hatch pattern in the options provided in
the Angle and Scale group in the Hatch Edit dialog box.
The other items in the Hatch Edit dialog box are duplicates of the options in the Hatch And
Gradient dialog box. They let you modify the individual properties of the selected hatch pattern.
The upcoming section, “Understanding the Boundary Hatch Options,” describes these other
properties in detail.
TAKE A BREAK
If you're working through the tutorial in this chapter, this would be a good place to take a break or
stop. You can pick up the next exercise in the section “Attaching a Drawing as an External Reference”
at another time.
Understanding the Boundary Hatch Options
The Hatch And Gradient dialog box and Hatch Edit dialog box offer many other options that
you didn't explore in the previous exercises. For example, instead of clicking in the area to be
hatched, you can select the objects that bound the area you want to hatch by clicking the Add:
Select Objects button in the Boundaries group. You can use the Add: Select Objects button to
add boundaries to existing hatch patterns as well.
Controlling Boundaries with the Boundaries Group
The previous exercises in this chapter have just touched on the options in the Boundaries group
of the Hatch and Gradient dialog box. Options in the Boundaries group are Add: Pick Points,
Add: Select Objects, Remove Boundaries, Recreate Boundary, and View Selections.
Add: Pick Points
Lets you select an area to be hatched based on a closed boundary.
Add: Select Objects
Lets you select objects to define a hatch boundary.
Remove Boundaries
Lets you remove a bounded area, or
island
, in the area to be hatched.
An example is the toilet seat in the bathroom. This option is available only when you select a
hatch area by using the Add: Pick Points option and an island has been detected.
