Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Recreate Boundary
Draws a region or polyline around the current hatch pattern. You're
then prompted to choose between a region or a polyline and to specify whether to reassociate
the pattern with the re-created boundary. (See the Associative Hatch Patterns sidebar, dis-
cussed later in this chapter.)
View Selections
After you have selected boundaries to hatch, clicking this tool will tempo-
rarily close the Hatch And Gradient dialog box and highlight the areas that you have selected.
Fine-Tuning the Boundary Behavior
The Boundary Hatch feature is view dependent; that is, it locates boundaries based on what is
visible in the current view. If the current view contains a lot of graphic data, AutoCAD can have
difficulty or be slow in finding a boundary. If you run into this problem, or if you want to single
out a specific object for a point selection boundary, you can use the Boundary Set options found
in the expanded Hatch And Gradient dialog box to further limit the area that AutoCAD uses to
locate hatch boundaries:
View Selections in the Boundaries Group
This highlights the objects that have been
selected as the hatch boundary by AutoCAD.
Retain Boundary Objects under the Boundary Retention Group
This retains outlines
used to create the hatch pattern. This can be helpful if you want to duplicate the shape of
the boundary for other purposes. Typically this is set to Don't Retain Boundaries, but you
can use two other settings: Retain Boundaries - Polyline and Retain Boundaries - Region.
The Retain Boundaries - Polyline option retains the boundaries as polylines. The Retain
Boundaries - Regions option retains the boundaries as regions.
HATCH BOUNDARIES WITHOUT THE HATCH PATTERN
The Boundary command creates a polyline outline or region in a selected area. It works much like
the Retain Boundaries - Polyline option but doesn't add a hatch pattern.
Select New Boundary Set under the Boundary Set Group
This lets you select the objects
you want AutoCAD to use to determine the hatch boundary instead of searching the entire
view. The screen clears and lets you select objects. This option discards previous boundary
sets. It's useful for hatching areas in a drawing that contains many objects that you don't
want to include in the hatch boundary.
Use Current Viewport under the Boundary Set Group
This uses the current viewport
extents to define the boundary set.
The Boundary Set options are designed to give you more control over the way a point selec-
tion boundary is created. These options have no effect when you use the Add: Select Objects
button to select specific objects for the hatch boundary.
