Working with Hatches, Gradients, and Tool Palettes - AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011: No Experience Required - page 561

3. Starting at the top of the Pattern panel, the first group of hatch patterns
you will come across contains the ANSI patterns. These are abstract line
patterns developed by the American National Standards Institute, and
they are widely used by public and private design offices in the United
States.
4. Scrolling down slightly further will reveal eleven hatch patterns with
names that begin with AR-. These patterns have been designed to look
like architectural and building materials, which is why you see the AR
prefix. In addition to the roof pattern you just used, you'll see several
masonry wall patterns, a couple of floor patterns, and one pattern
each for concrete, wood shakes, and sand.
5. Below the AR- hatch patterns are a number of non-AR patterns. These
are geometrical patterns, some of which use common conventions to
represent various materials.
6. As mentioned at the start of this chapter, hatches aren't purely lim-
ited to repeating patterns. Gradient hatches are also possible inside
AutoCAD. The simplest of these gradient hatches is the linear option,
but more complex gradients are also available from the pattern library.
Almost to the bottom of the Pattern list are a number of ISO patterns.
These are also abstract line patterns developed by the International
Organization for Standardization.
7. Press the Esc key two times to collapse the Pattern panel, and press it
again to cancel the HATCH command.
As you work with hatch patterns, you'll need to adjust the scale factor for each
pattern so the patterns will look right when the drawing is printed. The AR pat-
terns are drawn to be used with the scale factor set approximately to the default
of one to one—displayed as 1.0000 (1)—and should need only minor adjustment.
However, even though the treatment you just chose for the roof is an AR pattern,
it is something of an anomaly. Instead of using it as is, you had to change its
scale factor to 6.0000 (6) to make it look right in the drawing.
TIP When you're using one of the ar patterns, begin with a scale fac-
tor at 1.0000 until you preview the hatch; then you can make changes. this
rule also applies to the 14 ISO patterns displayed on the pattern panel of the
contextual hatch Creation ribbon tab.
For the rest of the non-AR patterns, you'll need to assign a scale factor that imi-
tates the true ratio of the scale at which you expect to print the drawing. Table 11.1