Working with Hatches, Gradients, and Tool Palettes - AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011: No Experience Required - page 591

7. Set the UCS back to World, and use the PLAN command to reorient
the drawing area.
8. Save this drawing as 11A-FPLAY4.dwg .
Creating Your Hatch Palette
It's true that you can use any hatch pattern to represent anything you want, but
most professions follow some sort of standard, even if loosely. The ANSI31 pat-
tern of parallel lines is probably the most widely used pattern. Although accord-
ing to the ANSI standard, it “officially” represents iron, brick, and stone masonry,
it's universally accepted as a cross-section view of any material—that is, the part
of the object that was sliced through to make the view.
In this exercise, you'll create a new palette of hatches that you might use in your
work. Use the same method demonstrated in the previous section of this chapter:
1. Open the DesignCenter. Under the Folders tab, find and select acad.pat .
If you performed a typical installation of AutoCAD, the file should be in
the C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2011\UserDataCache\Support folder.
LT users should substitute AutoCAD LT 2011 for AutoCAD 2011 in the
path. Open that file.
2. Use the Large Icons view to view the patterns on the right side of the
DesignCenter.
3. On the right side of your screen, create a new tool palette and name it
Hatches .
4. Back in the DesignCenter, scroll through and drag any patterns you
might use over to the new Hatches palette.
5. Close the DesignCenter.
6. Hold the cursor briefly over the name of each hatch to display a tool-
tip that describes the name and purpose of the hatch.
7. If you've brought any patterns to the palette that you don't want there,
right-click each of them and choose Delete from the context menu.
Don't worry about changing any of the properties, such as Scale or
Rotation. That will come later, as you begin to use these hatches in
your own work.
8. Check out the tools on the Hatches And Fills sample palette that
comes with AutoCAD.
To access a list of all the available sample palettes, move the cur-
sor over to the tabs that identify each palette. Then move it down
just below the lowest tab where you see the edges of the tabs that are