Quick Hatch

Quick Hatch hatches the band between two lines. An easement crossing a parking lot, a drainage channel, a sidewalk between its two edges: each is drawn as two open lines with nothing joining their ends, so the HATCH command has no closed boundary to find. Quick Hatch joins the two closest ends, closes the shape across the other two, and hatches it in one step.

Select the two lines and click Quick Hatch on the AutoStyle Pro panel of the BDL ribbon tab, or type QUICK_HATCH at the command line. With nothing selected first, the command asks for the two lines.

The same tool lives in the Studio: Quick Hatch on the DRAW tab hatches the band between two open paths on the canvas, on a -HATCH layer in the first path's pen colour (Drawing Tools).

What It Takes

Two open objects: lines, arcs, and polylines with or without arc segments (an old-style 2D polyline too, unless it is curve-fit or spline-fit). Each may bend as often as it likes, as long as it does not cross itself, and the two must not cross each other. Any other object, a closed polyline included, is refused with the reason.

The shape runs along the first line, across to the second at the pair of ends that sit closest together, back along the second line, and closes across the two remaining ends. The direction each line was drawn in does not matter: the command turns a line round when that is what the shape needs, and its arcs turn with it. Two lines that already meet at a point make a shape closed by one join, such as a wedge.

The Layer

The hatch goes on a layer named after the first selected line's layer with -HATCH at the end: two lines on C-ESMT are hatched on C-ESMT-HATCH. The layer is made when the drawing does not have it, in the first line's layer colour, with a continuous linetype. A layer that already exists is used as it is, and the command line says when it is frozen or off, since the hatch would then be hidden.

The Pattern

The hatch takes the drawing's current hatch settings, the ones the HATCH command would use next: the pattern (HPNAME), its scale (HPSCALE) and its angle (HPANG). SOLID gives a solid fill; a user-defined pattern (HPNAME set to _U) takes its spacing and doubling from HPSPACE and HPDOUBLE. To hatch at a different pattern or scale, run HATCH once with the settings you want and cancel it, or set the system variables, then Quick Hatch draws with them from then on. A pattern name the drawing cannot find falls back to ANSI31, and the command line says so.

The hatch is not associative: it keeps its shape when the lines move. It sits just under the two lines in the draw order, so both stay visible over it, and above everything else. The whole command is one undo step.

When It Refuses

Message	Meaning
Quick Hatch takes exactly two lines; 3 selected.	The selection held more or fewer than two objects. Select the two lines and run it again.
Quick Hatch takes lines, arcs and polylines.	A selected object is some other kind (a block, text, a hatch, a spline).
the first line is a closed shape; pick two open lines	A closed polyline needs no second line: hatch it with HATCH.
the second line is a fit or spline polyline; convert it with PEDIT Decurve first	A curve-fit or spline-fit 2D polyline carries its curve in fit data the hatch cannot follow.
the first line lies out of the plan's plane	An arc or polyline whose plane is not the plan view. Quick Hatch draws in plan only.
the two lines cross each other	The band between them would fold over itself. Trim or break the lines at the crossing and hatch each part.
the two lines run over each other	The two lie along the same path for a stretch, so no band lies between them there.
the first line crosses itself	A polyline that loops back over its own path.
joining the closest ends would cut across a line; pick two lines that face each other	One line wraps round the other's end, so a join would pass through it. Break the wrapping line where the band should end.
the two lines enclose no area	Both are the same two points, or one end sits on the other's path.

In Studio

The hatch exports like any other, with its pattern name and the lines it plots, and lands on its -HATCH layer in the layer tree. Style it there as you would any hatch: a pattern it keeps in the CAD Line look, a translucent fill or a material in the rendered looks. Since the layer is named after the lines' layer, a remembered layer style picks it up on the next drawing as well.