Discussion: Effecient Hatching....

[StykFacE]

Okay, I'm posting a discussion thread so I can pick all your brains. Hatching is still one of my "tedious" tasks I do on a daily basis. Here's my in-and-out routine in hatching....

01. Initiate HATCH command
02. Set Scale to 24, 48, or 96.
03. Add: Pick Points/Select Objects
04. Preview
05. Exit when it looks good or Esc to make alterations

It is Minumum a 5-step process. 4-step process if the scale is set. Isn't there anyone here with a more efficient way to Hatch? I know that I can save Hatches to a Tool Palette with preset options but I'm a keyboard freak, and like to stay away from Buttons/Icons as much as possible. Any and all feedback GREATLY appreciated. 8)

[NBC]

You got 2008 right ?
Make your hatches annotative; heck, make everything you can annotative !

[Mr T]

Sounds like you need to do assemblies and drawing sheets like Inventor does it.

So I suppose you are not in MDESKTOP ?

Nick

[StykFacE]

No, I use Autodesk MEP 2008. We'll just say that I'm on AutoCAD 2008 for now. I don't use the "MEP" portion of it very often, only when a job that comes in calls for it.

NBC, I want to stay away from Annotative Hatching. I wouldn't utilize it to full potential anyways. Thanks for the tip tho. :wink:

[Alan Cullen]

Styk, I'm finding the annotative features very handy, and starting to use them for everything. Once you get over the mental block with them, they become quite easy.

[Mr T]

No, I use Autodesk MEP 2008. We'll just say that I'm on AutoCAD 2008 for now. I don't use the "MEP" portion of it very often, only when a job that comes in calls for it.
:

Just thought that the more you assemble in 3D the easier hatching becomes as they will be 'real' hatches.

Nick

[G-Prime]

Well just a thought if your hatches are the same from drawing to drawing. I think it is most efficient to set up it on your tool palette.

I know you may not like the tool palette. So you just draw it off your palette, and right click on it a set a new boundry.

So apart from the setup, it would be a 2 step process.

[GhostRider]

Maybe this is what you want, I have it set up here in my acad.lsp for several different hatches I mainly use 4 and always hatch inside a boundry. You could have many different ones easily with a little tweeking. I got rid of all but 1 thru 4 for me which is my siding, shingles, ansi31, and solid. these set my standard colors so the plot settings are right and set it back .

(defun C:HH1 () (command "color" "9" "")
(repeat 10 (command "bhatch" "p" "u" "0" "4" "n" "a" "s" "o" "a" "y" "" PAUSE ""))
(command "color" "bylayer" ""))

You can always set each pattern up as a different lisp and call them from Acad.lsp with keystrokes.

[SLW210]

Maybe this is what you want, I have it set up here in my acad.lsp for several different hatches I mainly use 4 and always hatch inside a boundry. You could have many different ones easily with a little tweeking. I got rid of all but 1 thru 4 for me which is my siding, shingles, ansi31, and solid. these set my standard colors so the plot settings are right and set it back .


You can always set each pattern up as a different lisp and call them from Acad.lsp with keystrokes.

A LISP routine was going to be my suggestion. You may be able to speed things up with SCRIPT if you feel more comfortable with that.

[StykFacE]

Well, I would honestly use the Lisp, but now that I thought about the Tool Palette, I started to rearrange mine and seperate the palettes with Seperators and Text. Now I can keep everything more organized, so I guess the Tool Palette method is the way to go. Attached is my Tool Palette after I've altered it, turns out it works extremely well. Funny that I knew this all along but took me to post a thread to realize it, haha. :)

[NBC]

There is nothing better sometimes than self-help :)