Getting Started with Hatching in 4M CAD

Why Use Hatching in 4MCAD?

Hatching applies a repeating pattern—lines, dots, or even solid color—inside a closed shape. In 4MCAD, hatches help you:

• Show materials or cut sections.

• Differentiate adjacent areas (walls vs. floors).

• Improve drawing clarity by visually separating filled regions from empty background.

By following a few basic steps, you’ll be able to apply and adjust hatches quickly, even if you’ve never used the Hatch tool before.

How to Launch the Hatch Tool

• Home Ribbon: Click Home → Hatch (in the Draw panel).

• Draw Ribbon: Click Draw → Hatch (in the Draw panel).

• Command Line: Type BHATCH or HATCH and press Enter.

As soon as you do, the Hatch and Gradient dialog opens. This is where you choose a pattern, pick the area to fill, and tweak a few settings.

Choosing Your Hatch Pattern

Inside the Hatch and Gradient dialog’s Hatch tab, you’ll see a Type dropdown. The two simplest choices are:

Predefined Patterns

• How to select: Set Type = Predefined.

• Pattern: Choose from ANSI or ISO lists (e.g., “ANSI31” for 45° diagonal lines).

• Color:

  • Left swatch = hatch line color.

  • Right swatch = background color (only used if the pattern supports it).

• Angle: Rotate all lines by a certain degree (e.g., 45).

• Scale:
  1 is default.
  0.5 makes lines closer together (denser).
  2 makes lines farther apart.

User‐Defined Patterns

• How to select: Set Type = User Defined.

• Color: Choose the hatch line color.

• Angle: Direction of your lines.

• Double: When checked, draws a cross-hatch (second set of lines at 90°).

• Spacing: Distance between lines (e.g., 0.25 for ¼-unit spacing).

Specifying Where to Hatch

Once you’ve picked a pattern, 4MCAD needs to know which closed region(s) to fill. You can choose a region in one of these ways:

Pick Points (Add area)

• Click Pick Points.

• Click anywhere inside the closed region (not on its boundary).

• If there are multiple regions, click each one.

• Press Enter to finalize.

Select Entities

• Click Select Entities.

• Click directly on any closed entity (circle, polyline, rectangle, etc.).

• Press Enter to finish.

Remove Boundaries (if needed)

• If you misclick, click Remove Boundaries, then click inside that area to unselect it.

Adjusting the Essential Settings

After you choose pattern and area, click the “>” icon (if the dialog is collapsed) to reveal these key options:

• Associative
  Keeps your hatch linked to its boundary. If you move or stretch that boundary later, the hatch updates automatically.

• Create Separate Hatches
  If you picked several adjacent regions at once, this creates a separate hatch for each. For clarity, leave it ON.

• Island Detection

  • Normal
    Also called “Nested Islands.” The outermost boundary plus all inner loops (islands) are considered when creating the hatch boundary. In practice, this means any hole—regardless of its nesting level—will remain empty. The hatch fills only the regions between the outer edge and every island.

  • Outer Only
    Only the outer boundary and its first-level island are used to define the hatch. Any deeper (nested) islands inside that first-level island are ignored. Visually, this produces a ring around the first island but will fill over any holes nested inside it.

  • Ignore
    Only the outer boundary is considered; no islands are treated as holes. As a result, all interior loops (whether first level or nested) are filled over as if they weren’t there.

  • 

• Draw Order
  Use Send to Back so boundary lines draw on top of the hatch. If your hatch hides the outline, switch to Send to Back.

• Layer
  Assign all hatches to a dedicated layer (e.g., HATCH). Later, you can freeze or hide that layer to toggle all hatches off.

• Transparency
  If you want to see underlying geometry, set a percentage (e.g., 0.5). Otherwise, leave at 0.

Finalizing and Editing Your Hatch

• Click OK to place the hatch.

• To edit later: Double-click the hatch or type HATCHEDIT, select the hatch, and you’ll return to the same dialog to tweak settings.

Best Practices for Hatching

• Use SOLID for True Solid Fills
  Instead of choosing a very dense line pattern, pick Pattern = SOLID when you need a solid block of color. It prints faster and redraws more efficiently.

• Keep Hatches Associative
  Leaving Associative on ensures your hatch always follows its boundary—no need to recreate it if you adjust the shape.

• Manage Large Drawings
  Hatch data can slow down a complex file. Place hatches on a separate “HATCH” layer so you can freeze or hide them temporarily for smoother navigation.

• Adjust Gap Tolerance if Boundaries Don’t Close Exactly
  If two lines in your boundary nearly meet but leave a tiny gap, increase Gap Tolerance slightly so 4MCAD treats them as closed. Too high a value might inadvertently close gaps you want open, so tweak carefully.