Working with Hatch Inks
Working with Hatch Inks
Hatch inks are patterns made of groups of lines. These inks are often used in illustrations to distinguish different materials in cross sections, machine diagrams, and maps.
Specify the number of line groups as well as the angle, offset, and origin of each group. Assign a pen size, color, and dash to each line group, and select a fill ink for the background of the hatch ink.
Hatch Inks
Click on the Hatch icon 
to open the hatch inks in the Presets palette. Use this palette to apply preset hatch inks to objects or store customized hatch inks that you create in the Hatch manager.
If you create a new ink in the Hatch manager, click the Add Preset button to add it to the Presets palette.
To Apply Hatch Inks:
Make sure you select either the Pen 
or Fill Ink
icon on the Presets palette.
- If object is selected, click on the Hatch Ink cell.
- If object is not selected, click on the Hatch Ink cell and drag the ink to the object.
See Applying Preset Inks for complete steps about applying inks.
Creating Hatch Inks
Use the Hatch manager in the Attributes palette to create hatch inks and then add them to the Presets palette.
Hatch Manager
When you create a hatch ink, set the number of line groups and other attributes.
Preview | Click a line group in the preview box to select it. Tiny handles appear where the selected group meets the edge. |
Pen color | Choose a color for the selected line group in the palette. Choose a preset color or define a custom color. See The Color Editor. |
Fill ink | Select an ink to use as the hatch ink background. |
Dash | Choose a dash pattern for the selected line group. |
Layer | If the hatch ink has different layers, choose the layer from this menu. |
New | Click this button to add a new layer. When a new layer is active, you can add another line group. |
Clear | Click this button to delete the current layer. |
Modifying Hatch Inks
When you want to change an existing hatch ink, select the Hatch Ink and click the Edit button to open the Hatch manager in the Attributes palette.
To Change the Background Color:
- Click on the Fill icon to open the pop-up Presets palette. This palette is identical to the Presets palette. Use any ink type that is currently available on the palette.
- Select the new background ink.
- Click the Add Preset button to add the modified ink to the hatch inks in the Presets palette.
To Add or Modify a Line Group:
If you want to create a hatch ink that has crossing lines, the hatch ink will have to contain different layers. If the hatch ink contains only one line group, then one layer is sufficient.
- To add a new line group: Click the New button in the Hatch manager and then define the line.
- To adjust a line group: Select a layer from the Layer menu in the Hatch manager (if the hatch ink contains more than one line group), and then make any modifications in the Hatch manager. You can even add more line groups by adding layers.
A line group is selected when selection handles appear where the line group touches the Preview window. Once selected, the following line group attributes can be modified:
Description | |
Line group color | Click on the Pen icon to open the pop-up color palette. Choose a preset color or define a custom color in the Color Editor dialog box. (See Color Editor Dialog Box.) |
Pen | The width in points (1/72 inch) of each line in the selected line group. If a hatch ink overlaps the edges of an object, change the Pen value to make the width of the hatch lines smaller than the pen size of the object’s stroke. |
Angle | The angle in degrees of the selected line group relative to vertical. When you add a line group, the angle is initially 0 degrees. |
Offset | The horizontal starting position of the line group, measured in points. Increasing this value moves the line group to the right. |
Origin | The vertical starting position of the line group, measured in points from the top of the preview box. Increasing this value moves the line group downward. |
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