TechDraw Hatching

Overview

TechDraw has two hatching tools: Hatch Area(tile based) and Geometric Hatch (line based).

For either tool, select a Face,

then press the appropriate icon. The face will be hatched initially using default values. Edit the hatch properties to get the desired pattern.

Hatch Area

Hatch Area uses Svg or bitmap bases tiles to cover the selected Face.

Svg tiles are typically 64x64 pixel images. Some examples are available on GitHub.

Any bitmap file can be used (png, jpeg, etc) as a fill. Results are best with many small repeated images rather than fewer larger images.

Default Hatch Area fills can be specified in Preferences.

Geometric Hatch

Geometric Hatch forms a pattern of lines based on a specification read from a file. This file is generally compatible with the widely used AutoDesk® PAT format. A small selection of patterns is included in the FCPAT.pat file:

; standard PAT patterns

*Diamond, 45 diagonals L & R, Solid, 1.0 mm separation
45,0,0,0,1.0
-45,0,0,0,1.0
*Diamond2, 45 diagonals L & R, Solid, 2.0 mm separation
45,0,0,0,2.0
-45,0,0,0,2.0
*Diamond4, 45 diagonals L & R, Solid, 4.0 mm separation
45,0,0,0,4.0
-45,0,0,0,4.0
*Diagonal4, 45 diagonal R, Solid, 4.0 mm separation
45,0,0,0,4.0
*Square, square grid, Solid, 5.0 mm separation 
90,1,1,0,5.0
0,0,0,1,5.0
*Horizontal5, horizontal lines, Solid 5.0 separation
0,0,0,0,5.0
*Vertical5, vertical lines, Solid, 5.0 separation
90,0,0,0,5.0 

You can add your own patterns if you have write permission to FCPAT.pat, or you can create your own *.pat file and point to it in Preferences.

PAT File Path

The FCPAT.pat file can be found in the following location.

• Windows: C:\Program Files\FreeCAD\data\Mod\TechDraw\PAT\
• Mac: /Applications/FreeCAD.app/Contents/Mod/TechDraw/PAT/
• Linux: /usr/share/freecad/Mod/TechDraw/PAT/
  • freecad-daily PPA: /usr/share/freecad-daily/Mod/TechDraw/PAT/

Back to TechDraw.