1. Unit 4 : Storing & Extracting Data from Drawings
DT2510: Advanced CAD Methods

2. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
Mastering Viewing Tools, Hatches, and External References
Taking Control of the AutoCAD Display
Using Hatch Patterns in Your Drawings
Using External References

3. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
Besides the zoom and pan tools, you have some additional view related features at your disposal. If you like the Navigator feature in Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator, you might try the AutoCAD Aerial View window.
Aerial View lets you control your view by adjusting a rectangular region in the Aerial View window. To open the Aerial View, type Dsviewer  . Click inside the view to pan, click again to zoom in or out, right click to return to pan.

4. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
Another useful view feature is the View Manager dialog box. With this dialog box, you can save a view and quickly return to it at a later time. This is especially useful for 3D rendering where you want to save several views of a 3D model.

5. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
To open the View Manager, type V  or choose Named Views from the View tab’s Views panel. To save a view, click the New button. This opens the New View dialog box.

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In the New View dialog box, you can enter a name for the view, select Current display to save the current view under the name you enter, then click OK.
You can also click Define Window then click the Define View Window button to select a window for your view. The name of your new view appears in the View Manager dialog box.

7. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
Hatch patterns offer a way to indicate a material or surface treatment in a drawing. They also allow you to add solid fills to areas in a drawing.
The Hatch Creation Ribbon tab is the starting point for adding hatch patterns. Click the Hatch tool in the Draw panel or type H  .

8. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
Hover the cursor over the area to be hatched to get a preview of the pattern in place.
When you’re satisfied with the hatch location, click the mouse to place the pattern temporarily.

9. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
If you prefer, you can also click the Select Boundary Objects tool in the Boundaries panel of the Hatch Creation tab.

10. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
To select the pattern you want to use, click the browse button in the lower-right corner of the Pattern panel. This expands the list of Hatch Patterns.
If your working on a low resolution screen, click the Hatch Pattern flyout.

11. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
To position a pattern accurately within an area, you can use the Hatch Creation tab’s Origin panel.
If the area is rectangular, and you know you want the hatch pattern to originate from a corner or center, you can select a predefined origin from the expanded Origin panel. Otherwise, you can Set Origin to set new origin by selecting a point in your drawing.

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Once a hatch pattern has been placed in a drawing, you make changes to it using the Properties palette.

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You can also edit a hatch by clicking on it. This opens the Hatch Editor Ribbon tab which offers many of the same options as the Hatch and Gradient dialog box.

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At times, you’ll need to overlap hatch patterns with other objects. To do this, you need to know about the Draw Order feature. Draw order lets you control which objects are “on top of” other objects and is similar to the Arrange options in Adobe Illustrator and other graphics programs.
The image to the right shows how you might use draw order in an equipment plan.

15. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
In an earlier session, you learned how you can import whole drawing files as blocks. This can be a great way to organize and reuse data, but blocks are not the most efficient objects to use to import large drawings for backgrounds. For example, the image below contains several drawings in one file. These drawings could have been inserted as blocks, but another feature called external references was used.

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Importing whole drawings as blocks has a few drawbacks:
Once imported, blocks are “unaware” of changes made to the source files.
Imported blocks will increase your files size and disk space usage.
Imported block can import unwanted objects and elements into your current file.

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Xrefs do away with these limitations. For example, a drawing imported as an Xref will notify you when it has been changed. You can then update the xref to the most current version. Imported blocks will not do this. Xrefs will not increase your files size and will not import anything to your current drawing that you do not want or need.

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Located on the Insert tab of the ribbon, the Reference panel provides most of the tools needed to work with the different types of reference files.

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To import a file as an Xref, choose type Xr  . The External References palette opens. You’ll see a list showing the name of the current drawing and any existing external references attached to the drawing.
Click the Attach DWG tool in the upper left corner of the palette. This opens the Select Reference File dialog box, which is a typical file dialog box. You can then select the file you want to import.

20. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
Once you’ve selected a file or files, you see the External Reference dialog box which works just like the Insert Block dialog box.

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Once you’ve imported a drawing as an Xref, you will see it listed in the External References palette.

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If an Xref has been edited and needs to be updated, you’ll see a warning symbol and a message in the Status column of the External References palette.
Right-click on the name of the Xref in the External References palette list then select Reload to update the Xref.

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Xrefs, raster images, and underlay files are all managed using the External References palette

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Blocks vs. Xrefs
Xrefs are similar to blocks in that they are placed and behave like blocks. While they are similar, there are notable exceptions
When you insert a block you are placing a reference to a block definition
When you place an xref, you are directly referencing an external drawing file

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Any drawing can be attached as an xref to another xref, a concept known
as nesting. To view nested xrefs, select the Tree View button on the File
References pane of the External References palette.
If AutoCAD detects circular xrefs, it will display a warning that circular references are and ask whether you want to continue. If you choose Yes, AutoCAD will break the circular reference and proceed with loading the xref.

26. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
Attaching an Xref
When you attach an xref, you create a link to an external drawing file in your drawing. You can attach an xref either by selecting Attach DWG… from the drop-down or right-click menu in the External References palette or via the Attach tool on the Reference panel.

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The Attach button
Nested Xrefs
Attach vs. Overlay
The Attach option tells AutoCAD to load this drawing as a nested xref.
The Overlay option tells AutoCAD to ignore the reference as a nested xref.

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Setting the Path Type
Full path: If the Path type is set to Full path, AutoCAD stores the entire path
Relative path: Using the Relative path option, AutoCAD will store the location of the drawing file relative to the current drawing file
No path: Using No path, AutoCAD will only store the xref drawing name and no path information.

29. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
The XATTACH Command
When you attach an xref, you create a link to an external drawing file in
your drawing. You can attach an xref either by selecting Attach DWG...
from the drop-down or right-click menu in the External References palette or via the Attach tool on the Reference panel. Once you’ve selected a drawing, and select OPEN, AutoCAD displays the Attach External Reference dialog box

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Managing Xrefs
When xrefs are attached to a drawing, the Manage Xrefs icon is displayed in the system tray in the lower-right corner
The External References palette
is the main xref management tool.

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It is possible to edit an xref directly within the host drawing. The REFEDIT command also allows you to modify an xref from within your current drawing. This is known as edit reference in-place.
NOTE
You need to have the proper access privileges to the disk where the reference is stored in order to use the REFEDIT command on an xref. If you are referencing a read-only drawing from a CD or network drive, you will not be able to make changes to the xref.
TIP
To prevent others from using the REFEDIT command to edit your drawing, remove the check from the Allow other users to Refedit current drawing option in the Open and Save tab of the Options dialog box.

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Of course, one of the easiest ways to make changes to an xref is to simply open the referenced drawing file with the OPEN command. When you make changes to the referenced drawing and save them, AutoCAD will notify you that changes have been made to the referenced drawing and allow you to update the xref by reloading it.

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Clipping an Xref
When you start the XCLIP command, AutoCAD asks you to select an xref and then presents a number of options. These are described in the following table:

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The Bind Option
Using the Bind menu item within the External References palette
allows you to bind an entire reference file to your current drawing.

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Demand loading works by loading only the parts of an xref that
AutoCAD is actually showing. Layers that are turned off or frozen or any
geometry hidden by a clipping boundary are not loaded into your drawing
until they are needed.

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Working with Raster Images
Raster images can enhance your drawings in a number of ways. They can provide colorful backgrounds with a company logo or background images for accurately tracing shapes. Architectural and civil drawings can benefit greatly by attaching satellite or aerial images to show site locations or conditions.

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The IMAGEATTACH Command
Raster images are treated and behave much the same way as xrefs but have additional controls to control image quality and transparency as well as brightness, contrast, and background fading.

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The Image Adjust
The easiest way to control an image’s settings and appearance is to select it in the drawing so that the Image context tab of the ribbon allowing you easy access to the most useful image settings.

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Image Clipping
Like xrefs, you can apply clipping boundaries to images. The IMAGECLIP command allows you to define and control clipping boundaries associated with images
If an image is clipped, it controls the display of the clipping boundary. There are three settings for the IMAGEFRAME variable: 0, 1, and 2. These are described in the following table:

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Image Transparency
Some image file formats (such as GIF or PNG) support transparent pixels. When using images with transparency, you can turn the transparency on and off by selecting the Background Transparency
button on the Options panel. If your image file format supports transparency, setting it to on will allow objects behind the image to be seen
through the transparent pixels in the image.

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The IMAGEADJUST command
The IMAGEADJUST command allows you to set the brightness, contrast and fade of a raster image

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DWF UNDERLAYS
It is possible to reference DWF files in a similar fashion as xref drawings and raster images using the DWF Underlay feature by specifying a file path, insertion point, scale, and rotation angle.
You can attach a DWF underlay by selecting Attach DWF... from the drop-down menu in the External References palette, or you can bypass the External References palette and attach a DWF underlay directly using the DWFATTACH command.

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DWF Underlays
You can attach a DWF underlay either by selecting Attach DWF... From the drop-down or right-click menu in the External References palette or by selecting the Attach tool on the Reference panel on the Insert tab of the ribbon.

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DGN Underlays
You can attach a DGN underlay either by selecting Attach DGN... From the drop-down or right-click menu in the External References palette or by selecting the Attach tool on the Reference panel on the Insert tab of the ribbon.

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PDF Underlays
AutoCAD also supports the referencing of PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) files, the de facto standard for sharing electronic information. PDF underlays are attached using basically the same methods as DGN files. You can also control the PDF underlay settings after it is attached by selecting it in your drawing to display a context tab of the ribbon with the same settings and options as a DGN underlay.

46. Unit 5 : Hatch Patterns. Xrefs & Images
Transmitting Drawings with Xrefs and Images
The ETRANSMIT command helps solve the problem of sending incomplete files by compiling all external files into a separate folder or ZIP file. You can also create an and automatically the files to the .

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Configuring the Transmittal
When you choose the Transmittal Setups... button, AutoCAD displays the Transmittal Setups dialog box

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Advanced Editing and Organizing
Selecting Objects with QuickSelect
Isolating or Selecting Similar Objects
Using the QuickCalc Calculator
Finding Fractional Differences

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You will often find it helpful to select a set of objects in your drawing based on their properties. AutoCAD offers the QuickSelect dialog box for this purpose.

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To open the QuickSelect dialog box, you can choose the Quick Select tool in the Home tab’s Utilities panel or type Qselect [enter].

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You can also find the Quick Select tool in the Properties palette or other dialog boxes that allow you to select objects.

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The options in the Quick Select dialog box allow you to filter your selection based on a set of criteria. For example, you can apply your selection to the entire drawing or to a specific set of objects using the Select Objects tool.
You can filter your selection based on the object type and other properties.

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Another tool to help you select sets of objects is the Isolate right-click option.
Select an object or set of objects then right-click your mouse.
Select Isolate > Isolate Objects to hide all but the selected object or objects.

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Notice that you also have the option to hide the selected object.
When you are finished, you can choose Isolate > End Object Isolation to restore the hidden objects.

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Select an object, right-click and choose Select Similar to select other objects that are similar to the one currently selected.