AutoCAD Tip – Create a Seamless Wood Grain Hatch

Create a Seamless AutoCAD Wood Grain Hatch

SUPERHATCH is a former AutoCAD Express Tool that is now included in the core AutoCAD product. You can create a hatch pattern from most anything without having to learn how to write a hatch pattern definition file.

This AutoCAD tutorial is by Autodesk’s own Cliff Young of the AutoCAD Test Development Team.

Step 1. Draw a rectangle and divide it into quadrants.

Create a Seamless AutoCAD Wood Grain Hatch Step 1

Step 2. Draw wood grain.

Create a Seamless AutoCAD Wood Grain Hatch Step 2

Draw polylines across the rectangle to simulate a wood grain.

Be sure that the number of endpoints at the top edge is the same as the number of endpoints at the bottom edge, and the number of endpoints at the left edge is the same as the number of endpoints at the right edge. (This is important, because you will be connecting these endpoints later).

Step 3. Make 3 copies

Create a Seamless AutoCAD Wood Grain Hatch Step 3

 

2 copies of everything (rectangle, quadrant lines and wood grain).

 

 

1 copy of just the rectangle and quadrant lines.

Step 4. Trim the wood grain and copy the quadrants.

Create a Seamless AutoCAD Wood Grain Hatch Step 4Inside the first rectangle, trim or delete all the wood grain from the upper-right and lower-left quadrants.

Inside the second rectangle, trim or delete all the wood grain from the upper-left and lower-right quadrants.

Copy the trimmed wood grain quadrants to their opposite quadrant in the new rectangle (E.G. upper-right to lower-left, etc.)

Step 5. Clean up the wood grain.

Create a Seamless AutoCAD Wood Grain Hatch Step 5Make any other changes you want to any of the interior vertices of the wood grain. The only rule is to never move any of the outer-edge endpoints.

Move the interior endpoints so that they are coincident. Do not move any of the outer-edge endpoints – these need to remain where they are so that the pattern will tile seamlessly.

Step 6. Join all the polylines and convert to splines.

Create a Seamless AutoCAD Wood Grain Hatch Step 6

 

 

 

AutoCAD Command: PEDIT

> Multiple

(Select all wood grain polylines)

> Join
> Spline

Step 7. Create a Block.

Create a Seamless AutoCAD Wood Grain Hatch Step 7Create a Block from the wood grain (do not include the rectangle and quadrant lines in the block geometry).

Step 8. Draw a boundary to be hatched with the wood grain.

Create a Seamless AutoCAD Wood Grain Hatch Step 8

Step 9. Using SUPERHATCH, apply the wood grain block to the boundary.

AutoCAD Command: SUPERHATCH

> Block

Select the wood grain block
Place the block in inside the boundary
Accept all the SUPERHATCH defaults
Pick a point inside the boundary

Create a Seamless AutoCAD Wood Grain Hatch Step 9

Step 10. Experiment.

Try different SUPERHATCH scales (X and Y) and rotation angles.

In this example:

X scale = 1.2
Y scale = 0.7
Angle = 3

Create a Seamless AutoCAD Wood Grain Hatch Step 10

Download Wood Grain Tutorial DWG

Download Wood hatch other DWG

Thanks Cliff!

If you have a tutorial on an Autodesk product they want to be posted to this blog and read by thousands of readers, please email me.

Cheers,
Shaan

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