Understanding The Hatch and Fill Area Commands in DraftSight

There have been some big changes to Hatches, Color Fills, and Gradients in recent DraftSight updates. These Hatch entities are more robust, with more options to make our drawings ‘pop’ with top-notch visual effects than ever before.

Recently, DraftSight has been transitioning from old-school pop-up dialog boxes that sit on top of the rest of the user interface to integrated ribbon menus, palettes, and other options that blend into the UI without covering the graphics area. The HATCH and FILLAREA commands are part of that story.

The Hatch and Fill Area Commands

The HATCH command is a powerful and flexible tool. It launches the Hatch Editor ribbon menu shown below. It allows you to add clarity and legibility to drawings by filling an enclosed area with a predefined hatch pattern, solid color, or a color gradient that blends shades of one or two selected colors.

A large selection of ANSI, ISO, sample, and custom hatch patterns, as well as nine color gradient options, is pre-installed. User-defined patterns can also be created. Control options, including angle, scale, gaps, and spacing, are available to adjust the selected pattern as needed.

Why Use Hatches in a Drawing?

Hatches really help make information stand out, especially when combined with good use of layers and colors. For example, compare the two front elevations below. Both contain the same basic info, but the one with hatches gives you a better idea of what the house will look like from the street.

Why hatch patterns are important in a drawing

The Hatch / Fill Dialog in DraftSight 2026

As of DraftSight 2026, the HATCH and FILLAREA commands launch the same Hatch Editor ribbon menu, so it doesn’t really matter which command you type or button you click. That is, unless you are working in the Classic Workspace.

The Classic Hatch / Fill Dialog Box

In DraftSight 2022 and earlier, the HATCH and FILLAREA commands always launched the Hatch / Fill dialog box shown below. It had two tabs, one for hatches and one for fills. The command you issued only determined which tab the dialog box opened on.

The Hatch / Fill dialog in DraftSight

Starting with DraftSight 2023, the HATCH command launched the Hatch Creation tab on the ribbon menu instead of the old dialog box. Selecting an existing hatch activated the virtually identical Hatch Editor tab. However, using the FILLAREA command still launched the Hatch / Fill dialog box, which gave you the option to switch tabs and create hatches the old way.

The Hatch / Fill Dialog in DraftSight 2026

As of DraftSight 2026, the Hatch / Fill dialog box still opens while working in the Classic Workspace, where ribbon menus are not available. Using the EDITHATCH command brings it up in any workspace.

Keyboard-Only Hatch Command

Some DraftSight commands work almost entirely using the command line and command window. Examples include COPY, MOVE, STRETCH, and ROTATE. Picking options via keyboard entry instead of moving your mouse away from the Graphics Area helps you work faster.

More complex commands like HATCH use a more visual element of the UI. However, some of these do have keyboard-only versions accessed by typing a dash (-) before the command name.

Creating hatching with the -HATCH Command

The -HATCH command is one such example. It allows you to create hatches using keyboard options with no dialog box or ribbon menu involved. There’s also a keyboard-only -EDITHATCH command. Keyboard-only commands are great for creating custom shortcuts with LISP routines!

The -EDITHATCH command in DraftSight

Applying a Hatch or Fill

The normal workflow to create a hatch requires you to select the hatch or fill pattern you want to use, then click inside the area you want to hatch, or vice versa. Adjust settings such as angle and scale as needed.

When you click inside the region you want to hatch, DraftSight will automatically detect the hatch boundary. You can select multiple enclosed regions, and the resulting hatch will be a single entity. Hovering over an area will give you a preview of the hatch with the currently selected options. 

Hatches and Fills with Background Color

Sometimes, there will be internal regions you do not want to hatch inside the hatch boundary. These islands are automatically detected. You can change the behavior of how they are handled using the options in the Hatch Editor. Note and SimpleNote entities are treated as internal regions, so they will not be covered in hatch lines.

Better Hatch Control in DraftSight 2026

Hatching is a breeze with DraftSight’s preloaded hatch patterns and streamlined UI. Settings and options provide nearly limitless variety in the hatches you can create. Whether you just want a section view of a simple part, a spruced-up elevation, or a complex site map, we’ve got you covered.

To learn more about the other great additions to Draftsight 2026, read our article here.