Sometimes, it won't, and you'll get an error message. But I'm going to hope that AutoCAD finds the area, and just click. No such luck this time, it really is random, the hatch pattern doesn't always work consistently, so you have to kind of experiment with it. Sometimes you can convince it to separate that into two pieces. Now, this really is two separate regions, but AutoCAD thinks it's one. It will have more luck in simpler areas like this one.

Now, move the cursor over the part and you may or may not see a preview image like this, in some areas it won't show a preview area like right here because it's having more difficulty determining that boundary. If it says Pick internal point, don't do anything. So, if your cursor says Select Objects, you have to go over here and click Pick Points. The Hatch command is sticky, so that means if you use Select Objects mode, it's going to stay that way until you change it next time. If it doesn't, that's because someone has used Select Objects previously. Now, the cursor should say Pick internal point. And open up this flyout menu and select Hatch. I'm going to make sure that it's all on the screen, before I use the Hatch command. So, if I'm trying to hatch this upper rectangle and part of it is sticking off the screen like that, it might no be able to find the boundary. The reason I have to be careful about this is the Hatch command uses a ray casting algorithm to actually analyze what's on the screen. I'll also pan by dragging the mouse wheel. And then I'll drag downward so that I can see the entire part. I'll type Z Enter and then press Enter again for the real time option. Make sure that you zoom in so that the entire top view is visible on the screen. Open the mechanical sample file in the chapter eight folder and zoom into the top view. In this video, we're going to explore the Hatch command.

Autocad expanded metal hatch pattern