Hatches & Section Styles

Related: Sections & Clipping

Printing

How do I assign section styles to material layers?

In the Layer Manager, double-click the Section Style column for the target layer. Select the appropriate hatch pattern (e.g., “plywood” for plywood). Set pattern color to gray, background to white, boundary to black. The toolkit pre-assigns section styles when importing materials, but manual adjustment is often needed.

How do I adjust hatch rotation for grain direction?

For objects with grain direction different from the material default (e.g., perpendicular wood grain): go to Properties → Section Style → Custom and adjust the rotation angle.

How do I configure hatching for hardware and thin-gauge steel?

Use hairline print width and a solid white hatch for hardware and thin-gauge steel. This improves legibility and avoids visual clutter in section views.

Hatch Patterns

• Hatch patterns are set in the Section Style column within the Layer Manager.
• Toolkit Pre-Assignment: ¹ When you import a new material from toolkit and select a material tag, toolkit does its best to pre-assign the section style. However, you may need to set them manually.

Configuring Section Styles

• Access: ¹ In Layers window, double-click the Section Style column for the layer you want to configure.
• Options: ¹ Pop-up shows all different options for that specific section.
• Custom Section Styles: ¹ Toolkit comes with custom section styles, but configuration may be needed. Often you won’t have the actual hatch needed for that specific layer/material type.

Standard Hatch Settings

• Pattern: ¹ Select appropriate pattern (e.g., “plywood” for plywood materials).
• Pattern Color: ¹² Typically gray (prints dark gray for lighter appearance).
• Background: White
• Boundary Color: Black
• Scale: ¹ Adjust scale as needed (e.g., if pattern is too small, increase scale).
• Width Scale: ¹ Typical is 5, color black for boundaries.

Custom Hatch Rotation

• For objects with grain direction different from the material’s default (e.g., perpendicular wood grain):
• Adjust rotation of hatch in: Properties > Section Style > Custom

Section Line Styling

• Print width: 0.05 mm²
• Width scale: 5 (makes section line pop while keeping other linework crisp)²

Special Cases

• Hardware or thin gauge steel:
  • Use hairline print width
  • Use solid white hatch (improves legibility and avoids visual clutter)

Next Steps

• Learn about Display Modes
• Review Printing

Footnotes

1. Source: Training Video — “Layouts, Details, and Annotations” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

2. Source: Training Video — “Lines, Hatches, Section Styles” ↩ ↩² ↩³