AutoCAD MEP

[#1]

Does anyone know how to place a hatch pattern on a 3d face?

[#2]

I might be misunderstanding your reference, but if you mean a regular old 3d face with a regular old hatch pattern.. sure... but I'll wait to make sure that that's what you really mean before explaining it.

[#3]

Mvparts have to be made with solid or extruded shapes. I'm trying to hatch just one face of a solid. In this case the top face, to be represented in our 2d plan view.

[#4]

I'm assuming that your 3d face is in the current UCS.. if it's not you'll need to set it up to be. --

if your acad menus are loaded you can select the hatch command from the draw pull down menu or the draw toolbar menu. --

if not, just type "bhatch" at the command line. --

choose your pattern, i like the swatch option since it gives you an image to look at. --

set your angle (if the angle even needs to be set... in most cases it probably doesn't) --

set your scale for example in a drawing where 1/8" = 1' you would use 96 for a scale [NOTE: in previous versions of acad any patterns preceeded by the letters "AR" were already scaled to work with 1/4" = 1' (i think) so would only need a scale factor of two in the example above.. this is probably still true but I haven't tested it] --


next, select the "pick points" option and simply click once inside of your 3D face.. it should appear to be selected. press enter and your dialog box returns. click on preview to see what you are going to get.. if it looks right accept it.. if not... adjust it accordingly. --

did that work for you?

[#5]

Yeh, I already tried that with no luck. The part is a complex component with internal leave outs. When I try to hatch the surface it also incorporates the internal leave outs and doesn't hatch properly. I even try to hatch after using the "Hide" command with no luck.
The help menu talks about using Material Definitions under the style manager?