Trying to hatch a complex object - AutoCAD 2025
@d_pencik So where do you want to hatch exactly? Hard to tell in your 47,857 2D objects of lines and arcs what it is you are trying to do, which is likely your issue, these are very fragmented
But if you just zoom in to the area you want to hatch, and if needed, hide whatever else is not needed, you can indeed hatch all you want (and make it transparent etc).
Disregard for previous post, for some unknown reason, I thought I was in the aca forum.
Using plain Autocad, You could create multiple boundaries of small sections and then merge them into one region to create a hatchable mask or just rough out an outline of the object with a polyline and hatch.
The "usual" way to do something like this would be to draw a closed shape outboard of and around stuff [a circle, rectangle, whatever], start BPOLY / BOUNDARY and pick in the space outside your stuff but inside the surrounding closed shape. If your stuff forms a closed perimeter, that should create a Polyline or Region outline around your stuff [and also another coinciding with the surrounding shape -- you can delete those two]. You can then use that Boundary object as you wish.
[In your drawing, even trying this around the smallest assembly, I got a dire warning about how many objects there are, and that it could take a while if I chose to proceed. I did -- it's working on it now -- we'll see whether it can get there.]
EDIT: After about two hours, it still couldn't determine a closed boundary. Problem areas circled in red:
The tools available in ACA are different and I'm not completely sure some are not available in Autocad.
It might be good idea to explain some of the commands available with differences noted.
1. Shrinkwrap can help in some instances where it creates a polyline boundary around a selection set. Similar to the boundary command with less steps.
2. Aecpolygons allow for boolean operations and can be grip edited like polygons or hatches. It would be similar to a region that was strectchable.
3. Aecpolygons can mask. Similar to using wipeout. Except that wipeouts do not support curved segments.
4. Aecpolygons are style based, can mask and/or have a color toned "hatch" combined depending on display options.
5. AEC modify functions, subtract, divide, trim, and merge objects..
My initial response was to use an Aecpolygon as a mask.
I made an aecpolygon rectangle, used lineworksubtract command to cutout some portions, converted a few segments to arcs and used shrinkwrap to create a couple of sections, merged all into one boundary to get the shape shown.
