Set Hatch Draw Order

Since AutoCAD LT 2005, you've had the ability to set the draw order of hatches as they're created. In the Options section of the Hatch dialog, you can choose one of the following:

• Do not assign
• Send to back
• Bring to front
• Send behind boundary
• Bring in front of boundary

The default is "Send behind boundary", which means that the hatch is placed under its boundary object but over any other existing objects.

This setting is important for both viewing and plotting -- objects that are "under" other objects are hidden behind them on the screen and during plotting, if your plotter is set to "overwrite lines". Overwriting means that if an object with a thin lineweight is drawn over one with a thicker lineweight, only the thinner line will be printed. Depending on your industry and the final effect you want, this can be a good or a bad setting.

If you have your plotter set up to use "merge lines" this setting doesn't matter as much -- thicker lines win all the time. Even so, I like to keep the "send behind boundary" option set, so that it's easy to see the hatch boundaries on screen.