6 replies to this topic

[frax]

Gnnn....

how can I fill an object with a cross-hatch pattern in Illustrator CS2?

[Nick Springer]

- Draw a square
- Draw you crosshatch pattern to fill that square, making sure the edges match up in all directions
- Delete the bounding square
- Select your hatch pattern, and drag it onto an empty area of the Swatches palette
- Apply the swatch to your area

To edit the pattern:
- Make changes to your original pattern and Alt (or Option) drag it onto the same swatch
- If you have deleted or can't find the original, drag the swatch off of the palette on to the art board.

[frax]

Thanks, just what I was looking for! I actually thought there would be some effects that there would be possible to apply, and/or some pre-prepared swatches.

In the end I actually decided to not use cross-hatch for these polygons, it got a bit too messy with that layer as well, and it wasn't needed for the message.

/me writes a note about this in his GIS/graphics wiki

[Nick Springer]

Illustrator has some preset patterned fills.

- Go to Window > Swatch Libraries > Other Libraries...
- Navigate to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS2\Presets\Patterns (or wherever CS2 is installed)
- There are 3 folders of patterned fills in here

http://structure.har...h/map patterns/ has a whole lot of free geologic patterns for Illustrator that are useful in cartography.

The U.S. National Park Service has a few patterns (a really nice tree one) and their standard set of park symbols for free download.

http://www.hotdoor.com/ has a standard set of CAD patterns for $69

[frax]

thanks again! That Basic Graphics_Lines.ai set of swatches is great, by just rotating them, one gets cross-hatches. And I will check out those links!

I also have to learn how to use the tilde shortcut for transforming (rotating and scaling) patterns.

[Nick Springer]

I don't know that shortcut, please elaborate.

[frax]

oh -- you can look it up in the help. Basically you can scale, rotate and skew patterns using those tools, without changing the container, if you hold down the ~ key at the same time. Try it!

Quick google search for some hints

My problem is that I can't find how you remap that key -- on a Swedish keyboard the tilde key is located differently (and acts differently).