Hatch Patterns

Section fills represent the inside of a solid object when cut with a section plane. With SketchUp, you  can enhance section fills with Hatch Patterns. Hatch Patterns are adjustable vector lines combined with a background color or tileable raster image. A Hatch Pattern can also be a solid color with no vector lines.

The Hatch Patterns panel is where you can view, import, create, and manage hatches in your model. You can find the panel in the Default Tray, or enable it from Window > Default Tray > Hatch Patterns.

Using the Hatch Patterns Panel

The Hatch Patterns panel provides a default library of standard Hatch Patterns in the .skh file format.

If you would like to import your own pattern, click (plus icon). You can then import an .skh file, use an image, or import a .PAT file. Importing a .PAT file creates a new .skh hatch pattern. SketchUp imports only one pattern per .PAT file. If the .PAT file contains multiple patterns, you’ll need to upload each pattern separately.

Added patterns can be managed and sorted into collections using Details (icon) .

Using the dropdown, you can view any patterns already in your model, the default patterns, or any other patterns you’ve imported. Clicking a pattern displays the selected pattern at the top of the panel. After selecting a pattern, clicking Edit allows you to modify the pattern. You can:

• Rename the pattern

• Review, edit, or remove the pattern’s source file

• Set the pattern’s rotation angle

• Change the X- and Y-scale values for the pattern

Section Fill Setup and Visibility

You can set up Section Fill Hatch Patterns for individual materials when editing a material through the Materials panel or in Entity Info using the Section Fill option.

Section Fills in Materials

Clicking Section Fill in Edit Material opens the Choose Section Fill window where you can link a hatch pattern to a material. When you use a section plane to cut any solid groups or components with that material, you’ll see the Hatch Pattern you’ve linked to it in the section cut. For more information about all the available options when editing materials, see Editing Materials.

Section Fills in Entity Info 

In Entity Info, you can click Section Fill to set a group or component’s section fill independent of a material.

Doing so overrides section fills linked to materials in that entity. For more information about all of the options in Entity Info, see Inspecting an Entity.

Section Fills in Styles

In the Styles panel, you can set a section fill for your selected Style in the Model Settings section of the Edit tab. You can further modify how your section fills appear with the Section Cuts, Section Fill, and Override Section Fill by Style options.

Enabling both Section Cuts and Section Fill shows your section cut with the pattern. Turning off these options changes how fills and cuts appear throughout your model.

The Override Section Fill option uses the following logic: 

• When turned on, it uses a single, uniform fill that is set in the Style panel. Think of this as “classic section fills”.

• When turned off, SketchUp displays specific per-object and material-linked section fill hatches. 

For more information about all options in the Styles panel, see Creating and Editing a Style.