Hatch Manager
The HatchManager command opens a dialog for browsing hatch patterns with a live swatch preview, and for uploading your own .pat pattern files for use with Hatch.
Opening the Hatch Manager
Type HatchManager in the terminal. This is separate from the pattern picker that opens when you click a hatch’s Pattern chip — the picker chooses a pattern for one hatch, the Hatch Manager is where you add or remove .pat files.
Pattern groups
| Group | Contents |
|---|---|
| User | Patterns from your own uploaded .pat files, sub-grouped by which file each came from (only shown once you’ve uploaded one) |
| Standard | SOLID plus this drawing’s own pattern table — every new drawing starts with the same built-in library, the way its layers and linetypes do |
Click any pattern in the list (or use ↑/↓) to preview it on the right — a swatch drawn by the same code the canvas fills with, so it’s exactly what the drawing will show, plus the pattern’s name, description, and line count.
Uploading a custom pattern file
- Click Add .pat File in the dialog footer.
- Choose a
.patfile — the standard hatch pattern format. A single file commonly defines many named patterns at once; all of them appear as separate entries grouped under that file’s name. - Uploaded files are saved permanently in the browser (IndexedDB), sorted most-recently-added first, and reload automatically the next time you open KulmanLab CAD.
Uploading a file that defines a pattern with the same name as a built-in one shadows the default — this is the supported way to get Autodesk’s authoritative pattern definitions: upload a real acad.pat and its versions of ANSI31 and the other standard names take over from KulmanLab’s own approximations.
If a drawing references a pattern name that isn’t in your library — imported from a DXF that used a pattern from an acad.pat you haven’t uploaded — the hatch still renders, using ANSI31 as a stand-in, rather than falling back to a flat, patternless fill.
Removing a pattern file
Click the × next to a file name in the User group to remove it and every pattern it defined. Any hatch already using one of those patterns falls back to ANSI31 immediately. Built-in Standard patterns can’t be removed.
Keyboard reference
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
↑ / ↓ | Move the selection up or down the pattern list |
Escape | Close the Hatch Manager |
Related commands
- Hatch — fills a picked area using the pattern currently selected
- Font Manager — the same upload/browse pattern, for custom fonts instead of hatch patterns