HACEXT is an AutoLISP program that capture a hatch pattern from an existing drawing. Sometimes you have a nice hatch in a drawing, you want to use them in other drawings, but you don't have the pattern file. The result of using HACEXT will be the 'pat' file.

Compatibility: AutoCAD 2000 - 2008

Loading HACEXT

Load the application using the pull-down menu: Tools -> Load Application – select the file hacext.vlx.
At the Command prompt, you can load the application using the AutoLISP function load:

Command: (load ”hacext”)

The file hacext.vlx must be in the AutoCAD support file search path.

Running HACEXT

At the Command: prompt, type hext. AutoCAD will ask you to select an object. The selected object must be a hatch. For example, you have the drawing below, and you want to capture the stone facing pattern.

Just select the desired hatch on the drawing and you will have on your disk a file containing the hatch pattern. The name of the file is the pattern name, with an "x" at the end (this avoid overwriting an existing hatch file). The extension is "pat", and the location is the directory listed first in the Support File Search Path (in the pull-down menu: Tools -> Options -> Files).

The new pattern appear in the list of the custom patterns when using the command HATCH or BHATCH.

The result of hatching with the new pattern will appear like in the picture below:

Limitations:
This version (1.4) can not be used for patterns without dashed lines - for such patterns is not necessary a program (see the AutoCAD help to understand what dashed lines are). When trying to use HACEXT to capture a pattern without dashed lines, an error occur.