Have you ever had a hatch pattern display incorrectly? If you are using a hatch pattern like gravel or concrete the sides of the intended shapes within the hatch may not line up properly. Giving you results that don’t look at all like your desired hatching. This typically happens when the area that you are hatching is very far from the origin (0,0) of your coordinate system. In civil drawings moving the objects or changing the location of the origin is typically not an option because it would destroy the coordinate system of your drawing.
With the 2006 version of AutoCAD the HPORIGIN and HPORIGINMODE system variables were introduced. The HPORIGN variable sets the hatch origin point for new hatch objects relative to the current user coordinate system. This will leave the world coordinate system, and the northings and eastings in your drawing, alone. The HPORIGINMODE controls how the hatch object determines the default hatch origin point and can be set to a corner or the center of the hatch boundary. You can type either of them at the command line, or you can set them in the “Hatch and Gradient” dialog box during the hatch command.
In versions of AutoCAD prior to the 2006 release the proper fix is to change the SNAPBASE, that is the origin of the snap coordinate system. This will leave the world coordinate system, and the northings and eastings in your drawing, alone. To change the SNAPBASE just type SNAPBASE at the command line and pick a point on the screen near the area you want to hatch. You may need to edit the hatch to get it to redisplay properly.
