A brief example on how to attach a AutoCAD 2006 Field to a Hatch object. This will result in a Field that will update when the Hatch boundary is modified. It is a perfect way to keep track of areas of rooms, brick, pavement, or perhaps the surface area of a heating surface of a heat exchanger.

In this example I show how to attach the Field to the brick hatch for a patio.

Here is a patio with an area cutout for a barbecue pit.

Now Insert a Field.

Now in the Field dialog select Object  and then use the Select option to select the Hatch. After selecting the Hatch set the property to Area and then your desired precision. Now place the Field text where you want it to display the area.


I like to set the Field (which is really just some dynamic Mtext) to have a background mask the same color as the drawing background for a nice clean look.

Now the Field is associated to the Hatch and displays the current area.

When I re-size the barbecue pit and then use the UPDATEFIELD command, the area is updated to reflect the change in hatched area representing the patio brick.

You can use this same technique for attaching fields to other objects such as showing the length of a polyline.