Tipster Rebekah Wolf sends us a tip on working with AutoCAD hatches to get areas.

"I have had a couple of issues come up with hatches. To start with, when a hatch is selected, its area sometimes does not show up in Properties. I have found that this is usually due to the boundary polyline; if it crosses over itself, regardless of whether it is closed or not, then an area calculation will be unavailable in Properties. When making a hatch boundary, it's important to zoom in so you can see the point the polyline is snapping to, and ensure that the line does not connect to itself anywhere but at the vertices.
 
"Also, I found out that AutoCAD will count the hatch area only once, so overlapping hatches are discounted when selected together, showing you the accumulated area for the hatches."

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Patrol: Hatching an area can be very useful. It graphically defines and displays specific areas, and provides contrast when viewing drawings. Hatches also have many properties that AutoCAD can use, such as area.

There are many ways to generate a hatch, all of which require a closed area. You can select a specific object that is closed, or you can pick inside a closed area. To find the area of a hatch, you can either select it and read the value in the Properties palette, or use the List command. When annotating your drawing, use a field in your text and select the hatch to display its area. If the hatch is altered, the field in the text will automatically update itself to match the actual area of the hatch.