Tipster Eric Lawson has some suggestions for longtime AutoCAD users who have difficulty keeping up with the changes.

"First, read the Tips & Tools Weekly newsletter, particularly if you're one of those operators who work on their own. I find when working with a group, there is always an exchange of information, but when working solo, the only other way to keep up with the changes is to read the instructions; how boring.

"Second, I discovered (quite by accident) that you can trim hatch objects in AutoCAD 2008. I don't know when this capability was added (obviously I never read the instructions), but you can draw a squiggly line (or a straight one) through a hatch pattern, and trim as you would a line."

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Patrol: Hatch objects have come a long way. They used to be very difficult to edit, but in recent releases of AutoCAD we have been able to edit them in many different ways. You can grip-edit their boundaries, even if they are not associated with a boundary. You can trim them as well. If you have text inside the hatch pattern, use the Trim command to trim away the parts of the pattern where the text is (or you can just use a boring line to trim it).