I'm using Autocad 2008 but can't remember how to set the hatch to ignore the dimension lines and notes arrow lines. Please give your answer in plain English, not a programmers list.
Thanks.
I'm not sure of any setting that'll do that automatically. Sounds like you are hatching int he same area you are placing text annotations which makes things murky.
My suggestion is that you freeze the layer containing your annotations and dimensions, create the hatch, then unfreeze the layer.
For text, make it MText and put a background on it. For Dimensions or Multi-Leaders use a style that uses the drawing color as the background for the text. Draw it all before hatching, use island polygons for the rest. FOr solid objects like arrows, set them to be on top of the hatch, or in PaperSpace and have PaperSpace plotted last.
I usually set Dimension Text Fill Color to Background in the Dimension Modify dialog box.
When putting the dimensions over any hatches or lines its simply overlay and hide text area.