Impression – Fill Anchors

Here is another Impression Tip and Trick to remember about fills. We talked about the different Impression Fill tools already, but one thing I left out was AREA Fill Anchors.

Fill Anchor Points are the insertion points for fills. Where this point is placed has special significance when you update the CAD geometry. The anchor point will refill the area around it according to the fill style previously used. You can also move a fill by moving the anchor point. If you filled the wrong area, that’s ok, click and drag the anchor to the new area.

If you don’t want to see the anchor points, you can toggle them on and off. Go to the menu bar, go to DISPLAY, click it, and then turn the AREA FILL ANCHORS toggle on or off. If it is on there will be a check mark in front of it. Sometimes turning this off helps to see the drawing better, especially if you have several small areas to fill right next to each other.

Earlier I mentioned that area fill anchors will refill an area when you update the cad geometry. That’s true, but it isn’t perfect. Sometimes it doesn’t quite work out just right, especially if multiple anchor points end up in one area. Double check it just to make sure. Even though it isn’t perfect, it sure beats redoing the work every time the line work in a project is updated.

The different fill tools produce different types of anchors. The Fill Points will produce an anchor that is, well, a point. The line and freehand fills will produce, well, lines, just as you drew them. The Area Fill Window will produce an anchor that looks like the crossing window. The anchors are permanent fill tools. This means that when the geometry is updated, it reads these anchors just as it would read you inputting them at that moment.

This is just another reason why Impression is a great tool that enables users to create digitally rendered drawings.