1. Prepare the entities that surround the hatching area so they form a closed contour. The contour must be closed in a way that one entity is connected to the next one as shown at the right in this example:
2. Select the contour(s) you want to fill. Note that islands inside contours will get hatched if they are not selected:
3. Launch the hatch tool.
4. A dialog for the hatch options is displayed. Choose a hatch pattern, scale factor and a rotation angle for the hatch pattern. If you want to fill the object with a solid color instead of a pattern, check the check box "Solid Fill".
5. Click 'OK' to proceed with the hatching. Depending on the complexity of the contour and the scale factor of the chosen pattern, it might take a while to create the hatch.