Patterns are bit mapped images. They can be modified using the patterns dialog box where pixels can be filled with the 8 different colors available to MacDraw II.
If you are going to be plotting your file, you should avoid using the fill patterns, because they are bit maps, and the plotter is going to print each dot of the pattern separately, which will take a long time and will wear out your pens. You should use hatch patterns when plotting rather than fill patterns.
Hatches are composed of groups of lines that create a pattern. Since they are lines, they can be composed with the colors available to Claris CAD as you would with any other line. Several default hatches come standard including steel, aluminum, glass etc.
Objects to be hatched must completely enclose an area or the hatch will be unpredictable. For example, if you create a triangle with the line tool, the endpoints of the each line must match exactly the adjacent line's endpoint. If there is a gap, you will get a message when you try to hatch that warns you of an incomplete boundary. It will allow the hatch to be drawn, but the results might not be what you want.
One the hatch is created, it is an editable object composed of a group of lines. You can treat it like any other group of lines; the line weight and color may be changed, or you can ungroup the hatch and edit a single line or group of lines.
For more information, please refer to Chapter 2 of the User's Guide and Chapter 6 of the New Features Guide that comes with Claris Cad version 2.0.