odd behaviour with Area Hatch/Fill

[weirDeveloper]

Hi,

I'm new to SW - using SW 2011.

I've filled a few small area of a drawing, and that worked fine.

Some larger areas are showing odd behaviour. While I am editing a sketch, the colours of the fills look correct, but when I Exit Sketch, all my fills turn to grey. Moving my mouse across the filled areas, some flash to orange, then back to gray (orange wasn't my chosen colour).

It seems like buggy behaviour to me, but then being new to SW, I might be missing something simple.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

John

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

What graphics card and driver are you using, and which OS?

 

[weirDeveloper]

NVIDIA GeForce 6100
NVIDIA driver version 8.17.12.5896
Windows 7 32-bit.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Replace the GeForce card. The GeForce and Radeon series are gaming card and are not suitable for SolidWorks. You need a card that is listed at

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

for your system

 

[weirDeveloper]

Thanks - I'm shopping!

 

[laik]

All sketches in part are grey when you exit sketch mode. In drawing they will be black.

 

[weirDeveloper]

Ooooh boy! Just spent £150 on a quadro fx580.

The graphics are nicer and quicker, but I still get the same effect on my hatched areas!

I'm attaching my drawing so someone else might take a look at it.

Hopefully, the next suggestion won't be so expensive!

(Kidding - I was thinking of getting a graphics card anyway...)

 

[Quagga]

Hi All, New to this forum.

weirDeveloper good job that you needed a new graphics card. Because there was no problem with it. Orange is the default Dynamic Highlight for Solidworks.

Tools-Options-colors

 

[weirDeveloper]

'All sketches in part are grey when you exit sketch mode. In drawing they will be black. '

Can't I use colour with SW?? !

 

[laik]

Yes, you can use any clolour what you want. All settings are in system option ->colors, or Document properties ->colors, or you can use change color of line with Line color menu. In drawing mode you can change color too.

 

[weirDeveloper]

Sorry - maybe I'm being a bit thick here! I see your drawing in colour, and I've seen other SW drawings with colour, so what's up with my drawing?

I've filled a couple of areas in green, and they display as green while I have edit sketch enabled, but it shows as grey when I click out of edit sketch, grey in print preview, grey when exported to pdf.

Selecting a line, and using the line colour menu to change the colour, everything in my drawing changes to that colour.

Confused! (and yes, I've googled, and looked through the help sections. I haven't found anything that explains what I'm seeing).

 

[laik]

Good choice for export to PDF from SW is PDF Creator. You can change export as Black&White, If you prefer export directly from SW try uncheck export PDF in color.

http://files.engineering.com/getfil...4-4087-44f1-8ac9-cd79c284002c&file=color3.jpg

http://files.engineering.com/getfil...4-ec2d-4525-9050-9525d350da0a&file=color2.jpg

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Firstly, I'm sorry the graphics card didn't solve the 'problem'.

However, in your posts you mentioned the problem was with a drawing, yet the part you posted is a sketch within a part. The two are totally different. Quagga is correct, the orange colour is the default for dynamic hightlighting in a part ... but not for hatches in a drawing.

The hatch (and sketch line) colour can be changed at Tools > Options > System Options > Color --- Color Scheme Settings --- Sketch, Inactive.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Also, you can change the colour if you right-click on the Sketch2 feature, and select Sketch Color.

Are you planning on creating 3D model from these sketches?

 

[weirDeveloper]

'in your posts you mentioned the problem was with a drawing, yet the part you posted is a sketch within a part.'

Now you mention it, I appreciate the difference.

I've created a 3D model of a new fish pass that will be built into this weir (at least that part went well!). The sketch I posted is just a topographic view of the site, something I need to include with the final drawing. It isn't intended to be anything other than a 2D sketch.

I should have done that as a drawing shouldn't I, rather than as a part!

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I should have done that as a drawing shouldn't I, rather than as a part!

The same tools are available in a sketch or drawing. Use whichever you are more comfortable with.

Personally, I would have used a sketch within a part, but created surfaces for the individual areas. Colours and appearances (water, grass, concrete, etc) could then have been applied to those surfaces. Also, the surfaces could later be thickened into solid bodies if needed.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Here's an image using your part with a couple of coloured surfaces, inserted into a drawing which is set to Shaded With Edges Mode.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I guess the image would help.

http://files.engineering.com/getfil...&file=Weir_Layout_Using_Coloured_Surfaces.png

 

[weirDeveloper]

I'm getting there, but slowly.

I've managed to create a surface (Boundary-Surface) in one area, and then it's easy enough to add an appearance, and that works fine.

But adding that part to my final drawing, the surface or the appearance doesn't show up. Instead, the area is just bounded by a jagged line.

And that's the only surface I've managed to create. Trying to select other regions is just frustrating. Selecting an area bounded by 3 lines and a section of spline, I get an error message telling me to select 'Select a continuous group of entities'. I've checked and all the lines actually meet, so why doesn't this amount to a continuous group of entites?

CorBlimey, sorry to keep on when you keep answering, but how did you manage to select the area you did to add the surface? Did you use Boundary-Surface or what?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I used the right-click > Contour Select Tool option for those two areas.

The simplest method for other areas would be to create a 2D sketch and use Convert Entities to create a complete and contiguous loop. The Planar Surface tool can then be used.