Questions regarding color problem in AutoCAD Mechanical 2007

[John2004]

Hi everyone,

In AutoCAD Mechanical 2007 I'm having a problem with colors. When I change the color of a 3D solid model part within an assembly, save the drawing, then open the drawing again, the part seems to revert back to previous colors that were used during the design process.

Sometimes, a part is even more than one color, one surface may be blue, another surface may be red, etc.. It seems AutoCAD is *remembering* all the colors that I tried or used throughout the design process and is somehow getting confused as to which color was the last saved color.

The drawing has a fair number of layers and I wonder if the issue is somehow related to layers. If I type the layer command and change the color for the part there, and then go to "object properties" and choose "by layer" as the part color, it does not help. Additionally, if I actually choose for example *red* from object properties, I still have the problem.

I can change colors fine while the drawing is open, but when I save the drawing and reopen it later, some parts are either not the color that was last saved, or some parts have several surfaces with different colors (colors that were used or tried throughout the design process).

It may be worth noting that when the drawing opens, for the first few seconds the colors seem correct, then a few seconds later, the colors of certain parts within the assembly will change.

When you add or subtract to or from a solid model part, does the portion that is being added or subtracted have to be on the same layer and/or be the same color as the part that is being modified ? I never had to worry about this with previous versions of AutoCAD but perhaps something changed.

I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions anyone may have.

Thanks
John

 

[TCARPENTER1]

Hi John,

I'm guessing you're talking about 3D Solids so, when you change the color of a surface, make sure you use the SolidEdit command to change the colors. This should make them "stick". Your next question:

When you add or subtract to or from a solid model part, does the portion that is being added or subtracted have to be on the same layer and/or be the same color as the part that is being modified ?

They do not have to be on the same layer, or the same color, the trick is, which one you selected first. The first one selected becomes the "Master" and the subsequent selections take on the "Master's" properties - it may wipe out face colors I'm not sure, I haven't changed face colors.

HTH
Todd

 

[John2004]

Hi Tcarpenter1,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I am taking about 3D solids, AKA 3D solid models.

Actually, I never changed the individual "face colors" I only changed the color of the entire solid model. I can change the color of the entire solid model part to red, save the drawing, reopen the drawing, and the part will be red for a few seconds and then revert to blue. Sometimes after reopening the drawing, certain parts will have faces with different colors.

However, the different face colors are colors I had previously tried on the "whole part", i.e., I never just changed the color of a face, I always changed the color of the whole part.

I tried the solid edit command as you suggested and it does work, however, I have to select each face individually, I cannot just select the whole solid model part at one time. This is very inefficient since I have many parts with many faces.

Being able to control the colors of individual faces is nice, but right now, I just want to quickly & permanently change the color of the entire solid model, save the drawing, and make sure that when I open the drawing again, the color of the model is just as I last saved it.

Back in AutoCAD 14, all I had to do was go to *object properties*, then select the solid model and change the color. The whole process only took a few seconds and it was permanent, i.e., the part changed to whatever color I wanted and it did not matter how many colors I had tried on the part before. I could then save the drawing and when I reopened the drawing, the solid model showed up as whatever color I had previously saved it in. This is the logical way for things to be so I cannot understand why AutoCAD 2007 would not operate in the same way.

It would seem to me the solid edit command should let you select the entire model and change the color but when I select "body" under the solid edit command, there is no option to change the color.

Is there a more efficient method other than selecting each individual face with the solid-edit command ?

Thanks again,
John

 

[TCARPENTER1]

Hi John,

I thought this was just faces you were doing. The way you're doing it should work. It's almost as if you have some program firing when you open a drawing causing this to happen. Do you have some company standards that employ a startup routine that could be causing this? The other thought is, I don't know much about Mechanical, but are these true 3D Solids? Mechanical doesn't create anonymous blocks out them or create custom objects does it? If it does, there may be a Mechanical setting you're missing. Is this the only drawing it's happening to, or does it do it to others as well? If it's just the one, you may want to do a purge and audit on the drawing or a recover and see if that resolves the issue. One last thing, how big is the file itself - it's not difficult for large files, especially 3D files to start having trouble once they get large.

HTH
Todd

 

[John2004]

Thanks for the additional feedback Todd,

The files are about 9 MB and it does happen to more than one file. I think it must be some setting I am missing, or possibly something to do with layers and/or layer settings.

I also have the feeling that when adding or subtracting from solids, if I had matched the color and layer of the portion I was adding or subtracting, to the actual object or solid being modified, I would not have the problem.

Still, that was never an issue with AutoCAD 14 and it should not really be an issue now. IMO, once you reset the object or solid to the correct layer and color you want, it should stay that way regardless of what has been done before.

As far as I know these are true 3D solids, I don't know why they would be different in Mechanical as opposed to regular AutoCAD, they behave the same way as any solid I have ever used and you can get object properties on them like mass, volume, etc., and assign materials, etc..

I opened the file with regular AutoCAD (not mechanical) and got the following message...

"The drawing you have opened or referenced contains custom objects created by an unavailable objectARX application. You do not need the originala application to display proxy representations of objects that were saved in the drawing. However, many manufacturers including Autodesk, provide object enablers that also allow you to edit these custom objects.

Visit the AutoCAD object enabler assistant web page to locate Autodesk object enablers or contact the software publisher about object enablers for other applications".

I also saved the file as a regular AutoCAD file and this did not help the problem. Whether I open it with Mechanical or regular AutoCAD, I get the same problem. I also checked "do not show proxy graphics" and I still have the same problem.

When I saved the file as an AutoCAD version 14 file & opened it with version 14, the color stayed just like I had saved it, but when I opened the same version 14 file with AutoCAD 2007, the part turned blue a few seconds after opening.

It's funny, when I click on the file and look at the little preview window, the part is red, and when I actually open the file the part is red for a few seconds, then something changes it to blue a few seconds later. I don't think any program outside of AutoCAD is causing this but it does seem as if something is firing up within AutoCAD, but I don't know what it could be.

Under object properties, it still says the part is red but it shows as blue on the screen. In order to get the part back to red, I have to go to object properties and change it to green or some other color, then back to red.

After changing the color to red, I purged the drawing and saved it but when I reopened it, the darn thing changed back to blue.

Stuff like this gets to me sometimes, it seems like such a goofy little thing to have to fool with, that should not be happening.

Right now it's not going to hold me up, but when I go to make presentation drawings and materials it's going to be a real problem then. I also don't want to have someone open a drawing I send them and have all the colors messed up, as it will make the drawings hard to interpret & cause confusion.

If I'm talking to someone on the phone and I say "look at the blue part" but the file the other guy has shows the thing in green, then this is a problem. Not something I want to be worrying about.

Thanks again for your help and if you happen to think of anything else please let me know.

John