topic Re: Black background vs. White background in Modeling

Black background vs. White background

rob2218 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:01:49 GMT

I suppose you could say, "well...it's just a matter of getting used to it" but....the bottom line truth of the matter is that colors (unless your are color blind like me) on a black background can be seen much easier than colors on a white background.

For example, if you by mistake leave a small piece of a line, say 2" long and the line was drawn in pen yellow, guaranteed that the yellow is easier seen in "black" than in "white" background.

Again I understand, we all get used to drawing a certain way but there is a logic behind using a "black" background and it's not just because...."oh I like the way it looks better"....NO..it's because IT WORKS BETTER.

Re: Black background vs. White background

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:14:43 GMT

rob2218 wrote:
For example, if you by mistake leave a small piece of a line, say 2" long and the line was drawn in pen yellow, guaranteed that the yellow is easier seen in "black" than in "white" background.

I got your point Rob... But what if the line would be dark grey?

Re: Black background vs. White background

owen — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:00:30 GMT

of course using Pen Sets it is possible to cater for both - even within the same file. You can just swap back and forth depending on personal preference (of course changing the Grid & Background colors is still manual)

Re: Black background vs. White background

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:12:05 GMT

Being colourblind also, rather than black or white, I find a neutral colour like beige works well for me. It's comfortable on the eyes for long viewing periods, all colours stand out clearly against it (except beige of course!), and objects with a white background are clearly visible.

Random example image below!

Re: Black background vs. White background

Srinivas — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:09:01 GMT

how about this piece of info from Krippahl

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=151635

Re: Black background vs. White background

vistasp — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 02:08:07 GMT

I used to use a light greenish grey background during my AutoCAD days and it gave a lot of relief to my eyes. Maybe I should try that again but for AC. Will have to look at the pen-set carefully of course.

Off-topic: Peter, your random image shows the FPCP in the section. Is this manually drawn or is there some setting I've missed?

Re: Black background vs. White background

Stephen Dolbee — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 18:58:54 GMT

Back in the hand-drafting days I always used white paper. White background just seems natural.

Re: Black background vs. White background

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:24:49 GMT

i loved black background in autocad days cos it was all colours.
now im on AC i use a white back ground and everything (all my pens) is set to black (no colors).. for that reason i use white back ground.. my plans are printed in black and white so i see no need to draft plans in anything but

Re: Black background vs. White background

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:11:03 GMT

vistasp wrote:
Off-topic: Peter, your random image shows the FPCP in the section. Is this manually drawn or is there some setting I've missed?

I manually drew it in. No secret setting I'm afraid!

Stephen wrote:
Back in the hand-drafting days I always used white paper. White background just seems natural.

GeNOS wrote:
my plans are printed in black and white so i see no need to draft plans in anything but

How do you guys deal with white cover fills? If you turn on Automatic Pen Color Visibility Adjustment to make these display in grey against a white background, does it not get confusing if you also have other elements deliberately shaded in grey?

Re: Black background vs. White background

owen — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:18:24 GMT

Peter wrote:
How do you guys deal with white cover fills? If you turn on Automatic Pen Color Visibility Adjustment to make these display in grey against a white background, does it not get confusing if you also have other elements deliberately shaded in grey?

I generally have my background set to something like 95% rather than pure white so these can be seen. The only pen this can cause problems for is one of our greyscale pens at 90%, but this very rarely gets used anyway.

Re: Black background vs. White background

Erika Epstein — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:13:16 GMT

Like the cream colored tracing paper I prefer, I have a cream colored screen background. It's actually one of the Eye-ease colors that was posted many years ago on this forum:
R 248
G 242
B 222

It looks similar in color to Peter Clark's image.

I also always have the WE option 'Automatic Pen Color Vidibility Adjustment for Model Views' checked. I set up everyone regardless of their screen background color with this option checked. The slight graying of a color, close to your background color,is a screen option;, it does NOT print. I find this to be a good work-smart option.

Re: Black background vs. White background

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:44:33 GMT

Peter wrote:
vistasp wrote:
Off-topic: Peter, your random image shows the FPCP in the section. Is this manually drawn or is there some setting I've missed?
I manually drew it in. No secret setting I'm afraid!

Stephen wrote:
Back in the hand-drafting days I always used white paper. White background just seems natural.

GeNOS wrote:
my plans are printed in black and white so i see no need to draft plans in anything but
How do you guys deal with white cover fills? If you turn on Automatic Pen Color Visibility Adjustment to make these display in grey against a white background, does it not get confusing if you also have other elements deliberately shaded in grey?

not sure what you mean???

Re: Black background vs. White background

Erika Epstein — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:18:05 GMT

GeNOs,
You can take advantage of color when working in archicad to give you immediate graphic feedback. You can then have another pen set that is applied to the drawing placed on the layout that has black, gray and white pens. The pens in both pen-sets have the exact same pen-width.

A simple common advantage to this is dimensions, live versus custom. If for example your dimensions are all done with light blue including the text. All of this blue text is LIVE. If you change the length of a wall then the dimension text will reflect this change.

Then there are times when you want call out a dimension as 'min. 3'-6"' as in a railing or add a ± to the dimension to show the contractor that this one dimension is where they can take up and small anomalies. These FIXED dimensions your office will have change to a RED color so it tells you and anyone else that for whatever reason, this is not a live dimension.

Bottom line is that you can use color to work smart. There are quite a few discussions about pen-sets or pen-profiles if you do a search to find other examples.

Re: Black background vs. White background

David Maudlin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:51:12 GMT

GeNOs:

Also, you can work in color, then simply output in black & white, which retains the pen weights.

HTH

David

Re: Black background vs. White background

Steve Jepson — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:04:28 GMT

I like to use a background that looks like my old drafting board.

Re: Black background vs. White background

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:59:05 GMT

yeah i realise that i can work in colour and print in black and white with the same pen weights. just never seen the need to draft using colour.. tho i do like the idea of LIVE and FIXED dims being different colours.. but still other then that i cant see any need for colors??

Re: Black background vs. White background

Erika Epstein — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:07:01 GMT

GeNOs,
Challenge yourself to come up with ways color can help. For example I zoom in and out as I am working. Zoomed in where I see only bits of elements surround my focus I can tell by its color whether a line is part of a dimension string, a library part, section marker, HVAC element etc.

If you are not using color, you are working dumb not smart.

Re: Black background vs. White background

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:12:52 GMT

or is it that im working soooo smart i don't need colour??

is there a way of making AC give the dim lines red or blue for fixed or live dims automatically? or do i have to nominate it manually via colour changes or favorites??

Re: Black background vs. White background

Karl Barker — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:55:10 GMT

What do you mean by fixed and live dimensions?
I thought that Dimensions were always live, so if something was adjusted, the dimension was updated?

Re: Black background vs. White background

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:59:13 GMT

if its not attached to anything its fixed/static..