BIM Coordinator Program (INT) April 22, 2024

Find the next step in your career as a Graphisoft Certified BIM Coordinator!

Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

Is there anyway to make Archicad workspace Dark?

Anonymous
Not applicable
I wish I could do some Autocad like workplace in archicad. Working for hours over a white background really hurt my eyes on long sessions.
I know I can change the background color to a darker one, but then all the lines stay black and I can't see them.
Is there anyway to do so?
4 REPLIES 4
Eduardo Rolon
Moderator
Use AC to open a DWG and it will ask you if you want to turn it black. Also check your Work Environment -> User Preference Schemes -> On Screen View Options, and check Automatically Visibility Adjustment.

Also you can edit your background in View -> Grid and Editing -> Grid & Background
Eduardo Rolón AIA NCARB
AC27 US/INT -> AC08

Macbook Pro M1 Max 64GB ram, OS X 10.XX latest
another Moderator

Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
...if you change the background to black / charcoal - you'll also want to edit your working Pen Set to make your dark pens visible. Eduardo's tip about opening a DWG handles that automatically by offering to make pens visible.

If you want to see all user interface elements in pseudo-dark mode, invert colors in your system preferences. In MacOS, go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Display and check the box for Invert Colors.

Any discussion of 'why isn't there a dark mode' etc belongs in the dark mode wish thread:
https://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=66173
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
As mentioned in prior posts you can change the background of your actual drawing/modeling space to dark/black like an AutoCAD (as long as you change your pen set colours to match).
As for the actual ArchiCAD interface itself, (pallettes, toolbars, menubars etc) short answer is no.
Long answer I'd suggest, don't expect it any time soon if that discussion in the wishlist section is anything to go by.
(You can't change it in Windows in the way it's suggested you can with MacOS - even though Windows 10 now allows dark interface as a standard feature)

Which is sad, because this is one of those types of functionalities you don't think you need or is useful until you actually have it and are using it and before you know it, (like myself) all your programs that allow for a dark interface are set to dark by default because the benefit becomes apparent immediately you start working in it.
The difference in terms of the strain on the eyes specifically between working on programs with white backgrounds and light interfaces for long days, and working in dark interface/background option programs is unquantifiable and not easy measurable (and thus not easy to value as it deserves) in my mind, but also can't be entirely dismissed for people who spend long hours sitting in front of a computer screen like we do.

I'm sorry for seemingly bringing the discussion back here instead of limiting it to that wishlist thread, but IMHO, that discussion is kind of pointless since the focus seems to be more on the "coolness" of a dark interface look and the aesthetics, rather than the actual functionality and importance of having the option (with nobody bothering to ask or wonder why pretty much almost all program developers offer it as an option by default in their programs nowadays).
The poll in that wishlist thread reflects this "consensus" to a large degree and when some important or influential user voices voice their disagreement with having such a feature then you know there's little hope of ever getting such a feature.
Also when a Graphisoft developer gets in the discussion and expresses how they feel it would take away from the development of other features and functionalities to allow ArchiCAD to do this, it kind of kills the discussion altogether dead in its tracks (sorry for the mixed metaphor) as you get an eye into the window of how developers of the program are thinking.

But when you get new version and those "new" functionalities that they're saving all those development resources for are addressing features that were requested 10-15 years ago (allowing cover fills on beams) or other functionalities that the majority of us won't use anyway, then it just leads you to despair.

Hence the reason I suggest that you don't hold your breath nor have any great hopes expecting this as an option anytime soon in the near feature.
Sorry for my negativity but in my experience as an over 20 year ArchiCAD user and frequenter of these forums, that Wishlist system is not, nor has ever been an effective way of addressing user concerns and needs with it's pseudo-democratic poll system and a seeming blackhole into which you request things only to never ever see them addressed - especially when it's apparent (as in the case of that particular thread) that the developers are already set in their minds as to how they're going to use their development resources anyway.

Just my two humble cents for what they're worth.
Bricklyne wrote:
Which is sad, because this is one of those types of functionalities you don't think you need or is useful until you actually have it and are using it and before you know it, (like myself) all your programs that allow for a dark interface are set to dark by default because the benefit becomes apparent immediately you start working in it
.
Agreed! I have an iMac shining at 500 nits and in the evening and nights working late, it's glaring to use ArchiCAD when everything else is dark. AutoCAD for Mac seemed to figure this out. Would LOVE dark mode for more than just aesthetic purposes.
Rex Maximilian, Honolulu, USA - www.rexmaximilian.com
ArchiCAD 27 (user since 3.4, 1991)
16" MacBook Pro; M1 Max (2021), 32GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 32-Core GPU
Apple Vision Pro w/ BIMx
Creator of the Maximilian ArchiCAD Template System
Learn and get certified!