Black background vs. White background

[rob2218]

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.

[Erika Epstein]

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.

[Anonymous]

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???

[Erika Epstein]

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.

[David Maudlin]

GeNOs:

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

HTH

David

[Steve Jepson]

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

[Anonymous]

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??

[Erika Epstein]

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.

[Anonymous]

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??

[Karl Barker]

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?

[Anonymous]

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