RAL Color System Add-On

[Emoke Csikos]

RAL Colour Standards are developed and controlled by the German Institute of Quality Assurance and Trademark Control. The 194 classical shades (RAL 840-HR) and the RAL Design System with its 1688 colors are both well known in a number of industries, including building materials and cosmetics. The RAL Digital software integrates all RAL Colors (194 + 1688) into numerous construction programs providing in each case more than 25 output variants (screen, printer, etc.). After installing this Goodie tool the Import RAL colors... command will appear in the Options menu by default:

 

The RAL Color for Graphisoft ARCHICAD Test Files

Test files are located at: GRAPHISOFT/ARCHICAD/Add-Ons/Goodies/RAL in .PAL format:

The 840_TEST.PAL and RDS_TEST.PAL files contain the current first 50 colors of both RAL Color Systems. They allow you to test the use of RAL Colors in ARCHICAD.

Using RAL Colors in ARCHICAD

After the installation, the first 50 colors of both color systems can be made available to ARCHICAD:

• Go to the Options menu and choose the Import RAL Colors... command. A dialog box will appear, allowing you to browse for the two sample files mentioned above. Select either one.
• The Import RAL Colors dialog box appears, listing the available colors. Select a color and click OK. Multiple selection is also allowed. The selected color(s) will be loaded.

   

• Choose the Options > Element attributes > Surfaces command. You will see the additional surfaces bearing the names of the imported RAL colors.

 

• You can also Override Surfaces in the Tools' settings dialog boxes.
• Create your drawings in RAL!

The colors are optimized for Trinitron Color Monitors (6500 °K, Gamma = 1,8) and result in a high quality display on suitable machines. In RAL digital the color palettes are provided for more than 20 further output possibilities (printer, plotter etc.).

The RAL Digital Package

The complete RAL digital software package contains various further color palettes for Adobe Illustrator, Corel DRAW, Photo-Paint, Macromedia FreeHand, Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress, Adobe Photoshop, Micrografx Designer, Micrografx Picture Publisher, as well as additional pieces of software for color planning such as Color Dropper, Visual Color Tuning and various Color Maps. Download ARCHICAD Goodies on https://www.graphisoft.com/downloads/goodies/.

Disclaimer: Goodies are free Add-Ons developed by GRAPHISOFT to complete ARCHICAD with specific abilities and features. As of ARCHICAD 20, you can install all Goodies at once with the help of the ARCHICAD Goodies Suite installer. They are based on legacy code which GRAPHISOFT does not support anymore. Feel free to use them but please be advised that they might not function properly and they will not be fixed or upgraded.