PM Color of Master Items Toggle

[MSotero]

In Plotmaker please provide a Toggle button to flip flop the Preferences for viewing the "Color of Master items on the Layout:" (I don't feel a custom key combo gets me there).

Toggling between "Use Items' Own Colors" and the custom color option.

I'd think it should be placed at the bottom of the layout window near the icons for maginfication, etc.

I use white text over colored fills in my title blocks and I simply need the visual feedback to feel confident everything is right. To do this, I select the "Use Items' Own Colors."

However, I also prefer seeing a grid module in the master layout which assits me in placing drawings etc. These are drawn using white lines (so they don't print). But to see them, I need to Toggle to the custom color. Which is also useful to quickly see what is on the master versus the actual layout.

Perhaps some things could be made more flexible if AC and PM had "Non Printing" lines similar to what a Hotspot does. Or perhaps a special Non print pen or layer. I've seen this non print option in Autocad and thought it a nice option I wish I could have the option of putting to use.

[Anonymous]

I think the ability to set a layer to non-printing would be the best option. This way you don't have to do a thing, it would print properly and display the layout grids without having to change any settings back and forth.

I must say that your approach is a very clever work-around. I'll probably start using it myself (since I rarely show the masters in their true colors).

[MSotero]

Matthew wrote:
I must say that your approach is a very clever work-around. I'll probably start using it myself (since I rarely show the masters in their true colors).

The white lines attempt to make it fail proof. Alternately you could use lines of any color, put them on a unique layer and use a layer combination to hide them before plotting. One downside is you might forget and mess up your plots. Another is they're always visible (unless you hide them) even if you'd like to get a print preview like representation on screen. Which makes it a multi-step process when one goes back and forth.

Also, since the Navigator is missing the layer combination popup one finds in AC it isn't as fluid. Of course this would be nice to have too come to think of it.

And for fluid interface reasons, the toggle button would be nice...its a different animal than the bigger non-printing concepts. I'd hope to see it included in maybe a bug fix update.

[Anonymous]

It's the fail-safe quality of using white pens that I find clever. I have avoided using layers for this kind of thing because I try to minimize any problems that might arise at print time.

I don't want to be rushing to get to a meeting only to find that someone forgot to reset the layer combination when they sent the plots (nor do I want to have to remember these sorts of things myself at such times).

I assumed you had rejected the layer approach for the reasons you stated. I know you've been using ArchiCAD far too long (probably as long as I have) not to be aware of both the layer option and its limitations.

PS. I suspect that not many people here know that you are the MS in MSA detailer. (I hope I'm not revealing any deep dark secrets.)

In any case. Welcome. It's good to see another member of the old guard.

Regards,
Matthew