Topic Title

I wish ...

That we could get an easy way so that we could set up a specific Acad color to Dcad color translation, and that we could have multiple translation files (ie. XYZ Engineers to My Firm, and Plumbing D/B Contractor to My Firm, and ...) depending on which consultant we're receiving it from.

AND ...

That we could get an easy way to set up importing AND exporting Acad **layers** from an engineer's/drafter's file to standard (ie. MY standard) layers, and that I could have multiple translation files dependent upon which consultant I'm dealing with at that point.

Of course, that's only my HUMBLE wish ...

I wish ...

That we could get an easy way so that we could set up a specific Acad color to DataCAD color translation, and that we could have multiple translation files (ie. XYZ Engineers to My Firm, and Plumbing D/B Contractor to My Firm, and ...) depending on which consultant we're receiving it from....

I added an old wish for this to my X3 wishlist. What I have done is under Support Files I have a folder called Color Translations, once I have the colors mapped for the client, I close Datacad, and copy the DEFAULT.tbl file from the Support Files folder, to new folder under the Color Translations folder with the clients name. Then when you need to import files from that clients you can just shutdown Datacad, copy and overwrite the default.tbl file in the support files with the one from the client folders. I usually remember to do it when importing files, but I usually forget to swap them when exporting until I see the check box in the export menu. This is something that I don't trust our staff with, so I usually handle things importing and export for clients that we need this type of translation for.

Try this and see if it helps. Open DCAD and open a drawing file or create a new file. Go to Tools drop down menu and select Color Palettes. Adjust the color palette however you want or make no changes if the colors are the way you want them. Then select Save As button and give it a new name. Then go to the Tools drop down menu and select DXF/DWG Color Map. The color map listed at the top should show the name of the Color Palette you just saved. Remap the colors however you wish then select Ok. Open a new file and select the new Color Palette and it should also load the new translation table as well.

Thanks for the step-by-step, Paul - that's what I wanted to do (at least for exporting - I'll have to try importing now to make sure it's doing it correctly)!

Alan, make sure you adjust the colors in the DXF/DWG Color Map for transfer in both directions, if you need to use it for both imports and exports. They are not interchangble. IOW first set the colors to translate from DCAD to DXF/DWG and then set colors to translate from DXF/DWG to DCAD. This can be done in the same file, I believe. Just make the changes both ways and save the file. That should work for importing and exporting. But note that if this is not saved as your default files or if you are using multiple translation files, you will have to set this as the active translation file before you import or export the DXF/DWG files.

Interesting, I didn't know that if you edit the Color Translation file it creates a new one based on the Color Palette name. Must have always made adjustments to the translation files via the default .rgb palette. That makes creating and naming the TBL files a bit easier and changing for exporting.... but to put this method of creating and managing to work, I think this means when we need to update our color palettes we will have to also keep all the extra color palettes updated to match our main color palettes so we can work with different translation files too? Hmmm... don't think I want to add that to my already long list of managment tasks. Think I'm gonna stick with my wish on this one so it will allow for on the fly decisions and less file management. It's good to have a better idea of how things are working, thanks for the info Paul.

Paul -

I found all of that out by trial and error - but it works great (both ways) once you get everything set. Thanks!

You're welcome, glad I could help. I probably should have put the information from my second post in the first one but I didn't think about it until later.