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#75751 by Lars
Fri Feb 22, 2019 3:39 pm
Why do pre-existing object colors not update when the objects layer color is changed in layer manager? Seems this should be a basic feature?

Thanks!
#75752 by Roger D
Fri Feb 22, 2019 4:38 pm
Unlike Acad which is usually color by layer color, Datacad is color by entity. This way you could have multiple colors on the same layer. Especially useful with smart entities where a wall could have different color lines.
#75756 by joshhuggins
Mon Feb 25, 2019 12:39 am
I thought Datacad had an option to do entity color By Layer? Not that I would ever want to, but I can't find that feature mentioned anywhere other than an old post from Jim back in 2006.
#75767 by Lars
Mon Feb 25, 2019 1:03 pm
I find that having global color/pen-weight control asigned to a global "Master color" is much easier if i want to make a change rather than going around having to find every single entity and change its properties individually. That gets very tedious.
#75769 by joshhuggins
Mon Feb 25, 2019 1:31 pm
Not sure I follow you, but are you not using the Pen Table to control each color's pen weight?
#75773 by Aaron Ben-Avraham
Mon Feb 25, 2019 2:52 pm
Lars wrote:Why do pre-existing object colors not update when the objects layer color is changed in layer manager? Seems this should be a basic feature?

Thanks!

Hi Lars. You can actually get the objects to update colors by using the "Move" Command. Select the layer you want to "move" to, which in this case would be the same layer. Once you select the layer, you will see the "layer color" option (at S2) to toggle. Once you complete the operation, the entities will change colors. Not quite "automatic" as it requires a few more clicks, but it will work to update the entities colors.

Edit: Wanted to add that there isn't really any advantage of doing this as you still have to pick the entities, either individually or using the "mask" command or "grouping" the entities.
#75778 by ORWoody
Mon Feb 25, 2019 4:49 pm
If you want to have the colors relate to the layer color assignment, then just draw on the proper layers. That may be different from how you've drawn if you've been using ACAD. Many ACADers just draw on Layer 0 and change properties "later". They sort of set things up at the end whereas DCADers like to set things up at the front end as much as is possible.
Although if you actually have everything on the proper layers, you can run through the Change, Color series once and quickly have what you desire.
1. In Layer Manager, make sure that all of your layers are set to the color that you want assigned to each layer. Turn on all layers. Exit Layer Manager.
2. Touch the ' key to toggle layer search to Off. (That is a transparent command that flips from layer Search On to Off or back to On again.)
3. Select Change, Color and then pick the color of the active layer. Confirm that layer search is off and with Area, surround everything. (Now, you have everything in the color that you want.)
4. Touch the Tab key once. (That is a transparent command that scrolls through every layer that is On)
5. The menu should still be showing a "Color" selection at F0. Pick it twice. Select the correct color for the currently active layer. With Area, surround everything.
6. Touch the Tab key again. Repeat the "Pick Color twice and select the correct color for the currently active layer. With Area, surround everything.
7. Repeat until every entity matches the layer color.
8. After that, just be sure that you draw only on the correct layer.
The first time that you do this will seem like a lot of work, but the drawing and all of it's entities will be as you want them.
Please, please don't let yourself think that the CAD program that you have been using is "correct" and DataCAD (or any other drawing program) is all wrong. Every program has some strengths and a few weaknesses. I am sure that DataCAD has some weaknesses, but I just haven't been able to find them.
#75789 by Lars
Tue Feb 26, 2019 8:52 am
I find that no matter how well something is set up in the beginning, changes are inevitably made to "tweak" the drawing. I was hoping for something simple, but it looks like its far too complicated to reassign a simple color with a few clicks in Layer Manager. I suppose I'll have to settle for Edit>Change. (I think that there should be an option to change the layer of an object here also.) Having that option under Move>Layer just seems confusing to me... But as long as I can do/find the operation, then all will be well.
#75791 by ORWoody
Tue Feb 26, 2019 9:24 am
I had almost two years experience using ACAD when I first saw DataCAD. The major difference that I instantly noticed between the two programs was that the programmers of DataCAD must have thought in English. I think that it was directly related to the Move command. I have never once in my entire life said "I think that I will change the properties of my car from the driveway to the garage", but I have said that I would move my car into the garage". I had accepted the change properties command in ACAD because it was simply a linguistic thing.
In DataCAD, I found that if I said what I wanted to do, I probably had almost told myself every command that I needed. Sometimes the order was slightly different than the statement, but most things were there in the sentence.
When I taught ACAD at ITT Technical Institute, I would regularly have power users come in to give demonstrations. Some of the skills that they had combined with the add on programs of Autocad were staggeringly impressive. Yet, for all that, I seldom saw one that didn't draw on a single layer in white or rely on the add-on program to place an object on the proper layer. Others would draw for awhile and then "Change Properties" of objects to the desired layer. Several times, I asked why they didn't make the desired layer, the current layer before drawing. Inevitably, that got an almost blank stare response or a comment that changing the layers like that would break the flow.
ACAD finally accepted that sometimes multiple colors will be needed for objects on a common layer which is why it now allows the objects to be assigned a color "by layer" or a "by object".
#75798 by Lars
Tue Feb 26, 2019 2:22 pm
Yes. having to preassign your layer before you draw does break the "flow."

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