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Layer Color Scheme for Different Users

18 REPLIES 18
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Message 1 of 19
mnyrac
1355 Views, 18 Replies

Layer Color Scheme for Different Users

I am working in Civil 3d 2012.  Right now, we have about 5-6 different people using this software in the office.  Each person has their own likes/dislikes for layer colors (also for their display color).  BUT we all want to plot with the same lineweights. 

 

What happens is the surveyor creates the drawing and existing layers (with a template).  The engineer then uses the same drawing to design and create contours.  The drafter then uses the same drawing to clean things up for final printing.  So we have roughly 3 people using the same drawing.  But the surveyor uses a black display and anything that is blue doesn't show up well, so they have it on one the lightest lineweights.  I (the drafter) use a gray display have have no problem with blue so it's one of my darker lineweights.

 

What I'm hoping to do is create some kind of a scheme that would allow the user to simply change the color scheme (on screen) to match their likings.  Similar to the User Interface.  For instance in User 1 scheme, Color 8 = Blue.  Then we can have multiple plot tables that would correspond to the colors. 

 

Is there a way to accomplish this?  Thanks

Caryn

18 REPLIES 18
Message 2 of 19
Jeff_M
in reply to: mnyrac

Style based plotting, instead of Color based, would solve this.

Jeff_M, also a frequent Swamper
EESignature
Message 3 of 19
michael.robertson
in reply to: mnyrac

Not trying to be a smart alec, does your company have no cadd standards? If not, you're wasting a lot of time (ie money) to satisfy personal preferences. Makes bringing in new users and training them a nightmare.

 

 

 

Mike Robertson
FL. Dept. of Transportation
CADD Applications Developer
Message 4 of 19
mnyrac
in reply to: michael.robertson

No, I understand.  I have been at this company for about 1 1/2 months and no, they don't have standards.  One of my unofficial jobs is to pull them all onto standards.  But I'm working with people who have very different opinions about certain things and I can probably get most of the information on a standard level, but not all. 

 

I will look up the previousl comment to see if that is what I want to do.  Thanks.

Caryn

Message 5 of 19
michael.robertson
in reply to: mnyrac

Sorry to hear your plight, "Unofficial" sure makes things a lot harder especially being the new person.

 

Sounds like you may be in an semi cadd manager position. Not sure if you are familiar but here's a pretty handy link to cadd management topics that might help you get buyin from management/owner.

 

http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/management/index.htm

 

Good luck!

Mike Robertson
FL. Dept. of Transportation
CADD Applications Developer
Message 6 of 19
mnyrac
in reply to: michael.robertson

Thanks!  I will take a look at it. 

 

I am very use to standards so falling into place here is been a little difficult.  But they are all for standardizing (mostly), they just need a "leader" 🙂

 

Caryn

Message 7 of 19
AllenJessup
in reply to: mnyrac

Style table plotting is probably your best bet. But I developed a method that we've stuck with for years. We use a Color table (CTB) that has all the lineweights set for By Object. If you keep your lineweights in the drawing to By Layer then the entities on that layer will plot with that layers lineweight regardless of color. We have a few specific colors that will plot in color for times we need some color in the plot. i.e. Color 150 plots as blue. There are also a few others where the color will be set to a specific lineweight and shading. In our plan drawing we set all the layers from the Xref basemap to 17 so they plot at al light penweight and at 80% shading.

 

Maybe someday after I get everyone used to Civil 3D, I'll tackle switching to STB plotting. Probably will retire before then.

 

Allen



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 8 of 19
Neilw_05
in reply to: mnyrac

Just beware that the more versions of style tables you create, the more work you will have to keep them all synchronized when changes occur. Think about having to make the same edits 4,5,6 times or more!

 

As an alternative work flow, have you considered using XREF's? That would allow each user to configure their layers as they wish without affecting each other's work.

 

For example,the engineer could create a fresh new drawing for his work. He then XREF's the surveyors drawing and changes it's colors and plot style settings in the layer manager to whatever he likes. As long as the VISRETAIN variable is set to 1 his layer settings will remain intact in his drawing regardless of changes that may occur in the survey drawing..

 

Then when you do your final drafting you can start your own drawing and XREF the surveyor's and engineer's drawings and reconfigure all the layers as needed for your purposes.

 

You would need to use a named style plot style table to have the flexibilty of independent layer colors vs. lineweights.

Neil Wilson (a.k.a. neilw)
AEC Collection/C3D 2024, LDT 2004, Power Civil v8i SS1
WIN 10 64 PRO

http://www.sec-landmgt.com
Message 9 of 19
AllenJessup
in reply to: mnyrac

I'm one of those that likes a black background. Yes. I did start in Surveying. I don't think anything shows up well on a gray background, but I don't have any trouble seeing blue on a black background. Then again I started using CAD when it was still run with a hammer and chisel interface.Smiley Wink

 

Neil is right. Xrefs are the way to go. Also. Remember that you can override the modelspace colors in the Viewports. That gives you even more options!

 

Allen



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 10 of 19
mnyrac
in reply to: AllenJessup

We do use XREFs for the proposed drawings but not in that way.  I actually suggested using them that way yesterday and I was shot down... but I will keep trying to figure out the best way to do all of this.  One of the headaches I want to avoid is having to change colors everytime I open/xref a drawing.  I would like to have something saved that could do it automatically.

 

Caryn

Message 11 of 19
AllenJessup
in reply to: mnyrac

 


mnyrac wrote:

 


One of the headaches I want to avoid is having to change colors everytime I open/xref a drawing.  I would like to have something saved that could do it automatically.

 

Caryn



If your layering is constant saving a Layer State should do that. You can export it to use in all your drawings. Once the drawing is opened and the Layer State applied having Visretain set to one would mean that those colors would stick from session to session.

 

How do you use Xrefs. Or shouldn't I ask!

 

Allen



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 12 of 19
mnyrac
in reply to: AllenJessup

Sounds like a good idea...

 

Currently, we take the original survey and start disecting it for the proposed features (which I don't agree with, since then you don't have an original survey intact).  Then for the actual plots/prints, the drawings are xref'd in and layers are off and on based on which drawing it is. 

Caryn

Message 13 of 19
rl_jackson
in reply to: mnyrac

Sometimes it's hard to teach old dogs new tricks. Smiley Wink

 

I truly feel you pain here as I to have seem similar scenarios.


Rick Jackson
Survey CAD Technician VI

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Message 14 of 19
Joe-Bouza
in reply to: AllenJessup

<snip> "Maybe someday after I get everyone used to Civil 3D, I'll tackle switching to STB plotting. Probably will retire before then.

 

 

You said it brother.

Thank you

Joseph D. Bouza, P.E. (one of 'THOSE' People)

HP Z210 Workstation
Intel Xeon CPU E31240 @ 3.30 Hz
12 GB Ram


Note: Its all Resistentialism, so keep calm and carry on

64 Bit Win10 OS
Message 15 of 19
LeafRiders
in reply to: mnyrac

In a design environment don't worry about the plotting standards you'll never be able to hold the line. In the drafting environment one should take a cleaner approach. I've heard two sides to this one. Some are pro Plot Style files, but this creates another issue of endless new plot styles for random printing. If you end up with a directory with _initials or _project number, you've definitely got to put an end to it as that's poor setup. You should setup a directory on the network and have company plot styles saved there with your basic styles.


Put the effort into defining a Civil 3D template that works for everyone. It's great to be democratic to these things but the best way is to get Manager backing and come up with a template that works and push it out to everyone. I am a big fan of plotting with "none" plot style. In fact if you setup everything in the template based on what you want to see on paper it works quite well and you never have to guess as to what plot style to use.

Message 16 of 19
AllenJessup
in reply to: mnyrac


@mnyrac wrote:

Sounds like a good idea...

 

Currently, we take the original survey and start disecting it for the proposed features


I don't quite understand what that means. But I certainly don't agree with tearing apart the basemap. That would make updating the survey more difficult. We do our final plots in a similar manor. Although we do plot intermediate plots from the design drawings. All our final plans are produced from a plot drawing with the basemap and all the design drawings xrefed in.

We do have a few old plot styles but right now we have 2 main ones. One for B&W plan production with a few available colors if we want them on preliminary plots and one for color presentations. I also have a special one for county wide color plots.

 

Near the start of a project we decide how many design drawing we will need based on the complexity. We always have an Alignment and Profile drawing and a Corridor drawing. Then we may have one more or break it out to each discipline. Finally the basemap and the design drawings are xrefed into the plot drawing(s). Again based on the complexity we may have just one plot drawing or one for each discipline.

 

Allen



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 17 of 19
mnyrac
in reply to: AllenJessup

The dissecting is that when you have a "removal" plan, some of the existing survey needs to be put on a removal layer so that when you look at the proposed layout, you don't see the features that were removed.  You only see them in the removal plan. 

 

I was thinking that xref ing the original survey is the way to go, especially since they tell me now that sometimes they go in to make adjustments or additions if we snag it too soon. 

 

It will have to be a trial and error type of thing, until we can either find the best way or some of them can adjust.  Also, they made the jump to hyperspace about a year ago (meaning they moved from using BricsCad to Civil 3D) and some of them never bothered to use Civil 3D in everyday life.  So some are still using BricsCad as well.  I am still adjusting to the differences in Civil 3D from Land Desktop so I am not able to train everyone. 

 

We will get there, slowly but surely.  I'm sure you will see a lot more of me on here over the next few months!

Caryn

Message 18 of 19
ralstogj
in reply to: mnyrac

If you can have everyone use the shipped layers just have a standards file for each department and run standards to update the layer colors here what I do
http://c3dxtreme.blogspot.co.nz/2010/12/standards-police-for-civil-3-d.html?m=0
Regards

Justin Ralston
http://c3dxtreme.blogspot.com/
Message 19 of 19
Neilw_05
in reply to: mnyrac

If you want each user to have all their layers pre-configured when you start a new project you could do this:

 

Create dummy survey, engineer and drafter DWG files that each have all the layers you typically use set up in them. In the dummy engineer drawing, XREF the dummy survey drawing and set up the layers as he likes them. Do the same for the drafter drawing but include both the survey and engineer dummy drawings as XREF's.

 

Now when you start a real project, either import the real survey dwg into the dummy survey dwg OR redirect the XREF path in the engineer and drafter dwgs to the real survey drawing. As long as the layer names match between all the dwgs  the layer settings should remain intact.

 

If the team is dead set against using XREF's you could do something similar by using Layer States. Set up a dummy file with ALL the layers you will ever use and then configure layer states for each user. Then when you start a new project, add the live data to the dummy file and take it from there. You'd have to be meticulous about maintaining the layer states as the project moves forward and the drawing changes hands back and forth between users.

 

I don't see how you could do this with plot styles alone. Plot styles will control the output when plotted but they will not control the colors you see on the screen while working in the drawing. Thus each user would have to set the layer colors every time the drawing changes hands. 

Neil Wilson (a.k.a. neilw)
AEC Collection/C3D 2024, LDT 2004, Power Civil v8i SS1
WIN 10 64 PRO

http://www.sec-landmgt.com

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