topic Re: How to change grid line colour? in AutoCAD for Mac Forum

How to change grid line colour?

Anonymous — Wed, 06 May 2020 15:47:53 GMT

Hi everyone!

For some reason I can't work out how to change the colour of the grid lines so would really appreciate some help. I'm running AutoCAD 2018 on MacOS, and I've looked all over the internet but can't find a solution! Everything I have found has been for Windows, so the variation in menus between the two has made it hard or impossible to follow, especially for a beginner! Snap and Grid tab under Drafting settings doesn't have a colour option, and neither do any of the tabs in Preferences. Am going insane trying to do this! Was making a grid with A4 sized squares so I can join 2 printed layouts together; I'm an architecture student and the lockdown has meant I can't access any large printers unfortunately. All I want is an A3 site plan to be able to trace, and thought this would be an easy process I could repeat if needed whilst we are stuck at home! I'd appreciate any help!

Many Thanks,

Nick

Previously posted to the main AutoCAD forum and wasn't aware of this Mac one!!

Re: How to change grid line colour?

maxim_k — Wed, 06 May 2020 17:50:57 GMT

Hi Nick,

There is no way to change color of grid lines with Preferences or Settings in AutoCAD for Mac, but it is possible to change it by altering environment variable with AutoLISP (setenv ....) function:
https://help.autodesk.com/view/OARXMAC/2019/ENU/?guid=GUID-0C2E8222-62A8-4529-8A8A-58AAB2A5F23B

But the difficulty is that the color number to be assigned must be specified in a special format that does not match the standard AutoCAD color numbers.
Assuming you are using full AutoCAD (not LT), I can help you with (setenv) arguments - variable name and value (color number).
What color you want to have for grid?

Re: How to change grid line colour?

pendean — Wed, 06 May 2020 17:53:00 GMT

Not an automatic feature of AutoCAD in any OS: use PLOT with the WINDOW selection option, or PLOT to PDF then find a PDF viewer that will split sheets up for you.

HTH

Re: How to change grid line colour?

Anonymous — Wed, 06 May 2020 17:59:37 GMT

Thanks for replying, this is much appreciated. I have the full version, just on a free student license so all should work.

I wanted something just a bit brighter really. A light blue if possible?

Re: How to change grid line colour?

maxim_k — Wed, 06 May 2020 18:41:32 GMT

>>>>>A light blue if possible?

OK.

Try this:

(setenv "2D Model grid axis lines color" "13942131") (setenv "2D Model grid major lines color" "14733209") (setenv "2D Model grid minor lines color" "15129005")

Copy-paste strings to command line and hit Return. Create new drawing and look at grid color.

This is what you need?

To restore default colours you need to use these statements:

(setenv "2D Model grid axis lines color" "6114631") (setenv "2D Model grid major lines color" "6901577") (setenv "2D Model grid minor lines color" "4732722")

Re: How to change grid line colour?

Anonymous — Thu, 07 May 2020 09:01:10 GMT

Sorry for the late reply, I just tried it! Worked perfectly thank you!!! I'll keep those command lines for future reference. Glad its not too tricky.

Many Thanks,

Nick

Re: How to change grid line colour?

raissa.spiteri2VN2F — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 17:49:47 GMT

I have tried this and it worked. However, I would like it to make it seen when exporting it into a pdf or printing. How will that be possible please?

Re: How to change grid line colour?

maxim_k — Sun, 06 Nov 2022 16:36:07 GMT

Hi @raissa.spiteri2VN2F .

The grid you see inside drawing canvas is for display purposes only, it is a visual aid and never prints.

If you want to print grid lines, you need to create your own grid in the drawing.

Re: How to change grid line colour?

raissa.spiteri2VN2F — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 18:15:28 GMT

Thank you for your reply.
I tried to recreate the grid but seems to be shifting constantly and when compared to the actual measurements it is not precise.

Re: How to change grid line colour?

maxim_k — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 19:15:37 GMT

@raissa.spiteri2VN2F ,

Yes, AutoCAD grid changes when you zoom in/out, if you mean this.

And if you need this behaviour in PDF or on a hard copy, you need to create different grids for different zoom levels.

Re: How to change grid line colour?

raissa.spiteri2VN2F — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 22:54:36 GMT

Understood.

Thanks again for the feedback. Much appreciated.

Re: How to change grid line colour?

alastair_leith — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 08:00:50 GMT

wish I could bookmark this against my account. going to need in the future again. the standard grid colour is almost invisible in some lights. why not add to Settings, they have colour settings for 10 the things! Grid colours is pretty fundamental to most modern design workflows.

Re: How to change grid line colour?

alastair_leith — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 08:08:16 GMT

@maxim_k Autocad for Mac 202 wont let me paste these lines into the command line for some reason. I can past them to a text app so macOS is copying them fine. Either as single lines or as three lines.

when I click on the button to the right side of the command line panel at bottom of the screen, the command line palette moves over to the bottom left hand side of the screen and when I paste it asks me for a Paste insertion point and just pastes the text as MText. How crazy! Pretty sure I've run AutoLisp scripts in the command line a week ago and were working fine.

Re: How to change grid line colour?

maxim_k — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 08:30:19 GMT

@alastair_leith

Try to use right-click context menu in the Command window:

Now when the line of AutoLISP code is in the Command line, just hit Return

>>>>>when I click on the button to the right side of the command line panel at bottom of the screen, the command line palette moves over to the bottom left hand side of the screen

This button is for undocking Command window.

Re: How to change grid line colour?

alastair_leith — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 08:40:31 GMT

so I put these commands in a LISP script and it doesn't chang the grid lines. If I make. new drawing the gird lines are the same and the command is not known. the current gridlines do not change either, after REGEN and REDRAW.

a shame, this would be useful, and amazed it's not part of the core product in either OS, this is UI 101.

Re: How to change grid line colour?

maxim_k — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:08:24 GMT

@alastair_leith ,

Do you have full AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT?

Can you show screenshot of what you see, when you paste all 3 lines of code (or one by one) to the command window and hit Return after tat?

Re: How to change grid line colour?

sbrick53639 — Fri, 29 May 2026 18:38:12 GMT

This was so helpful, I came with the exact same question. Thanks for your response, Maxim!