topic Re: Layer and Color Settings Not Assigning Colors in AutoCAD Plant 3D Forum

Layer and Color Settings Not Assigning Colors

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 16:55:55 GMT

I have the "Layer and Colors Settings" configured to assign layer by SPEC and to assign color by SPEC as well.

The SPEC I am working with is set to yellow for testing purposes.

Then I have the PipeSupportsSpec set to green (it's the default supports that come with Plant 3D, just to see if it would work).

When I draw the pipe in 3D it looks yellow but it's layer is white.

When I draw a pipe support it's layer is also created but the component is white like it's layer.

Any idea why these auto layer settings aren't working?

Secondary question, is there a way to control the fastener layer and color settings?

Thank you.

Re: Layer and Color Settings Not Assigning Colors

Dan.Scales — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 09:55:07 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

The behaviour that you describe is normal.

The model colours are controlled in the project setup, not the layer manager.

Thanks,

Dan

Re: Layer and Color Settings Not Assigning Colors

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 16:29:48 GMT

In agreeement with Dan. In your case, it seems like there are a few settings you'd want to adjust. You want layer be set by spec, but it seems like you would want color to be set by Layer instead of by spec. the other options (color by spec etc.) actually set the color of the individual objects, not the layer. Then you would simply set the layer for each spec to the color of your choice in the model.

As for Pipe Supports, there is a setting in the project configuration that allows you to determine whether supports will be placed on the same layer as the piping or to specify a seperate layer for them.

All of these settings are in the Layer and Color settings under the Plant 3D node in project setup. Hope that helps!

Jesse

Re: Layer and Color Settings Not Assigning Colors

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 21:07:24 GMT

The thing is, if I select to assign the color by the SPEC I get a nice list of all the SPECS and I can assign a color to the layers they would create.

Only the layers don't come in with the color assigned to them, why doesn't this get reflected in the layer manager?

If I select to assign color by LAYER I no longer get a list of layers that I can configure. Now everything modeled comes in white and I have to manually assign it a color in the layer manager.

I guess my question now is, (since the "layer and color settings" doesn't seem to work the way I had expected) when 3D modeling, how can I have the proper layers be created with proper color based on the spec I am drawing on?

Re: Layer and Color Settings Not Assigning Colors

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 22:17:44 GMT

I don't believe the program will automatically assign layer colors for you (unless there is a setting I am unaware of). The color settings provided assign the color of the object, not the layer.

If you have a predefined list of spec colors I believe you could create a template file (DWT) prepopulated with the layers for your specs and assigned to the colors you want. Then you could specify that as the template file for 3D models in the project so all new models have the layers/colors predefined.

Re: Layer and Color Settings Not Assigning Colors

Dan.Scales — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 08:50:18 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

One method to achieve the result you want would be to add "spec name" layers to the *.dwt template file that you use and set the colours as required.

In the project setup, set the specs colour to ByLayer.

Then when you draw a pipe using the spec it will be placed on the layer with that spec name that you added to the template and it will use the colour specified for the layer.

Hope that makes sense?

Thanks,

Dan

Re: Layer and Color Settings Not Assigning Colors

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 16:10:07 GMT

Adding them to the template is usually how I do it, I was just playing with all these settings in Plant 3D and was hoping to be able to do it through that settings menu, it would have been pretty slick, this way layers are only created when needed instead of populating the drawing with a bunch of layers that I may not need. Oh well, not the end of the world.

Thanks for all the help.

Re: Layer and Color Settings Not Assigning Colors

darrelldixon — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 15:10:32 GMT

It would be nice if there was a way to add this information to the spec file so that it was the same on any project that uses that spec.

We have multiple clients that would require us to add an abundance of layers to our DWT template file that would not be used.