topic Re: change drafting screen text color in Inventor Forum

change drafting screen text color

cadman777 — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 01:52:09 GMT

Hi All,

I need to find the setting how to change drafting screen text color.

I already know how to change the screen color.

Would someone please help me with this?

Thanx ...

Re: change drafting screen text color

SBix26 — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 02:43:57 GMT

That would be in the Styles Editor > Layers. In your drawing template(s), change the Text layer color as desired, then save it to your Styles Library. I'd like to show you the appropriate dialog, but your 11 year-old version of Inventor probably doesn't match current versions.

In newer versions of Inventor, general note text is using the Symbol layer by default. You may want to create a separate layer just for text, then in Object Defaults, assign all different kinds of text to that layer. You will probably also need to edit leader text and dimension styles in order to assign the text that is part of those styles to the correct layer.

This all assumes, of course, that the text color you desire is for both screen display and printing. Unlike the sheet background color, text color will affect printing.

Sam B
Inventor Pro 2021.0.1 | Windows 10 Home 1903
LinkedIn

Re: change drafting screen text color

cadman777 — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 05:03:47 GMT

Thanx Sam!

I never would have thought to check the styles.

I want white text on a black background (like AutoCAD), b/c I find it's easier on my eyes.

But then it won't print on white paper!

Anyways, I'll try it out and see how it works.

Cheers ...

Re: change drafting screen text color

SBix26 — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 19:21:08 GMT

From screenshots and sample drawings posted here in this forum, I know that some others are using the black background with white or other light colored text. Hopefully someone else will jump in here who can give you more detailed info.

For what it's worth, I just tried it with one drawing. It was really tedious going through all the styles and finding all the places where color is defined. I also discovered that the color of all of the text in the border and title block on that drawing was explicitly altered from the associated style, so each text item in the title block and border had to be individually reset. Hope yours is easier.

But, the good news is that it printed in black (at least when I printed to CutePDF).

Sam B
Inventor Pro 2021.0.1 | Windows 10 Home 1903
LinkedIn

Re: change drafting screen text color

cadman777 — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 22:58:33 GMT

Thanx for trialing it for me Sam!

I began to test it out today too, and ran into the same LABORIOUS change-over.

So before I 'got in too deep', I quit and restored the original settings (gotta luv unlimited UNDO).

I really need to 'go black' due to eye stress and headaches (and esp. onset glaucoma).
But doing it 'the hard way' is not my cup of tea!

I wonder why the developers failed to consider that former AutoCAD users would want to have the same drafting screen in Inventor, and thereby provide a simple solution for it?

I may try again.

The problem is, I can't figure out how to make 2 different Styles in the same drawing, short of making 2 different drawing files.

Is there a way?

Re: change drafting screen text color

SBix26 — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 23:58:45 GMT

Not sure what styles you're referring to-- dimension styles, or the entire drawing?

If you have extensive changes between two different style "sets", then the Standard style is what you're looking for. You can have as many different Standards as you want, and use whichever one you want in each drawing. Practically, though, it would probably make sense to limit it to a small handful.

The Standard specifies an associated Object Defaults style which, no surprise, specifies the default styles for a whole bunch of drawing sheet objects. You can have different dimension styles selected for linear dimensions, diameter dimensions, ordinate dimensions, for example.

If you're most concerned about the colors, then you may be able to simply select "automatic" for all your colors-- this means that colors display as either black or white, depending on the brightness of the background color of the drawing sheet.

Sam B
Inventor Pro 2021.0.1 | Windows 10 Home 1903
LinkedIn

Re: change drafting screen text color

cadman777 — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 15:37:57 GMT

Thanx for all that great intel.

I just got through creating a B/W style.

Not bad, just had to hunt through every Style element to find where there's a color selection.

I turned all the existing color into 'By Layer'.

That way I didn't have to create all new Style elements for everything.

The only thing I did other than that was create all new layers (same name except with '(B/W)' appended to it), and create a new Object Defaults (same rename).

Testing it out shows that all NEW views have the WHITE color applied to them (text, lines, and everything).

But the Format and Title Block didn't change.

Also, I need to change all EXISTING views in the drg to the new style.

I found this thread (which I visited last year!), but it didn't do me much good:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/possible-to-apply-new-drawing-standard-to-existing-view/td-p/5523455

I can select all View Labels and change the Style manually, but is that how it's supposed to be done?
Also, how about all the view lines (solid, dashed, center, etc.)? Is there an easy way to do this?

I can't find a way to assign the new B/W Style/Standard to an entire view or to all views at once.

I pick the view but the styles are not in the drop-down to select.

Any ideas?

Re: change drafting screen text color

rg_stewart — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 20:56:32 GMT

I’m making a drawing file .IDW
I’d like to know how to change the color of the text while dragging the text? I have black background and the text is white , but when I drag the text to a new location the color changes to black and I can’t see exactly where the text is moving to, until I release the left mouse button

Re: change drafting screen text color

johnsonshiue — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 20:48:18 GMT

Hi! This is probably related to the default color scheme. Try resetting Inventor using Inventor Reset Utility. Does it work better now?

Many thanks!