Object color changes to white instead of default color chosen

[chris859G9]

As the title says - Basic example, if my layer is in cyan and i draw a box, on completion of the command the box changes to white. 

- no its not a block

- yes the color layer is cyan

- if i switch the color to cyan in the properties panel, it remains white on the screen. 

What's happening here and how do I resolve this?

Thanks 

[pendean]

Show us: post your DWG file with this object that never changes color when using properties.

[chris859G9]

Uploading the file is not an option - we have a strict N.D.A. on this project. This color issue is unique to this drawing (and xrefs) and was sent by a consulting design team on the other side of the world. And no, they do not have clue on how to fix this - have stated they're "having the same issue" . Yes, the're also using Autocad 2020

We've started using Autocad Architecture 2020 after upgrading from 2015 and am wondering if this is a new feature set? I've been using autocad since R13, so am quite familiar with it, but haven't seen this with AcadArch2015

Is it possible the colors in the drawing are matching the settings .cbt file? Is there a way to toggle this on and off? I'm hoping its something similar to the show/hide line weights option....or a display show/hide option I haven't discovered yet. 

Thanks -  

[David_W_Koch · Accepted solution]

Are you working on the Model tab, or on a Layout tab?  A layout tab can be set to display plot styles.  If your plot styles assign a specific color (rather than Object Color), like Color 7 "White/Black" and you have a dark background, then all the objects will display in that color, no matter what color is assigned in AutoCAD.

For example, I set up a CTB-based file that has the monochrome.ctb set as the plot style on a layout, and I changed the Sheet / layout:Uniform background color from white to 33,40,48, which is a very dark gray.  I drew a number of objects (in model space through a viewport, although they could have been in paper space as well) on four layers, called Layer 1, Layer 2, Layer 3 and Layer 4.  The color of all objects is set to ByLayer, and the layer colors are red, yellow, green and cyan, respectively.  Here is a screen capture of the layout, without having it set to display plot styles:

If I now run the PAGESETUP command, and choose to modify the currently active page setup, I can enable the display of plot styles by checking the Display plot styles toggle at the upper right of the Page Setup dialog.  Note that the monochrome.ctb file is set current, which maps every plot style to the color Black.

Clicking OK twice to accept the changes, dismiss the dialogs and return to the drawing gives me this, with everything in white:

Perhaps that is how your file is set up?

I will occasionally do this, with a white background, to have the layout show in a sort of permanent "plot preview" mode.*  Non-plot layers still show - but we have a special plot style for those that changes them to Cyan, which, on a white background, can still be seen but with far less impact than the all-black linework that should appear for items that will plot (for contract documents).  This is also a good test to find objects with incorrect plot style settings.

* - Depending upon how graphically dense your layout is, and how powerful your computer is, you may find that leaving layouts with plot styles displayed results in slow layout generation times.  After checking the graphics, I usually toggle the display of plot styles back off.

[pendean · Accepted solution]

Nothing that significant has changed in 2020, and if you've been using AutoCAD since R13 (R9 here) it simply means you lost track of something in the file. If the excellent guess from David above is not the problem, and since you can't share files, then do this as a test: INSERT your problem file into a working-just-fine template and explode, bet the problem goes away, right? SAVEAS and go on about your day would be the recommendation.

[chris859G9]

This was the solution - and you're correct, I lost track of the setting

Thank you guy!