Lock HPCOLOR and prevent changes

[troma]

Is there any way to prevent the HPCOLOR variable from being changed?

Try this:

1. set your current color to Red
2. Start the hatch command, and verify that the hatch color is set to "Use Current"
3. Hatch an area
4. Change your current color to Yellow
5. Start the hatch command, and check the hatch color setting: it will not be "Use Current" but instead set to "Red"
6. Change it to "Use Current" again and create a hatch
7. Change your current color to Green
8. Start the hatch command again, and check the color setting: this time it will be set to "Yellow"! Why can't it just keep "Use Current"?

Please tell me there is a way to lock this setting.

I always want it to "Use Current".

Changing the current color should not trigger a change to the hatch setting.

[troma]

Thanks @ВeekeeCZ 

I'll accept that as the solution. It does exactly what I requested and I suspect will have other beneficial side effects. (Just guessing that it will speed up other functions, selecting options in the properties palette maybe?)

@Kent1Cooper can you confirm this? Likely you already had PROPERTYPREVIEW turned off?

[troma]

And to be clear, I'd still consider this a bug.
No-one expected this behaviour, right?

[cadffm]

Hi,

I think 100%, no one

and it wasn't the case between 2013(tested)-2015(researched)

>"that it will speed up other functions,"

Right, all object property change - previews by Ribbon and properties palette galleries and dropdowns about object properties

(PROPERTYPREVIEW<enter>[F1])

[paullimapa]

I would have never thought of PROPERTYPREVIEW. I don't even know what PROPERTYPREVIEW is..lol.

Executing your solution right away even without restarting AutoCAD the HPCOLOR setting stays in place after every CECOLOR setting change. But I'm not able to see the difference with PROPERTYPREVIEW off or on even after an AutoCAD restart. With PROPERTYPREVIEW off, when I rollover an object I still see the quick properties like popup. With PROPERTYPREVIEW on the Ribbon or Properties window does not change when I rollover an object...am I missing something?

[troma]

Select an object, then go to the Properties palette.
For example: drop down the Color option.
Don't select a colour, just hover your mouse over each one in turn.

If PROPERTYPREVIEW is on, you will see the object preview each colour.
If PROPERTYPREVIEW is off, the object will not take on the colour until you actually click on a colour.

In some cases I believe creating the preview uses a lot of visual resources. (An example might be changing the scale of a viewport.) You might crash or at least significantly slow down your drawing just by dropping down the list and moving your mouse over the options. With PROPERTYPREVIEW turned off, the machine doesn't have to work so hard to make previews. It only needs to do the work after you select the option you want.

[troma]

https://help.autodesk.com/view/CIV3D/2019/ENU/index.html?guid=GUID-CBD0C401-9805-450A-855C-9FBDE6D6F...

[paullimapa]

thanks for the very clear & detailed explanation. Never knew PROPERTYPREVIEW controlled this. I wonder what triggered @ВeekeeCZ to think about this setting to resolve the HPCOLOR problem?

[ВeekeeCZ]

@paullimapa 

Well, my starting point was PROPERTYPREVIEW off, so... I always adjust this section in my profile. Working with large objects so redrawing properties just by hovering over the list of properties takes time and makes the cursor sticky.

So, I didn't really understand this issue; it just behaved as expected (2025). Then I came to clean 2024 to solve something else and also tried this one. Initially, I thought of Hatch Creating Context Ribbon (also off), then somehow intuitively turned off these previews. But I would bet on Command Preview... not Property...

[paullimapa]

Very good investigative work.

Looks like PROPERTYPREVIEW came out back in 2013: CAD Forum - AutoCAD variable PROPERTYPREVIEW

@cadffm I wonder why this had no impact on HPCOLOR till AutoCAD 2016?

[cadffm]

I was wondering too, but 2013-2015 works well