Changing annotation colors in Drawing - is this available yet???

[dnguyenA9TV6]

 @ClintBrown3D @TimeraAutodesk  

I need an explicit answer from Autodesk .... is it, or is it not possible to change the color of annotations (dimensions, centerlines, center marks, text, etc.) on a 2D drawing??? And if so, PLEASE provide instructions for how to do so (because it's **** sure not intuitive). If not, please let us know if this is actually something you plan on adding.

For context - I am seeing archived forum posts regarding this exact topic dating back to 2016!!!! I am also seeing this topic all over the idea boards, with many of them being marked as "accepted" by the Autodesk PMs. But what I am struggling to find, is a single solution for how to do it. 

This is ridiculous something this simple has dragged on for 7 years ..... especially when this is something your developers should've known on day 1. I've worked in Solidworks, Inventor, AutoCAD, Siemens NX, and PTC Creo, and somehow this software has been by far the least intuitive to figure out.

[ClintBrown3D · Accepted solution]

Hi @dnguyenA9TV6 

Thanks for getting in touch. I fully understand the frustration. 

The good news, is that "Layer Color Control" is on our public roadmap and is one of the features that we plan to build this year. In fact, keep an eye on the bubble, it may change color soon!

We take all of your comments and posts very seriously. Every customer request that we get, from customer meetings, emails, tech support, forum posts etc. gets collected and categorized in our feature request database. We use this information to prioritize the features that we build next.

Sometimes a feature request can seem to take a lot longer than you might expect to get into the product. This is usually because there are other prioritized features in the queue ahead of it. Prioritization of features is based on many factors, but one of the largest influencers is the amount of customer requests we get (as outlined above).

Please bear with us, we are working on this! Keep an eye on the public roadmap and the Fusion blogs, where we will share updates as we go. If you would like to meet with me to discuss drawings, or our prioritization process, please book a Zoom session with me via my calendar link. I'd love to chat to you about this, and to share some of our near term plans with you. Or feel free to drop me an email, Clint. Brown {a} Autodesk.com

[dnguyenA9TV6]

Clint -

Thank you for the prompt response. This was not the answer I was hoping for, given that this seems like something that should've been implemented a long time ago. But I can certainly understand and respect the challenges associated with software development.

However, I must say - you have me a little concerned by the term "layer colour control". It sounds like you're planning on allowing users to change the colors based on layers, but still not providing the option to change colors by just clicking on an annotation and changing it's color in the properties?

For example, in AutoCAD, you can simply click on any annotation (dimension, c/l, center mark, text, etc.) and you can change it's text size and color in the properties very easily. You can even change the color and length of the extension lines! Why is this same functionality not provided in Fusion 360?? I know my topic was about changing colors of the text (because that's the biggest thing), but we should also be able to change text size and centerline weight/line shape, and so on. The underlying problem here is the lack of customization for any annotation components in a DWG file. 

FYI, until there is a good solution to this issue - my team is having to export the DWG into AutoCAD so that we can make the annotation changes. It's a ridiculously frustrating extra step (not to mention we'd be out of luck if we didn't already have AutoCAD).

Lastly, I just want to leave you with this one question. When your developers/product managers first created this software (I'm guessing they all had some type of CAD experience), I'm assuming the created some trial detail/assembly drawings for testing. Did they really not think everything in a single color would present a huge issue when trying to read the drawings? Could you imagine being a machine shop trying to read those dimensions? I will apologize in advance for sounding condescending ... I'm really not trying to be. I'm thoroughly interested in what the design thought was regarding this specific issue.

[dnguyenA9TV6]

Another point of concern is that "layer colour control" is listed under the Line & Layer Control section, not the Annotations section. Which makes me think the limited customization within annotations might be sticking around for a lot longer ...

[ClintBrown3D]

Hi @dnguyenA9TV6 

Thanks for booking the Zoom session, I'm looking forward to chatting to you about our plans.

[barry9UDQ6]

Is "layer color control" not best practice when working in ACad?

You have a template with various layer properties.

The correct colors etc. get automatically applied to each layer.

Individually applying colors to specific annotations is very time consuming.

[dnguyenA9TV6]

Hey Barry -

Good question. Short answer: yes, it is best practice. HOWEVER, does that mean I should be forced to do it? For example, in your AutoCAD reference ... they also provide "layer color control" in AutoCAD, but that doesn't stop them from providing  the customization to change a single annotation element through it's properties. It's always more robust to have options to how to complete a specific task. (This might be where the issue lies .... the actual robustness of Fusion 360).

Additionally, outside of layer control, within AutoCAD, I can simply type in "DIMSTYLE" and change the standard font, size, color of all dimensions .... so this is something I just change once and never think about again. This is also not available in Fusion 360 dwg environment.

Yes, you should follow best practices, but that doesn't mean the software should force you to follow those practices without any option for changing one-off elements. Look I get it ... layer control is important. And I think it's great they're adding it. All I'm saying is they should've added a simple option for changing the color/size of any single annotation element a long time ago.

GD&T is best practice in dimensioning drawings, correct? Nowhere does AutoCAD force you to use GD&T.

One last note about best practices I found funny/ironic .... I found an article written by Autodesk in 2020 about standards (https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/article/Developing-CAD-Standards-Complete-Guide), and found this annotation standard, which was immediately under the "Layering Standard".

[salesTNLM8]

This seems long overdue. I was asked to make the annotations gray rather than black, to make the drawings easier to read. Having seen CAD drawings with gray annotations it does make a big difference, everything becomes clearer, quicker to read and less distracting.

I find it odd that this is not an option in fusion 360. Very bizare.

You should be able to apply a standard or theme to a drawing, Fonts, weights colours etc.

[matt_dickson]

Hello,

It's now another 3 years since this last post. Can we change the colours of annotations and lines withing the fusion 360 drawings? I would have thought that this should be a given in this day and age.

How can we do it and if not now when?

Fingers crossed 

Matt

[ClintBrown3D]

@matt_dickson @We implemented this back in 2022. Check your drawings document settings. You have control over like weight, type, colour and ever the arrows on your dimensions.