How to change default dimension color in a sketch

[Anonymous]

I cannot find anything under preferences that would allow me to change default dimension color in a sketch. 

All my lines and dimensions become black. When working with a complicated part that involves dozens of lines, fillets, etc., the outline of a sketch becomes almost illegible because it is next to impossible to tell sketch lines from dimension lines. There should be a way to make the color of dimension lines different from sketch/part lines. 

Can anyone help?

[HughesTooling]

Fusion's developers seem to not want to use many colours for some reason. Component colour cycling doesn't have enough colours to make it work or useful, keep getting several components touching\overlapping with the same colour and end up create features in the wrong component because the timeline colour is the same. The CAM workspace is even worse, seems to be only 3 colours. Here's an example for a turning op, the stock and profile are Yellow and Blue and the toolpaths are Yellow and Blue!

Mark

[chrisplyler]

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@HughesTooling wrote:

Hadn't noticed this problem before this thread but I use the grey room environment where dimensions are green and lines are pink for unconstrained and white for constrained. It is odd the other environments use a single colour.

Mark

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Okay...checking that out for the first time...and it KINDA solves the issue. But points aren't differentiated. And it's annoyingly dark to my eyes. I still say give USERS color/weight options.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for this tip. The parts don't look the best in Grey environment but at least the dimension lines and sketches are visible much better. I think I'll switch to Grey. 

I see one issue though with grey environment: part wireframe kind of blends a bit with the background. Everything is kind of dull.

And still - why all parts HAVE THE SAME BLACK wireframes? Why not assume the color of the respective parts? At least give user this option.

Why can the user pick what background color he wants? I would go with pitch black background no gradient, and use vivid colors for parts. Currently Dark Sky environment simply does not work with shaded parts that are a bit darker.

Lastly - I project part edges a lot. Boy o boy - how difficult it is to see selected lines change to black on a dark or even grey background. 

And why when I try to measure/inspect features in wireframe, Fusion does not see through? I can only pick what's in front, not behind surfaces? I guess this one is so obvious that it must be me who does not know how to do it right.

This software could be great, if only certain things could be improved... Graphics is certainly its Achilles heel.

[Anonymous]

Please at least give us an option to make the dimensions some other color or even just grey. This is a stupid simple sketch but looking at it is mind numbing because I can't tell the difference between sketch lines and lines connecting to dimensions.

[ronduner]

I know your post is old but thanks! I have been looking for the color differential for a long time. Really beneficial. IMO it should be default  - or maybe it is and I  changed it at some point but don't remember. 

[Anonymous]

I have not seen any changes to Fusion 360 in respect to the colors. For me
this is either negligence, or the system is being developed by a team that
never uses its own system. I gave up and looking for a different CAD. Any
suggestions?

[ronduner]

Change your environment from white to grey and it will change default dimension and model lines to be different. I find this to make modeling much easier. I should point out that I’m no pro...self taught.

[hilgenbergalex]

Finally we solved that,

many thanks to @ronduner  

see my screen shot

[HughesTooling]

This post\thread might be interesting to anyone that likes to experiment.

Mark

[aldimeart]

Sadly, such childhood illnesses ..

[aldimeart]

Sadly, such childhood illnesses ..

[mislerBQ5LN]

Next to color and line width settings for the different feature types, you could also consider a way to toggle visibility of measurements, construction lines etc.
Another useful feature would be to have layers that can be toggled on and off.  That way, if you're designing multiple things inside of one sketch, you can still use dimensions between features on different layers, but you can toggle off layers you're not currently working on.  I think that could be very helpful on more complicated sketches.

[jonnystokes]

I have requested that this feature is added in a future version.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-lifecycle-ideas/add-the-ability-to-change-line-colors/idi-p/99... 

It might take a few years but they will eventually add this. why: because this change is a good idea and has no good reason not to. I am being optimistic !! 

[nibbleshrew]

Thank  you. This is exactly how you solve an issue like this for a wide range of clients. You do not guess what works for people. You internally assign a line a type of say FULL_DEF and then you let the user pick how they want FULL_DEF lines to look: color, thickness, linetype (dashed, dotted, doubled and variants). I've been a web programmer for over 20 years and design user interfaces for a living.

20 year old eyes see very differently from 50 year old eyes and don't forget color blindness. Let me worry about how it looks to me and keep your personal settings to yourself.

Cheers

[Gelunox]

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@HughesTooling wrote:

This post\thread might be interesting to anyone that likes to experiment.

Mark

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I managed to turn mine hot pink in the DarkSky environment by changing these values:

<SketchDimensionColor ARGB="1 1 .3 .75" />
<SketchDrivenDimensionColor ARGB="1 .75 0.2 0.5" />
<SketchDimensionInfoColor ARGB="1 1 .5 .75" />

values seem to be alpha(?), red, green, blue. Ranging from 0 to 1 

Find the file by searching for "DarkSky.xml" in:

%LOCALAPPDATA%/Autodesk

 If you find multiple files, you need the one that is located in a folder also called "DarkSky". For me it was:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\webdeploy\production\b0c303e70bd97cfdc195adab65922cfeffcb363a\Neutron\Server\Scene\Resources\Environments\DarkSky\DarkSky.xml

but this will likely change when F360 updates.

[aa1048327]

I feel your pain! The lack of customization options in the colors of....everything....is quite vexing, however I do understand their thought process given how reliant Fusion 360 on its could component and collaborative nature. Color customization would require a massive new development layer and backend computing power. Having to identify every user's customizations and process that real time would take a massive overhaul not only of the software itself but of the backend architecture. And it becomes even more complex when doing collaborative work, which would entail juggling multiple customizations for each user on a given project. That said, it is very doable should Autodesk decide to go that way, but I think it would detract from their reputation for standardizing the ecosystem.

[lichtzeichenanlage]

This post is wrong on so many points... 

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@aa1048327 wrote:

I feel your pain! The lack of customization options in the colors of....everything....is quite vexing, however I do understand their thought process given how reliant Fusion 360 on its could component and collaborative nature. Color customization would require a massive new development layer and backend computing power. Having to identify every user's customizations and process that real time would take a massive overhaul not only of the software itself but of the backend architecture. And it becomes even more complex when doing collaborative work, which would entail juggling multiple customizations for each user on a given project. That said, it is very doable should Autodesk decide to go that way, but I think it would detract from their reputation for standardizing the ecosystem.

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[Minkercad]

seven years later this is still an annoying issue? That is pretty unbelievable. I am on day 3 of a tutorial, making a paper clip, and it is ridiculous to try to see what is part of the sketch or a dimension line. It honestly seems like a joke.  

[subscription11]

May I know where is this file for Fusion 360 in Mac's file system?

[maruska]

On Mac, you'll have to dig through your Library directory. And keep in-mind that that hash value is different for each install, but basically this:

~/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/webdeploy/production/e379c5f768f16e4cbcd81b81fe59a8562f304f19/Autodesk Fusion 360.app/Contents/Libraries/Neutron/Neutron/Server/Scene/Resources/Environments

[ralf_v]

@FrankCao 

That makes no sense whatsoever. BobCAD is cheap and it has no problem using blue or any color for dimensions.

In my opinion the software should not have any trouble doing that. 

Color separation and line weight is sort of a standard to me.