Colours

Draft allows you to draw in up to 272 colours, numbered 1 to 272. By default all 272 colour numbers have colour definitions assigned to them:

Colour numbers 1 to 16 are assigned by default to the following colours:

Colour numbers 17 to 272 are mapped to the colours in the standard AutoCAD™ Colour Index (ACI).

The system maintains a dictionary of 61 colour names that may be used in place of colour numbers when specifying a colour or setting the value of a colour attribute. These names (which include the 16 given above) and their ACI (AutoCAD Colour Index) and RGB values are as follows:

Note: The actual RGB definitions of these colours have generally changed so as to match entries in the ACI. This has led to duplication: thus White and Whitesmoke are both mapped to ACI 7, and Orange, Brightorange and Gold are mapped to ACI 40. The redundant colour names have been maintained for compatibility with previous versions of AVEVA Software.

It is possible to change the definitions of colours 1-16 using the COLOUR command. The syntax can take three forms, either specifying a predefined name from the system colour dictionary, or a percentage mixture, or an RGB definition. Typical examples would be:

COLour 3 STEELBLUE

COLour 12 MIX RED 80 GREen 50 BLUe 50

COLour 14 RGB 0, 141, 188

Where a percentage mixture is specified all three values must be in the range 0-100. Where an RGB definition is given all three values must be in the range 0-255.

Colour definitions can be queried thus:

Q COLour 12

Q COLour RGB 55

Colour attributes can be assigned values by number or name, thus:

LLCOLOUR 54

TXCOLOUR NAVYBLUE

When a colour attribute is queried the name (for example, ‘orange’) will be returned if available, otherwise the colour number will be returned. If a number is specifically required (regardless of whether a name is available, a special colour-number pseudo-attribute should be used. The names of these are derived from the normal colour attributes, for example, LLCONU/MBER, TXCONU/MBER, FCONUM/BER

It is possible to set all colour attributes on an element to the same value by the ALLCOLOURS command. As some DRAFT elements have many such attributes this is a convenient way of changing them to the same colour quickly. To set all the text colours and all the line colours separately the TEXTCOLOURS and LINECOLOURS commands should be used, thus, for example:

ALLCOLOURS RED

TEXTCOLOURS 7

LINECOLOURS GREEN

The list of colour attributes are listed. The special colour attribute values of DEFAULT, TEMPLATE, and UNCHANGED can also be specified but these are only valid in particular circumstances. See the relevant sections of this User Guide for further information of where these values are allowed.