Need to set a specific colour for quick use

Hi, I've got a set of RGB values for standard colours used in a document, for which I'm drawing maps.

How can I make a shortcut to these so I don't have to type in 230,152,0 etc all the time?

I had a brief look at Color Books .acb, but that seemed a little tricky

All hail the mighty CADTutor , I know someone here can help!

AutoCAD Map3D 2008

(Originally posted in Beginners' section)

The colors are going to be assigned to specific layers?

I'm MAPIMPORTing SHP data, manipulating it & MAPEXPORTING it into SHP, CONNECT TO DATA to check and STYLE the DISPLAY MANAGER layer into the colours, then SAVE LAYER.

I'll also be using these common colours (colors, sorry!) for AutoCAD entities but not LAYER MANAGER layers.

230,152,0 is three separate colors?

Are the entities blocks?

Too bad it wasn't being done via the Layer command. You could have used something along the lines of this:

(command "-layer" "C" "T" "250,132,0" "" "")

No provision was made for a specific layer so the above LISP routine works on the current layer. That could be changed however. But, you're working with entities. It's beyond me at the moment. Lee Mac or one of the other LISP programmers may be able to puzzle this out.

230,152,0 is three separate colors?

Nope, RGB values for one color. That one's a sort-of orangey yellowish.

Are the entities blocks?

Nope, most of the data is manipulated SHP data and I don't generally work with blocks. The entities I do work with don't need to be blocked.

I thought Color Books would solve my problem, in the vain hope I could type:

"This is one of my special colors. Please call it "Jeff". It's R 230, G 152, B 0. Thank you".

But it seems a little more complex than that...

RGB value. Yep, that's what I thought. Used it in my mini-LISP routine. At least I guessed right on that one.

Sorry to have given you some false hope here. I'm not familiar with Map 3D and SHP data. I think I've wasted enough of your time.

I'm not familiar with Map 3D and SHP data.

Nor am I, I'm kinda winging it and making it up as I go along, then backing it up with meaningless technical talk that I can bluff through 'cos no-one else in my dept uses AutoCAD. Am I the only one?! Gotta love work, doncha?

Thanks anyway, ReMark, I was hoping I could simply "make" a color on the pallette by specifying RGB values and giving it a name or number. Apparently not!

One last shot. It's a link to something on the AutoDesk website. Some of the software mentioned goes back to 2004 but it might prove useful.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=3276137&linkID=9240618

Sidebar explanation on color/colour...

RGB is a color system using RED-GREEN-BLUE. Different percentages of these three colors get large varieties of color - saturation, tone, hue.

Another color system is what is known as the Pantone color system used widely in offset printing and paint mixing. They use four basic colors to make every color there is - CYAN, YELLOW, MAGENTA, BLACK.

I once owned and operated a silk screen printing company. We screen printed membrane and instrument panels. Ran Corel Draw to produce the camera ready art.

One last shot. It's a link to something on the AutoDesk website. Some of the software mentioned goes back to 2004 but it might prove useful.

 

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=3276137&linkID=9240618

This would probably help hugely... if my company didn't prevent any access to C: drive or installing anything at all that's not an approved list of apps without taking six weeks and being charged five thousand currency units by our outsourced IT provider to "ensure it's safe for the company systems"

I wonder if I have a strong argument for getting the company to buy me a non-networked notebook or desktop and just doing everything myself, this would cost a lot less than a thousand!

Or download that .exe Color Book Editor file from AutoDESK at home, work it out, get my colour book, send it back to myself at work, point Map3D to it and use it. Or I could go bowling instead :wink:

Sidebar explanation on color/colour...

 

RGB is a color system using RED-GREEN-BLUE. Different percentages of these three colors get large varieties of color - saturation, tone, hue.

 

Another color system is what is known as the Pantone color system used widely in offset printing and paint mixing. They use four basic colors to make every color there is - CYAN, YELLOW, MAGENTA, BLACK.

 

I once owned and operated a silk screen printing company. We screen printed membrane and instrument panels. Ran Corel Draw to produce the camera ready art.

Hi Ryder76, I'm familiar with the Pantone system and use CorelDraw 12 myself when not wrestling with DWGs. Our Corporate Communications guys picked out these colours because they're "kinda about right", not from any technical point of view. Guess I'll just carry on working as per usual!

Thanks for all your efforts. By the way, anyone know if I can download a .acb file from somewhere, maybe play with it in notepad, see what happens?!

You've just pointed out one of the pitfalls of having an overly aggressive/repressive IT department. They think they know what's best for everyone. I don't think they fully understand the needs of those who use CAD related software (no matter the program). I realize they need to protect the integrity of the system but one would hope they could be a bit more flexible in their approach. At least I was fortunate that where I work I was given administrator rights.

IT control must have benefits, but it's just so draconian that my support folder gets confused from time to time too. C'est la vie, as they say in Wales.

Did I say Wales? I meant "Scotland".

Once you have that custom color-book created here's some C# code by Kean Walmsley (12-7-07) that covers Using a color-book entry to set the colour of an AutoCAD entity using .NET.

http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/2007/12/using-a-color-b.html

I think I'm waaaay out of my depth here. I'm kinda hanging on with Map3d as it is, but anything involving code scares me

Maybe I'll have to learn. Though of course as soon as I do, I'll be immediately tasked with something non-CAD for six months.

Sorry about the information overload. You sure can "talk-the-talk" though re: Map 3D. You had me convinced you knew what you were doing!

No insult implied. Just kidding you.

Sorry about the information overload. You sure can "talk-the-talk" though re: Map 3D. You had me convinced you knew what you were doing!

I can do quite a lot of good stuff with Map3D, and have by necessity worked out how to do certain things with SHP files etc, but I know my skills are quite specific & limited.

If I asked a Map3D expert to do what I was doing, I guess I'd find out a much better way of doing it! Apart from this color thing, though.

No insult implied. Just kidding you.

HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME! :cry: I'm a highly trained professional

I deserve a lot worse insults than this, believe me...:lol: