Drawing Colours

Drawing > Others > Colour Editor

From Version 2008 onwards, Drawing colours are saved with the drawing, i.e. directly in the SZA file. By this means, the drawings can be displayed in the correct colours on other computers as well (e.g. when loaded by other users or customers), without requiring an additional material file as was formerly the case.

Drawing colours can be saved as FRD files for a later re-use. By default, these files are located in the MATERIAL sub-folder of your HICAD directory. The default settings for Drawing colours are defined in the M_HICAD.FRD file. When loading a drawing for the first time or when creating a new HiCAD drawing (with Version 2008) the Drawing colours defined in this file will be used.

Change Drawing colours
Add new Drawing colours
Manage colour files

If you change or add a Drawing colour in the Colour Editor, this will initially only affect the current drawing. If you want to apply the changes as a new default setting or save them to a new material file, you need to explicitly save the Drawing colours.

Change Drawing colours

Activate the Object colours tab.
Expand the Drawing colours selection display .
Click on the colour you want to change. To change the name of a colour, double-click the required colour item and enter the new name.
Now specify the settings at Optical properties and Colour.
After having specified your settings, you have the following options:

Exit the Colour Editor with OK. In this case the current Drawing colours will be used for the current drawing and saved together with the drawing.
Save the current Drawing colours, either as the new default setting to the M_HiCAD.FRD file, or with a different name for a later re-use. Use the functions of the Drawing colours menu for this purpose.

Add new Drawing colours

Activate the Object colours tab.
Click the New colour button.
A new colour item named Colour nn is added, with nn being an ID automatically assigned by HiCAD. Enter the desired name of the colour.
Now specify the settings at Optical properties and Colour.
After having specified your settings, you have the following options:

Exit the Colour Editor with OK. In this case the current Drawing colours will be used for the current drawing and saved together with the drawing.
Save the current Drawing colours, either as the new default setting to the M_HiCAD.FRD file, or with a different name for a later re-use. Use the functions of the Drawing colours menu for this purpose.

Please note that only user-defined colours can be deleted!

Manage colour files

In order to load, save or create a colour file with Drawing colours, click on the Drawing colours item on the menu bar of the Colour Editor. Here you will find the following functions:

New	Creates a new colour file. Enter the name for the colour file. In the Object colours tab, click on Drawing colours . Add the new colours. Now specify the settings under Optical properties and Colour. Save the colour file.
Open	Opens an existing colour file (FRD).
Save as	Saves the current Drawing colours to a colour file (FRD). Select the required file or specify the name of the new file.
Open default settings	Loads the Drawing colours of the M_HICAD.FRD file.
Save settings	Saves the current Drawing colours as new default setting to the M_HICAD.FRD file.

Colour Editor • System Colours, Special Colours • Colour Settings