SolidWorks Tech Tip: Color in Drawings

Since there are so many ways to control the color of your lines in drawings, let’s try to clear the confusion.

The technique used most often is Layers. Very familiar to AutoCAD users, or anyone who’s recently peeled an onion, Layers are a way to organize information in groups that can be turned off or color coded.  The best way to access layers is…NOT with the Layers toolbar.  It is with the “Line Format” toolbar.  (Right Click over any toolbar, choose Line Format).

The button on the left that looks like stacked file folders is your access to Layers, where you can add, delete, hide and color code your layers.  You can also use the “Move” button to move your selected note or dimension to that layer.

Unfortunately, you cannot move entire views onto a different layer, but you CAN move a certain part to that layer!

In the above picture, the rectangular part is now on the green layer, but the view is still on the Format layer.

So if you set up separate layers for your critical dimensions, your reference dimensions, your QA notes, your assembler notes, and everything else you need, organizing your data becomes very easy!

The second way used to control drawing line color is not as controllable, but needs to be noted.  On the Line Format toolbar, there is a button for Line Color:

And when you  hit that button with a line selected, you get:

Simple.  You choose your color and the line changes.  However, if you hit the button with nothing selected, you get this window, which is slightly different:

What very few people notice is that the box is titled: “Set NEXT Line Color”.  If you now choose red, your next sketched line will be red.  As will the one after that.  And the one after that.  Until you remember what you did to make the line red in the first place and unset it.

So this leads to more than a few calls to our hotline.  But now you know, and can defend yourself.

There are other ways to change drawing color as well, using the Tools…Options…Color… options, but they will change your settings for all drawings, are harder to control, and just not as useful to use unless you’re trying to do a very specific task.

But if you use Layers well, and keep a watchful eye on the Line Color button, that should solve most of your drawing color needs.  And you can always give our hotline a call if you’d like to learn more!