View settings - Quick change from Black to white?

[sean.simpson]

I am using Vectorworks 2010 and would like to find out a quick way to change from a white background to a black background without always going into Program Settings. Also, when i have a black background, how can i set up the program so that when i enter the layout area the background is white??

Basically, we use a white background to make design drawings with black lines and a black background to make technical drawings, and the ability to jump quickly between the two would save me a lot of hassel. Any ideas??????

[PVA - Admin]

Quick Preferences allows you to toggle it right from the main Vectorworks UI, but unfortunately this feature wasn't added until I believe Vectorworks 2011/2012.

In later versions (I think 2012 was the first) you can also set your sheet layers and design layers to have different background colors, if thats what you meant by layout areas.

[michaelk]

Back in the day, we used to write little scripts to do jobs like this that were added to the UI after 2010.

Here's one that toggles the background between black and white? Just double click it.

Not sure what you mean about layout area. Are you trying to set the fill color to white?

hth

mk

[sean.simpson]

It seems that exactly what i want is what exists in the newer Versions of Vectorworks, namely the quickpreferences Options and the Background Color preferences. Thanks JimW

Michaelk, the Little script is the alternative that i would have then asked for, so thanks for providing it, it works a treat and does exactly what i wanted!! One question, how can i lock the scrip toolbar into my General program layout?

somehow i cant embed it in the program layout....

[michaelk]

Are you trying to get the palette to dock?

I'm not sure if script palettes can dock. (I assume you are using a Windows machine. - none of the palettes dock on Mac.)

mk

[sean.simpson]

yes, im trying to get it to dock on a Windows machine and it Looks like its not possible. Not the end of the world, at least the script works!

[Jonathan Pickup]

I don't think they dock

[michaelk]

Back in the 2010 days, many users had a very large palette of preference scripts to do things like that. They are pretty simple to write. If you edit the script in the resource browser you can see how simple they are?

Managing all those palettes is an art. On a Mac you can double click the top of the palette to "window shade" it open and closed - so it's out of the way when you don't need it. There must be a similar feature in Windows.

[dominijk]

On 12/9/2013 at 4:59 PM, JimW said:

Quick Preferences allows you to toggle it right from the main Vectorworks UI, but unfortunately this feature wasn't added until I believe Vectorworks 2011/2012.

 

In later versions (I think 2012 was the first) you can also set your sheet layers and design layers to have different background colors, if thats what you meant by layout areas.

 

 

@JimWYou mention you can set background by design layer and sheet layer. I've searched for this but am struggling. We are set up with model and print files, the model files are where the drawing happens in design layers with classes making use of colour. I want these to be black. The print file contains just the sheet layer with the model referenced in and classes set to largely black and white , i want these to be white. Which seems like it should be straight forward. Any help gratefully appreciated. 

 

[PVA - Admin]

33 minutes ago, dominijk said:

@JimWYou mention you can set background by design layer and sheet layer. I've searched for this but am struggling. We are set up with model and print files, the model files are where the drawing happens in design layers with classes making use of colour. I want these to be black. The print file contains just the sheet layer with the model referenced in and classes set to largely black and white , i want these to be white. Which seems like it should be straight forward. Any help gratefully appreciated. 

 

They're linked if you use Black Background, but if you want separate control of the colors on design and sheet, you can go to Tools > Options > Vectorworks Preferences > Interactive Appearance Settings. There are color controls for General - Background - etc, all done in the Standard tab in your case.

[dominijk]

Ah, i see where i was going wrong. Brilliant , thank you.