Import Custom Color Palette

[yasin2ray]

I have made a custom color palette for the company. I would like to share it with the others in my office. Additionally, I work remotely and we share files through Microsoft OneDrive. How do I get the company custom color palette to them?

 

I used the Help Menu and it states "With the Color Palette Manager, create or import custom color palettes". I am looking at the Color Palette Manager and I do not see a way to import or export a color palette. I've attached a screenshot of what I see in the Color Palette Manager. I also did not find a way to share the custom color palette through the Resource Manager.

Thanks!

Anna

[markdd]

Color Palettes can't be be shared as a resource, however, you can put Custom Color Palettes into the Libraries>Defaults>Color Palettes folder of a Workgroup Directory and then it will be shared with all those who have added the workgroup to their installation.

 

I've been doing this for years and it works across a number of machines.

Edited April 21, 2022 by markdd

[yasin2ray]

2 hours ago, markdd said:

Color Palettes can't be be shared as a resource, however, you can put Custom Color Palettes into the Libraries>Defaults>Color Palettes folder of a Workgroup Directory and then it will be shared with all those who have added the workgroup to their installation.

 

I've been doing this for years and it works across a number of machines.

Markdd,

How do you get the custom color palette file saved in that location? How do you update it when a change is made after it has been saved there?

Anna

[Pat Stanford]

The Palette is just part of a VW file. Save a VW file that has your preferred palette in the Libraries:Defaults:Color Palettes.

 

When you need to edit the palette you will have to hit it in the VW file in the Color Palettes folder.

 

[Andy Broomell]

44 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

The Palette is just part of a VW file. Save a VW file that has your preferred palette in the Libraries:Defaults:Color Palettes.

 

When you need to edit the palette you will have to hit it in the VW file in the Color Palettes folder.

 

 

I don't believe this is correct. Color palettes are .xml files and are program-wide.

 

Mark's method should be correct, though I have my custom palette in my User Folder since I don't use Workgroup folders. I can't remember how I got the file there in the first place. I think once you create a palette via the "New" button it should be saved in your User Folder automatically (?)

[Jeff Prince]

@Andy Broomell is correct.  If you create a custom color palette, it is saved to your user folder.  The file is .xml, which you can read and edit from a text editor.  The color value is stored as decimal CMYK values, where 0.01000 = 1%.  The name field is pretty obvious.  Copying the file is easy enough if you know where to look for it.

 

It would be nice if Vectorworks had a built in tool for import/export of these files to make life a bit easier for us to share with people.

If the programers loved us, we would be provided with a tool that could import Adobe Swatches or other common color tables 🙂

This is a request that has fallen on deaf ears for a while, hence my familiarity with the format I described earlier.  I like to match proprietary colors not included with Vectorworks on occasion, but do not relish the work involved in doing so for more than a handful of colors, especially if they are provided in RGB.

[Jeff Prince]

Here's a really handy one for you guys to try out...

richard meier.xml

[Pat Stanford]

Actually, we are all correct.

 

You can put either an .XML or a .VWX file in the Library:Defaults:Color Palettes and it will be seen by VW when you open the Color Palette Manager. And it seems to load the files on each invocation of the Color Palette Manager so you don't even have to restart VW when you add a new file.

 

So if it is easier to maintain a VW file in the Workgroup with the palette then that might be the way to go.

 

Tested in VW2022SP3 in the User folder, not in a Workgroup folder.

 

[yasin2ray]

@Andy Broomell@jeff prince@Pat Stanford

How do I navigate to Libraries>Defaults>Color Palettes? How do I find my User folder? It's not where I thought it used to be.

(We work remotely and share files through Microsoft OneDrive, we do not use a Workgroup folder.)

Thanks!

Anna

[Andy Broomell]

Go to Vectorworks Preferences, then choose the "User Folders" category on the left. It should show your current folder location at the top, and there's also a handy "Reveal in Finder/Explorer" button to take you directly there.