Custom colours

I had a number of custom colours saved in a custom swatch which I've lost
with the upgrade to 2006.
My parts still show the correct colours, but is there a way to extract these
colours from the parts so that I can save them to a new swatch, or do I have
to try to recreate matching ones all over again?

Regards,
John H

 

John,

If you still have SolidWorks 2005 files available, take a look in the
"SolidWorks (root)\lang\english\colorswatches" directory for *.sldclr
files. The files are the default color swatch files (included with
SolidWorks) and you may have either modified and overwritten one or
more of them - or - may have saved a custom swatch file there. These
files can be copied to the respective 2006 directory.

If 2006 was an upgrade rather than a new installation (alongside 2005),
then the default swatch files you used with 2005 were likely replaced
with fresh defaults.

Another possiblility is to review the Windows Registry information for
the key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\SolidWorks 2005\Colors]

The default setting for the (16) colors is "0" (as seen for Color 14
and 15 below).

"Custom Color 0"="55040"
"Custom Color 1"="15460318"
"Custom Color 2"="13879478"
"Custom Color 3"="5217536"
"Custom Color 4"="15987181"
"Custom Color 5"="16447989"
"Custom Color 6"="2010352"
"Custom Color 7"="14732732"
"Custom Color 8"="14478577"
"Custom Color 9"="16744448"
"Custom Color 10"="7170405"
"Custom Color 11"="13620952"
"Custom Color 12"="14411494"
"Custom Color 13"="16759637"
"Custom Color 14"="0"
"Custom Color 15"="0"

As with any Registry modification, please perform edits only if
comfortable and familiar with the process!

Per O. Hoel
___________

 

Per,

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I'm certain I've lost the custom
swatch and any registry information.

What I find puzzling and frustrating is that the parts that used those
colours still exist, so why can I not extract the colours from those parts
to re-use them elsewhere?

Regards,
John H

 

John,

You can "extract" the color information from an existing part, although
it's a bit laborious to develop a new swatch.

Have a look at the HELP file for "swatch" instructions:

Under Color Properties, define the color you want to add.
Under Favorite, click Add Current Color to Swatch.

The steps above can be repeated during the initial swatch creation in
order to populate it with multiple colors; however, I find (in 2006
SP4.0 at any rate) that, once the swatch is saved, there can be no new
colors added or existing ones removed. (The .sldclr file seems to
somehow become read only...)

I would suggest that you select a specific face or feature color and
then go to the Color And Optics Property Manager to make manual notes
of the R,G,B values and optical property slider bar settings. Make a
list for all the "custom" colors you want to capture in a new swatch
BEFORE you begin creating it.

Then with those numbers available you can enter the colors precisely
rather than having to poke around in attempting to guess the
properties.

Alternately, you could select a specific face or feature color to have
it show as the "current" one as the Color And Optics Property Manager
is opened. Then a new swatch could be saved with that custom color as
the only one in the file. (I haven't found a way to get a second
specific face or feature color (from the same open part) to show as
"current" for adding to the swatch.)

This would be repeated for each and every custom color, but it really
isn't efficient to have many swatches with only a single color
captured.

Hope this helps. (I don't understand why colors can't be added or
removed after the swatch is first created and saved, but at least a
means exists to capture a custom group.)

Per O. Hoel