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Table Of Contents
Work with Colors | 187
Work with Colors
You can use color to help you group objects visually. You can also choose
from a variety of colors including true colors and colors from imported color
books to enhance the quality of rendered objects in your drawings.
Set the Current Color
You can use color to help you group objects visually. You can assign the color
of an object either by layer or by specifying its color explicitly, independent
of layer. Assigning colors by layer makes it easy to identify each layer within
your drawing. Assigning colors explicitly provides additional distinctions
between objects on the same layer. Color is also used as a way to indicate
lineweight for color-dependent plotting.
You can use a variety of color palettes when assigning color to objects includ-
ing: AutoCAD Color Index (ACI), True Color, PANTONE
®
, RAL
Classic and
RAL Design color books and colors from imported color books.
ACI Colors
ACI colors are the standard colors used in AutoCAD. Each color is identified
by an ACI number, an integer from 1 through 255. Standard color names are
available only for colors 1 to 7. The colors are assigned as follows: 1 Red, 2
Yellow, 3 Green, 4 Cyan, 5 Blue, 6 Magenta, 7 White/Black.
True Colors
True colors use 24-bit color definitions to display over sixteen million colors.
When specifying true colors, you can use either an RGB or HSL color model.
With the RGB color model, you can specify the red, green, and blue compo-
nents of the color; with the HSL color model, you can specify the hue, satu-
ration, and luminance aspects of the color.
Color Books
AutoCAD includes several standard Pantone color books. You can also import
other color books such as the DIC color guide or RAL color sets. Importing
user-defined color books can further expand your available color selections.
You install color books on your system by using the Files tab in the Options
dialog box. Once a color book is loaded, you can select colors from the color
book and apply them to objects in your drawings.
All objects are created using the current color, which is displayed in the Color
control on the Properties toolbar. You can also set the current color with the
Color control or the Select Color dialog box.