Assigning colors during export

The manner in which colors are assigned during export depends on the setting for Color stands for pen in Allplan, amongst others.

Color stands for pen means that the color used to display an element on screen is associated with (and thus dependent on) the pen thickness of the element in question. Elements drawn with a certain pen (or pen thickness) are always presented on-screen with the same color, regardless of the colors assigned to the individual elements. You can specify which color represents which pen in the Options (Standard toolbar) on the Desktop environment - Pen colors page. You can switch the Color stands for pen option on and off in Show/Hide on the Standard toolbar.

Note: As the pen thickness is defined by the color in a DWG/DXF file, Color stands for pen should be enabled for export operations.

Color stands for pen option on

When the Color stands for pen option is enabled, the assignment of colors depends on the setting under Options (conversion settings) on the General Settings tab in the Interfaces Options (ODX).

With Transfer all data used, the colors set in the properties of the element are transferred, i.e., not necessarily as they appear on screen.

Example: you draw (while Color stands for pen is disabled) an element using pen thickness 0.5 and color red and then enable the Color stands for pen option. The element is now displayed in the color that corresponds to the pen, i.e., blue. When you export, however, the properties of the element are transferred, i.e., red in this case.

With Transfer currently visible data, the colors are transferred as they currently appear on screen.

Color stands for pen option off

When the Color stands for pen option is off, the colors are always transferred as they are currently displayed on screen.

Other settings

Besides the capability of assigning colors directly, two additional options are available when exporting data.

From layer: the elements are given the FROMLAYER (or BYLAYER) color; i.e. the elements assume the color assigned to the current layer.

From block: the elements are given the FROMBLOCK (or BYBLOCK) color; i.e. the elements assume the current color or the color assigned to the current layer.

Note: Think carefully before using these settings as all the elements with the assigned resource (e.g. all the elements with the color red) will get the BYLAYER or BYBLOCK property. As a result, the display will differ from the original.