Before You Open Your Drawing in Color
Before you save your Design drawing to start coloring, there are a few things you can do to achieve the best results in the color process.
Step 1: Save Drawing in Color_Ready_Mode
It is recommended that you select Color_Ready_Mode (version 5.0) before saving your drawing prior to bringing into Color. Color_Ready_Mode turns off the Temp (Detail), Color_Setup and Patterns layers so they are not visible when brought into Color.
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Step 2: Figures that require more than one color may need to be revised
Some figures such as ponds will require at least two different color swatches to be colored effectively. Color can only apply one color to a library figure. In the case of a pond, which consists of rocks and water, you will need to apply two
different swatches. There are several options:
Option # 1: Leave the figure as it is and open the drawing in Color. In the case of the pond, the rocks will be the only part that will color. To color the water you will need to use the polygon tool to create an outline of the area to be colored as water.
Option # 2: Leave the figure as it is and draw a closed polyline on the Color_Setup layer, tracing the outline of the pond. Keep in mind that you can move the water swatch to the background in Color, behind the rocks. This means that you do not have to follow the pond edge exactly.
Option # 3: Explode the pond figure in Design and make use of the closed polyline that has been pre‐drawn in the figure. This line is on the Temp layer so you will need to manually turn this layer on. Once it is visible you can revise this line to the Color_Setup layer.
Step 3: Figures that need to be revised to accept more than one color
The following library figures require one of the three previous options to be able to accept more than one color in Color.
Ponds & water features—rocks + water
Furniture figures—umbrella + chairs
Vehicle figures—vehicle + windows
Hot tub figures—hot tub frame + water
Waterfalls into pools—rocks + water
Fire pit—rocks + fire.