There could be many reasons you receive the error, but sometimes your drawing could be too large and/or too highly detailed for the Color Program to be able to save.

Color is best suited for, but not limited to, drawings that are 24×36 (D size Arch) and smaller with scales of 1”=10’ or smaller, but if you are still receiving an application error while using these page sizes/scales or if you plan to color drawings that are larger (36×48 – E size Arch) or have a scale of 1”=16’ or larger, here are some tips to help with performance and saving issues:

In Design, be sure to save the drawing in Color_Ready_Mode then update your presentation, if there are too many unnecessary layers on then this will add to the complexity of the drawing. (see Using the Design Modes on page 7 in the Color User Guide)
Use simpler tree, shrub and perennial symbols – highly detailed symbols significantly increase the amount of geometry in the drawing and make the file size larger. In addition they are not necessary for color and much of the detail will not be seen once colored
Remove all hatch patterns – like detailed symbols, hatch patterns also significantly increase the amount of geometry in the drawing and make the file size larger. Since you can use the patterns in Color in place of the patterns from Design they become obsolete
Reduce the size of image files (rasters) used on the drawing. Consider how large the image files will be when printed – you will find that most won’t be larger than 600×800.

Other Tips:

Cluster plant symbols that will be the same color – although this won’t affect performance, this will speed up the coloring process.
Explode drawing borders – If you added a rectangle around your drawing for a border, you’ve created a colorable shape that can become a nuisance when coloring. Exploding the border will make it easier to color the rest of the drawing.

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