AutoCAD Drawing Area - what color do you use?

[f700es]

Ah!!! My eyes!!!

[SLW210]

I used to change the colors from time to time on AutoCAD, just been on black background for a while now for Model and Paper, 3D and others are shades of gray, text boxes on windows and everything else I use gets a color change as well.

 

If you will notice, CADTutor, is slightly off white, you can really tell when viewing nestly's images.

[Cad64]

I couldn't use a white background for drafting even if I really wanted to. We use yellow, cyan, grey and light grey as some of our standard layer colors. It would be really difficult dealing with those colors on a light background. But like I said, for 3D work, I definitely prefer a lighter background.

[MattHull]

Black all the way CAD and Revit

[anniesmith]

Hi ,

 

Please refer this url ,

 

 

Thanks,

Sd-academy

[stevsmith]

Hi ,

 

Please refer this url ,

 

 

Thanks,

Sd-academy

 

:? :?

[ORgrown]

251...but it's not the best. I need less contrast and have been playing with finding the "right" combination so green/cyan/yellow are not crazy bright nor red/blue/orange lost in the background.

[bjenk8100]

everywhere i go it seems model space is black and paper space is white. however, the best draftsman i have ever met uses blue model space with yellow and red lines, font, leaders. dims, etc. There is no answer. Just matter of preference. As far as Revit I use white. I really do not know why. I am screen to screen so often that i do not think it matters anymore.

[ROBP]

model and paper space=black here all the time i use different color layers and never a problem so far after all those years

[paaray]

I always use the default colour.

[luisfnunes]

hello.

when i first saw autocad .. he was only 9. lol... back then he didn't know what a 'window' was.

we only had DOS and of course.. a black background with totaly white 100% crosshairs. there was a top menu (almost what we have still...) and a sidebar!

i think the black background comes from this... DOS screen! it continued with autocad 10... ACAD10 for windows.. and on. i don't even remember exactly in wich version we could change that.. 12 perhaps witch was a big leap in autocad.

well... as for my background colors, currently i'm using 161,153,145 wth black crosshairs in model. in Paper, i always have the option to display paper background and paper shadow so that it gives a WYSIWYG view of the 'thing'.

Black background enhances very much all other colors and that hurts your eyes. you may not feel it all the time but that very BIG contrast on your eyes do cause eye damage. Try putting a lot of Green lines and text and you can even feel your eyes hurting...

I dwell with a background color that:

1. Makes Black be black (Because that's what a black pen draws....)

2. Doesn't give me a headache at the end of a day....

3. Clearly distincts colors 8 and 9 (there is an edge for the background color that makes either these two colors look very different or very similar... and i use them a lot)

that's it for me.

: )

 

PS: I use ZWCAD ...

[RobDraw]

you may not feel it all the time but that very BIG contrast on your eyes do cause eye damage.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

That is simply not true. It might cause discomfort for SOME people. What I've learned from the many discussions on the white vs black background thing is that peoples eyes are as different as the people they reside in. What causes discomfort for some doesn't for others. Preferences and the reasons behind them are just as varied. There is no steadfast rule about how to set up your computer colors. The lighting of the area that the screen is in can also affect comfort. If looking at monitors actually caused permanent damage, a lot of us (especially those who used CRTs) would probably be blind by now.

[luisfnunes]

blind.. no... but using eyeglasses... yes i am. isn't that eye damage?.

[RobDraw]

Not necessarily, for most people it is a natural part of the aging process. This is not a personal opinion of mine. There is plenty of information out there about how eyesight deteriorates with age and the effects, or lack thereof, about being in front of a monitor for long periods. Permanent damage is not one of them.

[luisfnunes]

i'm not a doctor.

all that i can say is that with a pure black background, the brighter colors (1-red;2-yelow;3-green;4-cyan) do make me feel like a small pain on my eyes... and even though i'm no doctor.. i know and feel that when it hurts... it's doing some kind of damage (maybe i shouldn't have used this word in th efirst place... it does sound like 'permanent eye damage like blindness or something...' by 'damage' in my first post please read 'ache' ), and I don't like that.

[RobDraw]

I get the same thing from a white background. Like I said, it is different for different people and there are other factors to consider, also.

[tombu]

i'm not a doctor.

all that i can say is that with a pure black background, the brighter colors (1-red;2-yelow;3-green;4-cyan) do make me feel like a small pain on my eyes... and even though i'm no doctor.. i know and feel that when it hurts... it's doing some kind of damage (maybe i shouldn't have used this word in th efirst place... it does sound like 'permanent eye damage like blindness or something...' by 'damage' in my first post please read 'ache' ), and I don't like that.

 

Try the true color 33,40,48

I believe it's still the default for model space. It's a dark shade that 7 shows as white on while not having the extreme contrast with bright colors that can be a pain on the eyes with a pure black background.

[tzframpton]

i'm not a doctor.

all that i can say is that with a pure black background, the brighter colors (1-red;2-yelow;3-green;4-cyan) do make me feel like a small pain on my eyes... and even though i'm no doctor.. i know and feel that when it hurts... it's doing some kind of damage (maybe i shouldn't have used this word in th efirst place... it does sound like 'permanent eye damage like blindness or something...' by 'damage' in my first post please read 'ache' ), and I don't like that.

I asked my eye doc about the whole "computer screen color" issue since I am, after all, a CAD designer. He said that's just false. A monitor emits light. Your eyes see BECAUSE of light. No light, then no sight - period. Yes, the "intensity" of light could certainly damage an eye, but we're talking about things like welding or the sun, not a low candela monitor. He informed me this is a myth and the real issue in the false view of eye "damage" is related to straining the eye rather than a solid black version white or any other colored background. Constant focusing, movement, etc is the cause of it and sometimes you simply need to rest your eyes.

 

This is when he gave me the 20/20/20 method. Every 20 minutes, look away at something 20ft from you for 20 seconds to "readjust". Or do what I do, on the hour every hour just get up and walk around and shoot the bull for a few minutes with someone, haha.

 

-TZ

[luisfnunes]

I asked my eye doc about the whole "computer screen color" issue since I am, after all, a CAD designer. He said that's just false. A monitor emits light. Your eyes see BECAUSE of light. No light, then no sight - period. Yes, the "intensity" of light could certainly damage an eye, but we're talking about things like welding or the sun, not a low candela monitor. He informed me this is a myth and the real issue in the false view of eye "damage" is related to straining the eye rather than a solid black version white or any other colored background. Constant focusing, movement, etc is the cause of it and sometimes you simply need to rest your eyes.

 

This is when he gave me the 20/20/20 method. Every 20 minutes, look away at something 20ft from you for 20 seconds to "readjust". Or do what I do, on the hour every hour just get up and walk around and shoot the bull for a few minutes with someone, haha.

 

-TZ

 

haha... i do that already (sometimes i must confess.) Before 'upgrading' this machine to win10 i used to have a little gadget called 'strechClock' that would take me to a webpage with wonderfull exercises every 60 minutes.. working with computers is a bad thing for a lot of things not just your eyes... and i don't really need any 'professional' oppinion or documentation about it.. i can feel it! in my back, in my neck, on my wrists and arms etc.

take a look - https://www.stretchclock.com/

thanks for your input on this matter.

[ReMark]

Maybe it's time for you to consider another profession if CAD work is doing that much damage to you.