Making color plans out of CAD

[Itzik Kelner]

Photoshop is could work nice for the workflow part of it - magicwand, new layer, fill - easy to change colors later.
However it depends what you want to do with it later on. With Illustrator or Freehand (which I like better) it stays a vector file, while Photoshop will raster it and increase its file size dramatically.
BTW: we use ACAD for it (what happens when the design changes? - export again to EPS/PDF...), but I think smart objects cad progs like Revit, ADT or Archicad should be able to print sections as solid color fill. Am I right here?

[hal tangen]

...first post ever to cgarch I think...cool portal... ...makin' me want to be a cg artist which I ain't.

I've found a unique (secret) way to add color to an AutoCAD drawing using Flash. It's quick and easy but there is a limitation - no line thicknesses from AutoCAD. The cool thing is that it's not a bitmap. It retains some of it's raster properties and adding color under the CAD file works great.
Any interest in this?
If so here's how; in AutoCAD it's the command 'wmfout'. First you need to prepare the drawing in AutoCAD. To create a traditional black-line-on-white-paper drawing change the background color to white and the all lines to black. Then type wmfout, select all the entities and save it as file. Then import the wmf file into Flash. In Flash put the wmf file on a separate layer and lock it. Create a new layer underneath the AutoCAD layer. Add color using the easy Flash drawing tools. It's pretty cool and can be exported at highres. Works with Word and Freehand too.
Hope that all makes sense to someone out there.
...probably too long a post...i'll work on that...

[hal tangen]

...first post ever to cgarch I think...cool portal... ...makin' me want to be a cg artist which I ain't.

I've found a unique (secret) way to add color to an AutoCAD drawing using Flash. It's quick and easy but there is a limitation - no line thicknesses from AutoCAD. The cool thing is that it's not a bitmap. It retains some of it's raster properties and adding color under the CAD file works great.
Any interest in this?
If so here's how; in AutoCAD it's the command 'wmfout'. First you need to prepare the drawing in AutoCAD. To create a traditional black-line-on-white-paper drawing change the background color to white and the all lines to black. Then type wmfout, select all the entities and save it as file. Then import the wmf file into Flash. In Flash put the wmf file on a separate layer and lock it. Create a new layer underneath the AutoCAD layer. Add color using the easy Flash drawing tools. It's pretty cool and can be exported at highres. Works with Word and Freehand too.
Hope that all makes sense to someone out there.
...probably too long a post...i'll work on that...

[Richard McCarthy]

Yeh, Revit can do colour plan easily

Infact, it's one of it's strong point for analysis. Check it out at www.autodesk.com/revit

[Kerry Thompson]

Hi
AutoCAD 2004 also supports colour fills and gradient fills, things you needed Photoshop for in pre 2004. To my knowledge, AutoCAD 2004 does not support any patterning or textures except by linking to a raster image and clipping it around the areas to be filled.

Kerry

[Mark Frankmann]

I have used Illustrator.

I am much more familiar with Photoshop but Illustrator, in my experience, is a better choice for this purpose.

Control scale, lineweight and type, resolution independant.

I attempted to atatch an example here but the upload utilty doesn't seem to be working.