Last year I found some of our AutoCAD Architecture Spaces displayed strangely when imported, as exploded AutoCAD hatch, into Revit 2012. Many looked fine but a few hatches (exploded spaces) displayed solid black instead of the colour assigned. It didn’t matter as the AutoCAD Architecture Spaces were only used as a reference.
RGB = Black?
Now I have found the same display glitch appearing inside AutoCAD Architecture 2013 itself. Spaces look fine in Modelspace, Print perfectly but display incorrectly in a layout viewport. You can click the image below to enlarge:
- Window 1: Shows the spaces displaying correctly in Modelspace (in an AutoCAD Architecture Project Element)
- Window 2: Shows the Paperspace view of the same element. Notice how some spaces turn black
- Window 3: The same element, as part of a View, placed on an AutoCAD Architecture Project Sheet. Spaces still display black
- Window 4: The print preview of the sheet. Note the spaces display (and will print) showing the correct colour.
The Style Display settings dialog shows the cause. “Black” spaces have a RGB colour specified rather than the old AutoCAD Colour Index. I wondered if it was related to the display driver but loading the Autodesk Certified one didn’t help. The only fix, well workaround, I’ve found is to revert the space back to ACI colours. Thankfully AutoCAD Architecture Project Standards pumps that change into every project as its used.
