⚠️ The issue
If you are using the default CAD report templates and getting bright colours in the report that make it difficult to read, unrelated to the colours you set for your job, then you need to change the settings for the CAD template in the template file Roofwiz.DAB.
🧠 Background
The colour palette for any and every job created in Roof Wizard is saved with the job. So if you have a pale bright blue colour set for say, ridges and hips or sheet edges because it is easy to see on a dark background, then those colours stay with that job when you select File > Save.
If you print that model directly to the printer, you get these colours and often colours like pale blue and yellow, while easy to see on a dark screen, are very difficult to read on a sheet of white paper.
🧩 The structure of CAD templates
The stock CAD report templates are saved as a CAD entity known as a Sub-Figure saved in the file called Roofwiz.DAB. In the same way that the colour palette is saved with the model, the colour palette is also saved with the CAD templates Sub-Figure. (Editing the CAD templates is described in detail here in the help files and a YouTube video here).
The default colour palette settings for the Roofwiz.dab template files were originally designed for a dark background and they have been inherited in subsequent updates. If you have been with Roof Wizard for a while, then you will still have an old version of the Roofwiz.DAB template file with the "rainbow' colour palette, as the update process does not over-write existing user files during the installation of the update.
So when you select a report to print your report may look something like this:
And when printed, it is very difficult to read. You can see the colour mapping in the figure used by going to CAD > Defaults > Colour from the pull-down menu.
Note also that the default setup also had the background grid displayed, adding to the confused appearance on screen.
✅ What we’re aiming for
Most of us will want the report to look something like this one:
You can see the different colour palette that has been used in this example and if this is your requirement then follow the instructions below.
🛠️ How do we fix it?
There are two ways to go about this — you can fix just this template or you can adjust the colour palette for all jobs going forward.
🟦 Option 1 — Just fix this template
Open the template you wish to edit. In our example we're editing the Panel Layout template, so go to:
File > Sub-Fig > Open
Select the Roofwiz.DAB file and the figure called Drawing-Sheet (as in 'roof sheet drawing').Once open, if you go to CAD > Defaults > Colour you will see the 'rainbow' palette — not what we want.
Now setup a colour palette that works for your needs for this template, something like the one shown here maybe.
You can set the colours for each colour number (note that any colour number can be any colour) by selecting:
CAD > Defaults > Colour Table
Use the slider pars to set the desired colour for each colour number and select [Apply].
That colour will be saved for that colour number in the file Values.def in your user folder (typicallyC:\AppliCad\Roof Wizard\User).Now you can go crazy and set every single one of the 256 colour numbers, but in practice, you will only need maybe the first 10–15 colour numbers set for most roofing layouts.
Now when you select CAD > Defaults > Colour you see the new colour palette you have just created.
Once you are satified with your colour palette, select File > Save and the template figure is saved with these new colours.
The new colours are also saved to the values.def file in the User folder and will be used for all new jobs going forward.
🟩 Option 2 — Get a new pre-defined set of colours
Open the template you wish to edit. In our example we're editing the Panel Layout template, so go to:
File > Sub-Fig > Open
Select the Roofwiz.DAB file and the figure called Drawing-Sheet (as in 'roof sheet drawing').Once open, if you go to CAD > Defaults > Colour you will see the 'rainbow' palette — not what we want.
Select CAD > File > Rd-Default from the right hand menu and navigate to the folder:
C:\AppliCad\Roof Wizard\Programs
and select the file Values.def.
This reads a more contemporary colour palette into that sub-figure file.
Now select File > Save from the pull-down menu and the sub-figure of your template is saved with the new system colour palette.
Next open the roof job you were working on, generate the panel layout and then print the panel layout report.
If you have done this as required, you will get a report with text and panel layout you can read.