🎨 Colours in Roof Wizard
Receiving files from different users and locations in Roof Wizard can result in some strange colour settings in the software from time to time.
Without an understanding of how colours work in Roof Wizard, confusion can result in the problem seeming to spread.
This document serves to explain how it all hangs together.
Before we begin, there are two definitions that need to be outlined before we go any further:
🔢 COLOUR INDEX
This is the number assigned to any colour in the software.
This number can be anywhere from 0 to 255 (providing up to 256 colour indexes or numbers) and any colour index number can be any colour – see below, colour component).
Colour indexes are assigned to all Roof Wizard elements - points, lines, surfaces and text all have a defined colour index number by default.
The colours for your line types, such as Ridge, Hip, Valley etc. are all defined in Roof Wizard under Set Up> Preference Settings> System Preferences> Set Line Styles.
All line and roof / wall plane style information is stored within the file LINESTYLES_V6.CSV saved in the …User folder.
🧩 COLOUR COMPONENT
The percentage of Red, Green and Blue (RGB) components define the colour of any colour number or index in the software.
Colour components are stored away with each Model or Figure saved, however these colours are also stored in the system defaults file, VALUES.DEF. The colour table is defined under CAD > Defaults > Colour Table as shown below.
When the software first starts, a model or figure is not normally pre-loaded as the software loads, so it loads the default colours from the values file.
Roof Wizard allows you to save and read of any number of *.DEF files, and these can be used to load any number of colour palettes by modifying the RGB colour components dynamically while the software is running.
🛠️ FIXING MODEL LINE COLOURS
Given the above knowledge, here’s how to overcome most of the common issues that befall AppliCad Roof Wizard customers as regards defaults line styles and colours, especially when reading a model from another user, who may be using a different colour palette to you.
📂 Wrong Colours when loading another Customer’s Database/Model
When loading another customer’s database/model, the colour components from that model will be used while that model is open on screen.
To migrate the model to use your colour components, simply select CAD > File > Rd-Defaults > VALUES.DEF from the right-hand menu and re-load your colour components.
Re-painting the model will then affect this change. If you want these colours to stay with the model, don’t forget to File > Save model.
💾 Fixing Wrong Colours after reading another Customer’s Database / Model
In the prior example, if you were to read another customer’s database/model, and then select File > Layout > Save Values, you will overwrite your original VALUES.DEF file with the colour components from your customer’s model.
To fix this, simply load one of your previous models with the colours and styles that you wish to use, verify that the colour components are correct, and then select File > Layout > Save Values.
🧷 Make a Backup of your colour for the future
A lot of our customers want to make sure that their colours don’t change in the future, but the above two steps explain how colours can be easily modified.
The best way to store your colours away for safe keeping is to ensure your colour indexes and components are as you want them, then go to CAD > File > Wr-Def-All from the right hand menu and save away your settings to a file with a name such as COLOURS.DEF or similar. This is not s standard colours file – it is your own, new colours file.
You can then modify the file manually in a text editor such as Notepad.EXE or Wordpad.EXE to remove all but the colour references (see line items beginning with ‘C’ below):
The only other line that should exist in the file is a single “E” line at the end of the file to signify the end of the file.
This modified file can then be saved using the File > Save option within Notepad .EXE or Wordpad.EXE to save the file to a safe location, typically in your User folder so it is easy to find and gets backed up along with everything else.
If at any stage in the future the colour indexes change, the user can then read these colours into the software by selecting CAD > File > Rd-Default from the right-hand menu and selecting the file saved away. (COLOURS.DEF or whatever you called it.)
⚠️ NOTE
Roof Wizard only has 256 colours in its palette for use, including the background, menu, text and other system colours.
These colours are stored as the upper colour ranges in the 256 colour palette.
Since 16 of these colours exist, it is suggested that the Roof Wizard software user does not try to modify colours 240-256, as these will modify the system colours also.
System colours include the workspace background and menus etc.


