FreeCAD Forum

Hello,
Recently, I played a bit with draft-wb to improve my knowledge about some tools.
The thing which came up while working was that the compared to the Sketcher looks and freaks draft-wb old-school/dark (ugly). All lines, points are black, only the helper -lines are white and the snapping suggestions are colored.
It's it possible to change this by default to make it look and feel more friendly?

I miss also some shortcuts for e.g. editing elements. Is there some restriction for adding more by default?

BR,
Howil

HoWil wrote:All lines, points are black, only the helper -lines are white and the snapping suggestions are colored.

Just to be clear, you're talking about the lines and poitns in the viewer right?

Could you attach a comparative screenshot?

You saw that Draft has its own color system, right? You can set it up in the preferences, and also on the draft toolbar. So it's pretty easy to make it white by default if you prefer so.

About shortcuts, no problem, if you find some that are missing, let's add them!

yorik wrote:You saw that Draft has its own color system, right? You can set it up in the preferences, and also on the draft toolbar. So it's pretty easy to make it white by default if you prefer so.

I know that I can switch the colors but I suggest to change the defaults.
Hopefully, I will be able to post some screenshots today.
Let's see if others also see it my way. Otherwise, it's less work when I change it on my systems.
BR Howil

yorik wrote: About shortcuts, no problem, if you find some that are missing, let's add them!

I miss one for draft edit (https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Draft_Edit).
How about: D, E
BR
Howil

agryson wrote:

HoWil wrote:All lines, points are black, only the helper -lines are white and the snapping suggestions are colored.

Just to be clear, you're talking about the lines and poitns in the viewer right?

Could you attach a comparative screenshot?

Here two comparative screenshots. All FC settings were reset to default (deleted .FreeCAD folder).
A simple drawing in Draft WB showing snapping in action. Almost everything is black.
The same simple drawing in Sketcher with white lines and some colour for the points the vertical and horizontal line and the actual relative position. One can at least see 4 colours (including white ) in the plane of the sketch. A nice example is maybe this drawing from Yorik which he exported and opened it in draftsight
https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/File:Ar ... ial_50.jpg
https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/File:Ar ... ial_51.jpg
In FC everything is black and in draftsight at least the dimensions are colored. I think this is not standard but it makes the drawing look much better.


Also the general purple/gray background in FC is in my opinion not really attractive (I know catia also has this). I would suggest a light blue to light gray gradient (white is not good because of the lines in sketcher).

Thanks for the discussion.
BR,
HoWil

Why not using the same colours like for the icons as standard? White with yellow points in contrast to white and red of sketcher.
Here a quick drawing... The helper line is turquoise and thicker, the snapping symbol is much larger and the circle in the middle is larger: What do you think
BR
HoWil

While I like the ideas here, I'd just like to clarify on the icons. The yellow in the icon represents "addition". The red sketcher ones should be yellow technically but for historical reasons are not.

The lines (if you look closely) are actually two tone: A dark outline and a light core. This is to ensure that they are visible regardless of background (you can change to a dark theme and the guideline icons will still be clear).

I don't think there's any real difference between white/black, but i do agree that it would be better for both to have the same or similar defaults (sketcher could use red points, draft could use blue if differentiation is desired) and that the background could do with a refresh. Even CATIA is moving away from that gradient in recent versions IIRC. A gradient is a good idea though to ensure varying contrast.

I do imagine that on the long run FreeCAD will evolve in this area.

P.S. Therefore occasional screenshots, suggestions and discussions always welcomed.

It's very much a question of preference, I actually prefer the black default... The sketcher works in a very different way, so don't see any problem in having it in another color by default.

But if more people want the draft default color to be white, of course, I have nothing against changing.

For the Draft Edit, actually since now one can use the general edit command from the Edit menu, I thought unnecessary to maintain two shortcuts...