We use colors in everyday life to help distinguish one thing from another or to help organize things. You can can use colors in PatternSmith to help you identify and organize your patterns as well.
Setting color attributes
You can change a single pattern’s color or multiple patterns at one time. You can set the pattern’s primary color in the project view, when it’s quota is met in the project view, and it’s color when placed into the nesting view. Here’s a quick overview of setting a pattern’s color attributes.
Click on a pattern or select a group of patterns and you will see this in the Pattern Properties content panel on the right side of the PatternSmith window. It’s about half way down
Modifying colors
It shows the color scheme of the current pattern or patterns. Click the Modify button to change the colors. If a group of patterns has different colors you see all the colors lined up vertically. Note that if you select a group of patterns, you will be changing all of the patterns to the colors you choose in this dialog window.
Playing with colors and patterns
On the center column, you can set separate colors to be used for:
- Pattern – before the quota of copies is met
- Pattern (Quota Met) – when the quota of copies is met
- Copy
For Pattern, in Options, use the dropdown to choose None (Transparent) or Custom Color. For Pattern (Quota Met) and Copy, in Options, use the dropdown to choose None (Transparent), Custom Color, or Current Material. You also have the option of adding slanted stripes to the fill.
You can save preset colors at the bottom. Click on the plus sign to add the current color. Now you can reuse any of your saved colors just by clicking on them.
This can help you to organize your patterns by material type or color, or any other way you might need to help you see what pattern is what.
This tip of the month is brought to you by the Autometrix Support staff