forum.datacad.com

I'm sure we've all been there, we get a great symbol library from a Mfr., lots of useful components...and all the line-work colors are wrong for your office's std. pen-table settings. ( Yes, Andersen and Simpson Strongtie. I'm talking about you... ) Where do they find these color/layer-choices, Autodesk Hell?

Anyone ever find a way to deal-with this? Having to manually redefine EACH window download to match my office-std. pen-color/widths, exploding and redefining colors down through the constituent-layers of each window just doesn't work effectively -- so I wind-up not using their catalog-symbols because it's just too-much work.

A couple options, you can use the PSymColor macro, it can be found in your
C:\DataCAD 16\DCAL for Delphi\Compiled Macros (16 or what ever version you are on)

Most symbols come as a .dwg file. Determine the color mapping you need, and change your Import Translation color file so it maps (changes) all the colors over. Under Tools DXF/DWG Color Map and make the changes. Or you can just edit directly the Default.tbl under support files. Last portion of file after
[Import]
A_Color_1=2

The acad color change to dcad color.

Combine Roger's suggestion with Drag-n-Drop and you can convert lots of DWG Symbols in short order. Once you've got your conversion settings established, you can temporarily change the Import Method on the DXF/DWG tab of Program Preferences from 'Interactively' to 'Automatically.' That way you can open/covert each symbol without being prompted with the translation dialog each time.