Changing SOLIDWORKS Temporary Graphics Colors

This article was created out of my need to clearly display the auto-alignment prompts for text and dimensions in SOLIDWORKS. This was a serious issue in drawings and parts when sharing screens or presenting in a classroom environment. The problem was that the default yellow color didn’t have enough contrast. In this tip, learn how to change the temporary colors for graphics and shaded previews in SOLIDWORKS.

The following curvature combs and ruled surface were very hard to see.

The text alignment prompts in the drawing were worse.

If you didn’t already know, there are many custom color scheme options available in SOLIDWORKS. However, I’d venture that most users, like me, make very little use of or changes to the out-of-the-box default colors.

There are far too many color options to cover here, but explore the different color schemes and background options, you can always reset back to the defaults.

Changing Temporary Graphics Colors

Back to the temporary graphics, we see text and dimension alignment in drawings and preview graphics in model features. There are two Temporary Graphic color settings that play a role:

• Temporary Graphics - for drawing items like text and dimension alignment.
• Temporary Graphics, Shaded - for things like Curvature Combs, feature preview color, etc.

These are the custom colors I chose for contrast - and they made a difference.

SOLIDWORKS provides a wide range of individual color preferences to communicate critical data back to the user with a simple glance. Use your best judgment, keep it simple, and obvious if you are setting up colors to share these settings between users. More contrast with the surrounding features is always better.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Check out more tips and tricks below. Additionally, join the GoEngineer Community to participate in the conversation, create forum posts, and answer questions from other SOLIDWORKS users. 

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