New properties for color and type of section lines, own hidden lines, and center lines

You can now control the color and type of section lines, own hidden lines, and center lines for parts and neighbor parts in drawings through the object and view level properties. In general arrangement (GA) drawings, you can also manage these properties through the drawing level properties. The new line properties support both standard colors and custom RGB colors.

Why are new line properties needed?

• The section line color may need to be different based on the part material. The selected color also affects the section line thickness in the output.
• A part may require a center line that is different in type or thickness.
• Controlling hidden and own hidden lines separately is sometimes necessary to ensure a clear distinction between recesses, embeds, and other hidden objects.

Previously, you could only control individually the color and type of visible lines, hidden lines, and reference lines for parts and neighbor parts, but not those of section lines, own hidden lines, or center lines. The Hidden lines property also affected own hidden lines. Also, you could only adjust the center line type and section line color using advanced options. The advanced options listed below are still supported, and they override the new line properties set in the drawing, view, or object level properties:

• XS_CENTER_LINE_TYPE
• XS_SECTION_LINE_COLOR_RGB

Own hidden lines available in DWG/DXF/DGN export presentation filtering

A new option, Own hidden lines, has been added to the Presentation filtering list in the Export drawings as DWG/DXF/DGN dialog allowing you to map own hidden lines to a different layer/level.

Open API support

Open API now supports the new properties for drawing part and neighbor part lines: Section lines, Own hidden lines, and Center line.

Limitations

The following features do not support the new line properties:

• Old fabrication drawing property dialogs (visible when XS_USE_OLD_DRAWING_CREATION_SETTINGS is set to TRUE)
• The old object-level drawing part property dialog available through Quick Launch only
• Contextual toolbar

Printing Special color hatches in old drawings

In Tekla Structures 2024, when you printed drawings that were created in Tekla Structures versions older than 2024 using Black and white or Tekla Grayscale printing color mode, the Special color used in hatches in the old drawings was printed as black, hiding all the overlapping lines and markings. In previous Tekla Structures versions, a Special color could be defined for hatches using the advanced options XS_HATCH_SPECIAL_COLOR_R, XS_HATCH_SPECIAL_COLOR_G, and XS_HATCH_SPECIAL_COLOR_B. This issue has now been fixed and the Special color is shown correctly in all printing color modes.

This improvement was already introduced in Tekla Structures 2024 SP1.

Drawing color palette - New location for Invisible and None

The Invisible and None color options are now located at the end of the standard color list in the color palette. Earlier, they were located at the beginning. Invisible and None may or may not be shown in the color palette depending on where you open the color palette, and previously, the position of other colors could change. Now when the location of the colors no longer changes, selecting colors is more efficient.

This improvement was already introduced in Tekla Structures 2024 SP1.

New button for creating a new color palette file

The color palette has a new button, Create a new color palette file, for creating a new, empty color palette. The new button is located at the bottom of the color palette dialog, and it is active in color editing mode.

• The Create a new color palette file button removes all custom colors from the color list and clears the color palette file name, so that you can start creating the new palette from scratch.
• To prevent accidental emptying of the color list, the button is not active when there are unsaved changes in the color palette dialog.

This improvement was already introduced in Tekla Structures 2024 SP2.

Color palette state is now shared

The state of the color palette, meaning the color palette view mode (grid or list) and the collapsed or expanded state of the Standard and Custom color categories, is now shared between all the locations where you can open the color palette and between color editing and selecting modes. The state of the color palette is also shared between Tekla Structures sessions, automatically showing the state that the color palette was in when you restart Tekla Structures.

This improvement was already introduced in Tekla Structures 2024 SP2.

New custom RGB colors to pattern lines

Now you can also apply custom RGB colors to the pattern lines that you add in drawings using the Pattern line command. Pattern lines are special and complex lines that you can easily create and apply to drawings. To use custom colors when adding pattern lines, click the browse button in the Pattern line properties and select a color from a custom color palette.

Custom colors are available for selection when you are adding pattern lines in the drawing using the Pattern line command, but not when you are creating the line patterns in the Pattern line editor.

This improvement was already introduced in Tekla Structures 2024 SP3.

For more information about pattern lines, see Create and add pattern lines in drawings,