Layer colors: what for

[Edson]

this may seem as another dumb question but what are the colors one sees besides a layer's name for? i have never found a reference to this on a book or video.

does anyone care to enlighten me on the practical use of those colors?

thanks.

[Didier Bur]

Hi edson,
They are for the "Color by Layer" mode.
Note that you can also click on these colors and assign a texture to these "layers materials". I often use this because it's an easy way of painting faces: the fact that a face is on a particular layer assigns it the texture assigned to that layer.

[remus]

jsut did a quick experiment, and if you have things on different layers you can click the little settings type button in the top right hand corner of the layers manager and select 'colour by layer' to colour all the objects on the layers to the colour assigned to that layer.

I imagine itd be prety useful for finding out what geometry is on which layer, like if you were furnishing a house, or puttign trees in a garden.

snap dider!

[Alan Fraser]

There are some users that prefer the Color by Layer way of working. You can imagine that if you are designing a refinery or complicated ducting, for example, it would be natural to organise different services and pipe-runs onto different layers, so they'd show up as different colours, rather than an incoherent tangle.

You can still "Face paint" such a model if you also want a more realistic representation, then just switch modes when it suits.

[Edson]

thank you all. now i can see possible uses for the color by layer setup.