This Colours page is used by the legacy 3D Viewer and is used to set up the colours used to draw the 3D picture (these use different colours to that of the main PCB design).
Note, the legacy 3D View option will be removed from Pulsonix at some point.
Locating this option
Available from: Edit menu > Run Command > 3D View Settings > Colours tab
Using the dialog
The default colours have been chosen to give a reasonable visualisation of a real world printed circuit board, but you might wish to use different colours.
To change colours for any of the categories shown on the dialog, simply click on the drop-down list alongside the category name, and choose the colour you wish to use.
If you want to use a colour that is not shown on the list, choose the ‘More..’ entry at the foot of the list, to access the standard Windows ‘Colour Picker’ dialog.
What These Colours Are Used For
-
Board : used to draw and fill the board outline. Boards in 3D view are drawn filled, to give a more realistic representation of the actual circuit board.
By checking the box Use Board Outline Colours defined in the design instead of above, you can get the substrates to draw in the design colours associated with the board outline on that span. This is particularly useful if you are designing a flexi-rigid board for example, where the shape of the board outline changes through the layer stack.
-
Copper : pads, tracks and other items on electrical layers are drawn in this colour.
-
Components : this is the colour used to draw the default component body for those components which do not match up with a 3D Package library definition.
-
Pins : this is the default colour for pins on components which do not have a suitable package definition.
-
Non-Electrical : all items on non-electrical layers (for example silkscreen) will be drawn in this colour.
-
Areas : height check areas use this colour, and are drawn as ‘translucent’ filled shapes at the correct height above or below the board surface.
-
Background : this is the background colour of the 3D view window.