CADENCE
CADENCE
Leading Design Into The Future
August 2002
product reviews
trial runs
Jim Boyce
M-Color 6.02
Plotting is one of those tasks you don’t
think about until you actually have to do
it. You’re generally more concerned
with developing and getting the design
right, meeting layout requirements, and
communicating with vendors or customers. You usually don’t remember
that, in many cases, the plotted drawing
is actually the finished product for the
designer or drafter. Layout and plotting
are a lot easier in AutoCAD than they
used to be, but anything that will further
simplify these processes, such as M-Color
from Motive Systems (www.motivesys.com),
is a welcome addition.
Feature Report Card
Scoring from 1(lowest) to 10 (highest) only
Installation and Setup
10
Interface
9
Features
9
Expandability/Customization
8
Interoperability
10
Support
8
Value
9
We reviewed M-Color 5.11 in October
2000 CADENCE (Trial Run, pp. 33–38).
M-Color simplifies plot layout, but its
real strength lies in its ability to simplify
color and fill properties to the plot separate from those properties in AutoCAD.
Version 6.02 builds on the previous version’s capabilities, adding some handy
features that make it even more attractive.
Core Features
Installing M-Color adds a single menu
to AutoCAD that gives you easy access
to the program’s features. As in previous versions, you first customize the MColor paper frame to define the plot
area, scale, and other properties for
the plot. M-Color adds a color layer to
the drawing in Paper Space and adds a
polyline to the layer to represent the
plotting area. You can then move the
polyline to arrange the drawing for
plotting. The polyline’s extended entity data stores the paper frame properties.
After defining the plot properties,
you turn your attention to layer and
color requirements for the plot. You can
CADENCE Verdict
M-Color gives you excellent control over color,
fill, and other plot properties, and is a good
alternative to the native plotting and preview
features in AutoCAD. It’s applicable to essentially any discipline, because an attractive and
functional hardcopy is the result of almost all
design projects. The addition of gradient,
translucent, and texture fills means a much better impact, and the ability to easily control
color and other plot properties can eliminate
drawing-interpretation errors. The other new
features in Version 6.02 offer better export,
higher quality output, and easier customization.
Pros: Simple interface; file-size reduction; supports unlimited colors; integrates well with
AutoCAD; excellent preview capabilities; can be
used to plot without AutoCAD; excellent integration and compatibility; flexible licensing
options.
Cons: Lacks graphical interface for batch operations but does support command line.
Price: Single license for M-Color Standard 6.02
(no support for raster images and textures)
$395; Plus Version $495; upgrade $145–$275;
volume discounts for large-quantity purchases.
Motive Systems
Tullintori L1
FIN-33100 Tampere
Finland
+358 3 3138 7500
(Fax) +358 3 3138 7550
www.motivesys.com
the bottom of the list and workadd specific drawing layers to Ming upward. This hierarchy
Color to control the way those
enables M-Color to determine
layers preview and plot. Each Mhow to handle overlapping fills.
Color layer can include a
You determine which fill is used
unique fill, width, and outline
simply by moving the layer in
style. The program can fill 3D
front of the conflicting layers.
faces, arcs, circles, ellipses,
Changing layer order is as simregions, and splines. The previple as dragging a layer to the
ous version supported filling
desired location on the list.
with a solid color only; the latest
Although you configure plot
version adds gradient (as shown
properties for M-Color within
in Figure 1), translucent, and Figure 1. Version 6 adds the ability to create gradients.
AutoCAD, M-Color handles prebitmap texture-fills. You can also
view and plotting separately from
facilitate design and onscreen viewing,
apply colors to individual drawing eleAutoCAD as a standalone program. The
and use M-Color to control plot characments separate from their object colors.
preview engine offers excellent perforteristics—without affecting the assigned
mance, a major plus when dealing with
properties. It also makes it easy to
large, complex drawings. Perhaps even
change properties for plotting—just
M-Color simplifies plot
more important is the fact that you can
change the assignments in M-Color
preview and plot drawings outside of
before
previewing
or
plotting
the
layout, but its real
AutoCAD, meaning you don’t need an
drawing.
AutoCAD license for your plotting staM-Color also makes it easy to constrength lies in its ability
tions. That’s a huge savings in capital. It
trol not only which layers to plot but
also means you don’t need an AutoCADwhat
the
plot
order
will
be.
Excluding
an
to simplify color and fill
trained individual to do the plotting.
AutoCAD layer from M-Color’s configuAfter the designer or drafter sets up the
ration excludes the layer from the plot;
properties to the plot
plot properties and saves the configuraM-Color only plots those layers you
tion file, a technician or assistant with relexplicitly
add.
The
order
in
which
Mseparate from those
atively little training or experience can
Color lists the layers determines the plot
then take care of the actual mechanics of
order, which is particularly important in
properties in AutoCAD.
creating the plots. The latest version furcomplex drawings and in controlling
ther improves hardcopy generation with
how colors and fills are applied. M-Color
It’s easy to define the new gradient
faster printing speeds. The program supplots the layers starting with the layer at
fill. You can either choose predefined
fills or create a custom linear or radiant
by specifying the angle, center point, colors, and other properties. The new
translucent fill lets you apply a fill but
still see the underlying objects, as shown
in Figure 2. This is a great tool for
adding shadows and highlighting areas
of a drawing. The ability to apply
bitmapped texture fills can really jazz up
a plot. For example, you might use a
brick-fill on a wall, a grass image on a
lawn, water on a pool, and so on to give
the finished plot a much more realistic
appearance.
M-Color plots the drawing elements
using the line width, color, and fill you
associate with their respective layers.
These M-Color assignments override the
AutoCAD assignments. This means you
Figure 2. Version 6 also makes it easy to create transluent fills.
can assign the properties in AutoCAD to
ports all raster formats supported by
AutoCAD, with monochrome images
plotting/printing with their assigned
layer color and color images printing
using their native colors, as shown in
Figure 3.
Other Features
You can save M-Color configuration
data using M-Color’s proprietary MCL
format, or use PDF or EPS. Saving the
data outside of AutoCAD enables MColor to plot the drawing outside of
AutoCAD. The ability to save multiple configuration files for a single drawing lets
you easily plot different variations of a
design using different fills, colors, and
other properties. This can come in handy
when you need to plot only certain layers
or need to use different properties for difFigure 3. M-Color can handle all raster formats supported by AutoCAD, with monochrome images
plotting/printing with their assigned layer color and color images printing using their native colors.
The latest version adds
additional ActiveX support,
and continues to provide
support for command-line
operation, which you can
use to script the program or
perform batch processing.
ferent types of plots (presentation versus
production, for example). The support
for PDF and EPS gives you a quick and
easy way to export the data, and M-Color
also supports several other bitmapped and
vector formats to help you move data to
other applications.
The latest version adds other features
that make the program more powerful
and easier to use. For example, color
selection is improved, making it easier to
choose predefined colors and create custom colors. Bitmap export provides antialiasing, you can choose from multiple
style palettes when assigning layer properties, and the program offers easier network licensing and portable licenses. For
example, you can temporarily check out
a license for use on a notebook. These
latter features translate into reduced total
cost of ownership.
M-Color doesn’t lock you into a
particular feature set or interface. You
can create custom applications to integrate additional plotting and preview
features using M-Color’s API. The latest
version adds additional ActiveX support, and continues to provide support
for command-line operation, which you
can use to script the program or perform
batch processing.
Requirements
M-Color 6.02 supports Windows 98,
Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows
2000, and Windows XP. The program supports AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD R14, 2000,
2000i, and 2002. Performance is good but
naturally depends on the hardware on
which you run the program. Motive
Systems offers several licensing and pricing options (see verdict box). You can
download a full copy of M-Color from the
company’s Web site at www.motivesys.com
C
for evaluation prior to purchase.
Jim Boyce is a consultant, the author/coauthor of 45 books on a range of computer
topics from programming to Windows 2000
system administration and a frequent contributor to several technical Web sites and
publications. He also is a partner in the
Internet development firm Minnesota
WebWorks (www.mnww.com).
Copyright© 2002 by CMP Media LLC, 600 Community Drive, Manhasset, NY 11030. Reprinted from CADENCE with permission.