M - C o lo r b y M o tive Systems
It’s rare for me to come across AutoCAD
related software which has become so
mainstream, and is over 10 years old,
and yet somehow, slips below the radar.
Founded back in 1989, Motive Systems
(http://www.motivesys.com) originally
began development on what would
become M-Color in 1993.
The newest release, M-Color 9
(http://www.m-color.com), available
now, continues to manifest the plotting
needs of firms worldwide with an array
of new features which include translucent/transparent layering of color, hand
drawing and drop shadow effects, alpha
channel support and much more.
Consistency and Productivity are the cornerstones of the AEC industry. Motive
Systems utilizes these ideologies to maximize the flexibility of M-Color 9. Upon
saving an initial configuration file, standard
AutoCAD entities become empowered
with new display capabilities: regular
color, texture, tonal and gradient color
or transparency, effects and unique line
weight controls. Because it is developed
with AutoCAD users in mind, the user
interface will seem familiar and intuitive.
Shown above in Figure 1, the M-Color 9
plug-in is accessed directly from an AutoCAD pull down menu. Selecting the
Plot Appearance (CFG) menu item brings
up the dialog shown in Figure 2. The user
is presented with several options which
make the workflow pretty simple. Typical
methodology is to manually choose the
Figure 1 M-Color 9 Menu
Figure 2 M-Color Plot Appearance Dialog
layers to enhance, then apply the color
style, line widths and hit ok. While this
sounds like an over simplification, its not,
it is really that simple. I was able to
produce quality color images within minutes of first using with the software. There
are some really great features like filtering
which could easily be overlooked, but it
too, is well thought out and executed
seamlessly. I will repeat myself, if you
can plot in the monochromatic world in
regular AutoCAD, then you too can readily plot in color and take your presentations to another level.
Figure 3 Image courtesy of Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates
Consistency is the foundation of every
offices layer system. If user has a structured layering system, M-Color will make
use of it and effortlessly make productivity
sky rocket at the click of a button. Using
the Plot Appearance dialog, the user can
edit, create and apply those styles to
each layer the user chooses to work with.
Create a new fill style from for standard
choices: regular color, transparent color,
gradient color and bitmap texture. MColor even supports alpha channels in
bitmaps so applying your favorite images
without a background into the visualization is completely possible. Additional
effects can be applied like a hand drawn
effect or a drop shadow, both of which
are highly customizable. I found the line
widths to be very functional to emphasize
portions of a drawing.
Figures 4 and 5 Image courtesy of Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates.
Once the initial associations of layer and
color are completed; i.e. grass layer and
green color conceptually speaking, the
user can save both the styles and configuration so that it may be applied consistently amongst any number of drawings.
The ordering of the layers makes logical
association with the draw order of the fill
styles which are applied. For instance, a
trees layer would want to be above a
grass layer in order to display the trees.
This build up of color layering is the
foundation of how the software works.
I found that even in relatively complex
scenes, the environment wasn’t sluggish
and the previews were quick.
Several exporting functions make M-Color
a must have. Exporting to a PDF format
makes sending out work via email to
clients simple and easy. Saving to PostScript and EPS is another option. There
is no need to convert in Photoshop to
another file format; M-Color can export
to any of the typical graphical formats.
Plotting to a plotter was incredibly faster
than regular Photoshop plotting. Plotting
times went from minutes to a minute.
One other well thought addition worth
mentioning is scheduled plotting. This
is an awesome feature which enables the
user to go home, and plots will be sent
and printed automatically.
Plotting is as simple as picking the corners
of the plot area desired, setting a paper
size and saving out a preview to the file
format M-Color uses, *.mcl. Seamlessly,
the M-Color software opens to preview
and further edit your styles. In the event
something doesn’t visually appear like
anticipated, correcting the problem is as
simple as returning back to AutoCAD,
correcting the file and re-plotting the
preview to M-Color.
M-Color 9 is fully compatible with both
AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. You can run
M-Color 9.0 with AutoCAD 2006-R14 and
AutoCAD LT 2006-2002 on Windows
XP/2000. M-Color works with all other
AutoCAD based products like Architectural Desktop, Land Desktop and Map
3D as well.
Try this software and you will be hooked.
In a nutshell, this is the most professional
color plotting software available, and it
is packaged with a familiar AutoCAD user
interface. It will change the way you
present your work. Step into a new age
of color with M-Color 9.
Steven D. Papke,
Project Manager,
Stuebben Architecture, Inc.
Figures 6 Image courtesy of KBJ Architects, Inc.