Drawing color standard for dimensions?

[rhmeng]

Is there a standard for the color of dimensions on drawings? I have always used black for my dimensions, but recently we have been looking at using blue dimensions. I was curious if there is a standard practice for this, nothing in Y14.5 2009 that I could find.

 

[3DDave]

One time I used orange for making a test drawing. It was almost impossible to see on the mylar, but it blueprinted darker than the black ink.

Other than that it's up to whoever pays the bills or feels like they are in charge. I worked with a bunch who were so lazy they set all linewidths to .005, making them difficult to see, because they had already committed a bunch of drawings on a program that and decided to be 'consistent' rather than use ASME suggested line weights (in other words, hide their incompetence and hope the customer didn't notice.)

 

[dgallup]

I'm old school, all drawing hard copy is black on white, only variation is line width and line type. Of course, in the CAD program itself there are many different colors on the screen.

The problem with color hard copy is it may be reproduced on something that is monochrome and some colors will not reproduce well.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[drawoh]

rhmeng,

Don't assume that the person who receives your drawing has a colour printer. A lot of colours render as semi-legible half tones on black and white printers.

--
JHG

 

[MintJulep]

ASME Y14.2-2008 "Line Conventions and Lettering" does NOT contain the word color.

There is a 2014 version

 

[drawoh]

MintJulep,

That is because the old diazo reproduction machines mostly did one colour only.

--
JHG

 

[MintJulep]

Ok.

ASME Y14.41-2012 "Digital Produce Definition Data Practices" invokes Y14.2 for Annotation Legibility. A dimension line apparently being an "annotation" in the context of Y14.41.

In my mind, if there was an ASME standard for dimension line color it should be found in one of those two documents.

It is not.

 

[rhmeng]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the comments. @drawoh you make a good point about not everyone having color printers.. thanks again

 

[ctopher]

From my experience, make everything black is your best option. Using colors throws off color-blind people. They can see different degrees of line shading.

Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks '17
ctophers home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[berkshire]

And for Gods sake, don't ever use yellow for dimensions on a print. Its extremely hard to see ,and it fades quickly.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.