How to Change the Background Colour of Drafting in 3DEXPERIENCE

In Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform, engineers often prefer to personalize their environment for better visibility and comfort — especially in the Drafting App. One common customization is changing the background colour of drafting sheets.

By default, 3DEXPERIENCE uses a standard drafting template controlled by system environment variables and XML standard files. In this guide, we’ll walk through how to change the drafting background colour by modifying the default standard files and CATENV configuration — all while keeping your company’s settings organized and reusable.

Step 1: Copy Default Drafting Standards

Navigate to the default installation directory:
C:\Program Files\Dassault Systèmes\B427_Cloud\win_b64\resources

(Note: The folder name (like B427_Cloud) might vary depending on your 3DEXPERIENCE version or deployment type)

Locate the folder named standard inside the resources directory.
Copy the entire “standard” folder and paste it into a new directory where you will store your custom standards.

Example: C:\Customize_standard_3dexp\standard

You can rename the folder or path based on your company’s configuration structure.

Step 2: Locate and Edit the CATENV File

The CATENV file defines environment variables and paths for 3DEXPERIENCE. Updating this file ensures your custom standards are recognized.

Open Environment Editor from the Windows Search bar
Locate the Global Environments section.
Identify where the CATENV file is stored, typically under:

C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B427_Cloud\CATEnv

Open the CATENV file using Notepad++ or any text editor.
Find the line that specifies CATCollectionStandard (usually around line 29).
Add your custom standards folder path after the “=” sign.

Example: CATCollectionStandard=C:\Customize_standard_3dexp\standard

Save and close the file

Step 3: Open 3DEXPERIENCE and Configure Drafting Standards

Launch 3DEXPERIENCE and open any application.
Close it immediately — this ensures environment paths refresh.
It should be like below image

Step 4: Set Responsibility to “Owner”

Click the downward arrow next to your username.
Select Edit → Responsibility tab → change to Owner
Confirm the change.

(This step ensures you have permission to modify and save custom standards.)

Step 5: Customize and Save Drafting Standard

In the App, click the “Me” symbol (beside your name).
Go to Preferences → Standards.
In the dialog box:
- Set Category to “Drafting”.
- Select the desired XML file (e.g., ISO.xml or ASME.xml).
- Click Save As New and provide a new file name.
- Save the file in your custom location:
- C:\Customize_standard_3dexp\standard\drafting

Step 6: Change Background Colour

Now that your custom standard is ready:

Navigate to:
Standard → General → Sheet → Colors → 2D Template.
Choose your preferred background color.
Click OK to save.
Change the Responsibility back to Leader once completed.

You can now open any drawing to verify that the background color has successfully updated according to your preference.

Summary of Key Paths

Purpose	Path
Default Standards	C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B427_Cloud\win_b64\resources\standard
Custom Standards	C:\Customize_standard_3dexp\standard
CATENV File	C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B427_Cloud\CATEnv

Tips & Best Practices

Always backup the default standard before making modifications.
Keep a naming convention for your customized standards (e.g., ISO_Custom.xml).
Use version control if multiple engineers edit standards.
For large organizations, centralize the custom standard path to ensure consistency.

Conclusion

Changing the drafting background color in 3DEXPERIENCE isn’t just about aesthetics — it’s about improving readability, consistency, and user comfort. By following this guide, you can easily manage and customize your drafting environment using controlled standards and CATENV configurations.

Design for any imaging system starts with a set of requirements such as focal length, field of view, image size and resolution. Selecting the appropriate first-order layout from the design library or sample lenses, closest to the specification is beneficial, yet it is often the simplest aspect of the design process. The initial design is plagued with various spherical and chromatic aberrations that degrade image quality and fails to account for any physical limitations or manufacturing tolerances. It is necessary to find a balance between meeting performance requirements and staying within budget. The primary challenge is to overcome the inherent trade-offs between these goals to achieve an optimal design that can be effectively implemented when coupled with physical constraints and manufacturing cost.

The anatomy of a lens is defined by how precisely the design is rectified to eliminate its intrinsic imperfections. The traditional method of correcting these flaws, a manual process of trial and error is extremely time consuming. Manipulation of several variables simultaneously, such as the curvature, thickness, or material of the lens, leads to the realization that correcting one aberration worsens another. This necessitates an endless cycle of design iterations which ultimately stagnates the product development cycle.

Fig. 1: Initial lens design in CODE V with both 2D and 3D views

Leveraging CODE V’s powerful optimization tool helps automate the task of finding the best design. This computational process combines image error data into a single value called the error function, that we attempt to make as small as possible. This thorough, iterative approach yields an imaging system that generates clear and distortion-free images. In addition to enhancing performance, it also improves overall efficiency and robustness.

Optimization: Paradigm Shift Towards Automation and Precision

CODE V’s optimization feature called Automatic Design (AUT) uses damped least square algorithm (DLS) to generate changes in variables that improve the system. Constraints defined based on physical dimension, material availability and manufacturing conditions act as boundaries when identifying the ideal solution.

Optimization Workflow in CODE V

Define as variables all radii of curvatures, thickness values, and fictitious glasses in lens data manager (LDM).
Make sure all glass elements are thick enough and glass index is not too high to ensure design is cost effective.
Set specific constraints on parameters that shouldn’t be varied by the optimization process like, effective focal length (EFL), FOV, dimension or glass materials.
Specify user defined error function or use the default spot size error function in CODE V.
Draw the lens on each optimization cycle and analyze its modulation transfer function (MTF), point spread function (PSF) and various field aberration curves.
Additionally, cost analysis evaluates the glass cost and blocking factors which helps compare relative costs of various design.
Ghost and Narcissus image analysis (GHO, NAR) are paraxially based options for evaluating unwanted secondary images.

Fig.2: Depicts the optimization workflow in CODE V

Optimization tool is a necessity for modern optical design. It significantly reduces the time it takes to produce a manufacturable design thus enhancing efficiency. Drastically improves device performance and image quality due to its capability of simultaneously varying multiple parameters which is never possible manually. It helps ensure higher yield and lower costs by accounting for design sensitivity towards manufacturing.

In essence, optimization transforms the design process from a labor-intensive, trial-and-error approach into a data-driven, systematic search for the best possible solution.

Month: October 2025