There are lots of ways to change paint schemes in BikeCAD.
Even if we start with a seemingly mundane paint scheme such as Solid, we can select the paint color icon and explore the options in the Advanced tab. If we check the Overlay image box we can incorporate any of these images into our paint. If we modify the Transparency the image becomes semi transparent exposing more of our paint color in the process.
Looking beyond color choices, there are a number of predefined paint schemes to choose from as well. In most cases, these schemes include controls which allow you to fine tune the scheme. For example, in the Flames scheme, we can adjust the length and position of the flame and turn the flame on or off in either the top tube or down tube.
With other schemes such as the fade scheme there will be an Adjust paint button. If we select that, we'll see two lines with dots. If we select one of the dots, we can drag that line to adjust the boundaries of the paint fade.
We'll have similar functionality with the Spear paint scheme as well as the Two and Three Colour angled schemes.
The Canada, Circle and Rectangle paint schemes take another approach. In each of these schemes a shape is placed over the frame. You can use the input fields to control the scale, position, angle and shear of that shape. Alternatively, you can adjust the shape using the mouse.
- To pan or move the design, press the SHIFT key and drag with the left mouse button.
- To scale the design, press the CTRL* key and drag the left mouse button up or down.
- To rotate the design, press the ALT key and drag the left mouse button up or down.
- To shear the design, press the CTRL* and ALT keys together and drag with the left mouse button right or left.
*Mac users should hold down the SHIFT and ALT keys together instead of the CTRL key.
This technique is similar to the way that imported images can be manipulated in BikeCAD Pro.
Logos are another important factor in the aesthetics of your design for more on that see the section on Logos in BikeCAD. To show the logos of your favorite brands, see: bikecad.ca/brand_logos.
For some useful shortcuts see: bikecad.ca/copy_and_paste_colors and bikecad.ca/ease_of_use_improvements_version_10.