Drawing Color Studio — Release Notes

v1.10.0

October 2026

Works on every Windows language, safer batch coloring, buy without a trial

A reliability release: activation works whatever your Windows regional settings, coloring many drawings at once is safer, and change highlighting is more accurate.

Activation now works on every Windows region and language setting. Computers set to Finnish, Thai, Arabic, Persian or a custom time format could fail to activate before.
Coloring many drawings is safer — if one drawing cannot be opened or fails, the others are still colored, the failed ones are listed, and the drawing you had open is put back on screen.
Changes since the last issue keeps working after you renumber the model, and tiny position or weight differences are no longer reported as changes.
Auto-color recognizes its own changes, so it no longer repeats itself, and newly added parts are colored.
Legend piece counts now count each part once, even when it appears in several views.
When your trial or license ends while the app is open, it tells you and opens the License window, so you can enter a key without restarting.
See the plans, prices and your Machine ID before starting a trial.
Deactivate keeps your license on this computer if the server cannot free the seat, instead of removing it anyway.
Licensing and security improvements.
The first launch after updating needs an internet connection while the app re-activates; after that it runs offline as usual.

v1.9.0

September 29, 2026

Auto-color, changes since the last issue, working face opacity

Drawings can now color themselves, you can see exactly what changed after a drawing was issued, and the face opacity control now does what it says.

Auto-color — tick the box and drawings are colored automatically when you open them or Tekla updates them, using your current groups and colors. It pauses while you use Apply, Preview, Scan or Reset.
What changed since the last issue — take a baseline when you issue a drawing, then highlight what changed after it. Changed and new parts get the colors you choose (orange and blue by default), unchanged parts can be shown in grey, with an optional legend and a list of parts that are gone. Baselines are stored on your computer.
Face opacity now works — lower it for a lighter tint of the fill color. Tekla drawings cannot make fills see-through, so the color is mixed with the white paper. Existing presets keep their full-color look.
Interface text now uses American spelling (Color).
The first launch after updating needs an internet connection while the app re-activates; after that it runs offline as usual.

v1.8.0

September 2, 2026

Grid & dimension color, refreshed interface, instant trial

Coloring now reaches grids and dimensions, the main window has been redesigned, and a new 14-day trial starts the moment you enter your details.

Grid color — set the color of grid lines and grid labels.
Dimension color — set the color of dimension lines and dimension text, for straight and curved dimension sets.
Grid and dimension colors are saved in your .dcs presets, shown in Preview, and cleared by Reset Drawings, exactly like part colors.
Redesigned interface — a cleaner layout in the FEM Structures colors, with light and dark themes.
Instant 14-day trial — enter your name and email and the app opens straight away, with no approval wait.
New Licence window — your plan, days remaining and every pricing option in one place.
The first launch after updating needs an internet connection while the app re-activates; after that it runs offline as usual.

v1.7.0

August 5, 2026

Standalone Windows installer and one-click in-app updates

Drawing Color Studio is now also available as a standalone Windows installer (setup.exe) for the website, alongside the Tekla extension package on Tekla Warehouse. The app checks for new versions on every launch and can download, verify and run the installer for you.

Standalone install on Windows 10/11 — no Tekla Extension Manager required.
In-app update: verified download (SHA-256) and one-click in-place install.
Tekla extension (.tsep) remains available from Tekla Warehouse for Tekla users.
Legend titles and section headings remain visible on white drawing sheets.
Selected-drawing scans and batch resets preserve and restore the previously active drawing.
Open-drawing resets leave the drawing open, and click-to-place legend positioning is restored.
PDF/HTML export selection, locale-stable values, large-list filtering, and several edge cases are corrected.

v1.6.1

August 3, 2026

Drawing workflow and reliability fixes (superseded)

Superseded by v1.7.0 because Tekla 2020-2026 does not apply patch-only TSEP upgrades over an installed version with the same major and minor number.

Legend titles and section headings now remain visible on white drawing sheets.
Selected-drawing scans preserve and restore the drawing that was active before the scan.
Resetting the open drawing leaves it open, while batch resets return to the user's previous drawing.
Click-to-place legend positioning is restored for previews and open-drawing applies.
PDF and HTML export selection, locale-stable UDA/report values, large-list filtering, and several edge cases are corrected.

v1.6.0

July 31, 2026

Presets, bolt coloring, and redesigned legends

This release adds faster reusable color workflows, exact unique palettes, bolt-size visualization, and a more compact legend experience.

Tekla-style presets can be saved, loaded, renamed, and removed from the compact top toolbar.
Initial, reset, and newly randomized palettes assign a unique color to every scanned group.
Bolt groups can be colored by bolt size and optionally included as a separate legend section.
Legend headings adapt to the selected coloring type, including profiles, phases, materials, classes, assemblies, and UDA values.
Legends use clean colored swatches and labels without an opaque background panel.
Compact legend settings avoid overlap at the default window size and stay open while options are adjusted.

v1.5.4