I’ve seen a post or two about Submarine manager and set up an account with github but haven’t a clue how to find the download let alone implement it. I’ve also seen where you can supposedly double click a wire to change the colors but yeah, that doesn’t seem to work. Pls advise,
You don’t need to go to github, it’s in the VCV Rack library
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You can open <Rack user folder>/settings.json with a text editor (while Rack is closed) and edit the "cableColors" property.
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Your question is a bit ambiguous. I assume you want to change the color of existing cables, which is something that I often want to do. I was also frustrated for a while, seeing posts about how to do it, but never enough detail for me to understand exactly how. I eventually read enough posts and experimented to figure out a few ways to do this.
I think the most straightforward to use is the Stoermelder STROKE module, but it takes some significant setup - there are three steps required to setup each color. I’ll write this from a Windows perspective - I don’t know the Mac equivalents. You can right click on one of the blue shortcut definition slots to bring up the definition context menu. Select “cables”, and then “color” in the submenu. This doesn’t do anything other than enable a new colors submenu. Now repeat, selecting “cables”, and then “color”, and then enter the RGB hex code in the grey area in the new submenu. The area above will show the selected color. There are lots of generic tools out in the world to help you discover the hex codes needed for the color you want - just use your favorite web search engine looking for “color picker”. The last step is to right click again and press “Learn” to then assign a key sequence for that shortcut. You can use any combination of Shift/Alt/Ctrl with whatever key you want. The 3 step process is repeated for each color you want to assign - each needs its own keyboard shortcut. Once defined you can simply hover over the target cable and press your keyboard shortcut.
I think there is a way to save your shortcuts as a default configuration so they are automatically available any time you add the STROKE module, but I have yet to invest the time to figure that out. The other option is to create/save a utilities strip with the Stoermelder STRIP module that includes your pre-configured STROKE module. Then load that strip into any patch that needs it.
The other option is to use the Submarine WM-101 (Wire Manager) module. It is not quite as intuitive to use, but there is no setup needed - it works right out of the box. First make sure you have your desired array of colors available. You can click on the overlapping squares to select from a pre-configured list of colors, or you can press the big “+” to define and add your own custom color(s).
Once you have your colors available, then you can use the check boxes to select which colors are available when you add cables - it cycles through your selected cables. If only one color is selected, then you will always get that color.
There are two methods to quickly change the color of an existing cable. The intended method is to right click on the color in the WM-101, and select “Color one wire…”. Then simply click on the cable to change to that color. But I don’t find that very convenient if trying to change many cables in a large patch.
The other option is to make sure that your target color is the only one checked in the WM-101. Then right click on the cable terminus to delete the cable, and then press Ctrl-Z to undo - the cable will be recreated with the new color. This is a very quick process, and works well when changing the color of many cables in a large patch. The only trick with this method is you must do the operations in the correct order. If you delete the cable, and then select your color, and then undo, the undo will undo your WM-101 color selection. The next undo will restore the cable with the original color.
I wish the WM-101 had an option to make the color checkboxes radio buttons so that it was trivial to select your color. But it still works well as is.
Maybe VCV-2 will have a simpler built in way to change existing color cables?
If there is a simpler way to do any of this, please, someone post some clear instructions.
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Thanks everyone - haven’t had a chance to work on this yet but yeah, seems like a right click on the wire to give you some options including color would have been great but for a free bit of software like this, hard to look the gift horse in the mouth. And thanks Dave for your detailed effort. I too do this from time to time when I’m frustrated by a lack of clarity in something and wish to let someone else know what I had to do. Helps a lot.
I’d also like to be able to adjust tension but it’s a minor thing.
ooh yes, and actually be able to plot the route just to clean it all up. 
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