Copying Dimension Styles from One Drawing into Another

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In order to ensure that dimension styles are consistent between drawings, and at the same time reduce the time you spend creating dimension styles, you can use DesignCenter to copy dimensions between drawings. file.

Follow these instructions to import a dimension style into your drawing:

1. Open the usardim.dwg. This will appear to be an empty drawing, but it contains a dimension style you can use to dimension architectural drawings.
2. From the File menu, choose Save to save the file to a folder on your local hard disk. Make sure you can find the folder later.
3. Close the usardim.dwg drawing file.
4. Open the 7401f.dwg.

   

5. From the Tools menu, choose DesignCenter.



6. Click the Folders tab.

   

7. Find the usardim.dwg drawing file you just saved.

   

8. Double-click Dimstyles to display the drawing's dimension styles.



9. Select the US-ARCHITECTURAL-DIM-STYLE in usardim.dwg.
10. Drag it into the 7401f.dwg drawing. That means click on it, hold down the left mouse button, drag it over the black drawing area in the drawing, and let go of the left mouse button.



11. Close the DesignCenter window.
12. From the Dimension menu, choose Style.
13. Choose the US-ARCHITECTURAL-DIMSTYLE style.



14. Choose Set Current to make this the current dimension style.
15. Choose Close to exit this window.
16. From the Dimension menu, choose Update.



17. Type ALL to indicate that you want to select all the dimensions in the drawing.
18. Press ENTER to exit this command. If you zoom in you will see that all the dimensions now have tick marks. This is because the imported dimension style has been applied to them.

Using the technique illustrated here, you can make some or all the drawings in your office reflect the new dimension style.

Tip:
If a dimension style with the same name already exists in the drawing, the drawing will not import the new dimension style. To resolve this problem, rename or delete the dimension style in the drawing prior to following the procedure outlined here.

Tip:
Remember, creating title blocks and drawing template files with pre-configured dimension styles standardizes your drawings and makes them easier to maintain.

Tip:
Inserting a drawing with one or more dimension styles into the current drawing will automatically insert those dimension styles into the current drawing.

©1997-2005 OpenCAD International, Inc. www.opencad.com

Creating Dimension Families

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In general, you control the way dimensions look by defining a dimension style. After you define the dimension style you can update your dimensions so they take on the characteristics defined in the style, or you can create new dimensions which will automatically take on the properties of the current dimension style.

Sometimes, however, a single dimension style doesn't seem to be enough. For example, you may want to have your linear measurements measured to the nearest thousandth of a unit, but you may only want to have your radial measurements shown in the nearest hundredth of a unit. You could create two dimension styles, one for linear measurements and one for radial measurements. A better solution, however, is to create a single dimension style, and then use families of that style to tell AutoCAD how radial dimensions should be treated differently that linear dimensions.

In this exercise, you modify a dimension style so it supports families of dimensions.

Prior to proceeding with this lesson, open the 7401e.dwg.

1. From the Dimension menu, choose Dimension Style.



2. From the list of Dimension styles, choose ANSI-MECH.



3. Choose New.
4. In the Use for list, choose Linear Dimensions.



5. Choose Continue to exit this window.
6. On the Lines tab, from the Color list, choose Red.



7. Choose OK to exit this dialog box.



8. Choose Close to exit this dialog box. Note that the previously created linear dimension reflects the new linear dimension style.



9. From the Dimension menu, choose Dimension Style.



10. Select ANSI-MECH from the list of dimension styles, if it's not already selected.
11. Choose Modify.



12. On the Text tab, in the Text height list, type .25.



13. Choose OK to exit this dialog box.
14. Choose Close to exit this window. Note that all the dimension text changed size. This is because you made the change to the parent dimension style.

Now you understand that dimension styles can have dimension families which define special rules for specific kinds of dimensions (linear, radial, etc) and that changes to the parent dimension style will filter down to all families.

©1997-2005 OpenCAD International, Inc. www.opencad.com

This tutorial continues . . .

Creating Dimensions & Dimension Styles

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Introduction

In this project you master the skills required to create dimension styles in your drawings. Dimension styles control the appearance of your dimensions. Changes you make to a dimension style will affect all the dimensions that depend upon that style. By the time you have completed this project, you should have the skills required to create your own dimensions styles.

You learn how to:

• Create dimension styles
• Create dimensions based on dimension styles
• Modify dimension styles to change dimension appearance
• Control dimensions using dimension families
• Use DesignCenter to copy dimension styles between drawings

Tip:
Remember that you can use DesignCenter to copy dimension styles between drawings.

©1997-2005 OpenCAD International, Inc. www.opencad.com

Defining a Dimension Style

In this lesson you learn how to create an ANSI dimension style and draw a few dimensions. You also learn how changes you make to the dimension style are automatically reflected in the dimensions created while that style was active.

You will find the skills in this project useful in creating your own dimension styles. In most cases you should create a dimension style or import one from an existing drawing using DesignCenter prior to creating dimensions in your own drawings.

Prior to proceeding with this lesson, open 7401d.dwg. Remember, to open a drawing from a link, right-click on the drawing, then choose Save Target As or Save Link Target. Save the file to a folder on your local hard disk. You can then open it in AutoCAD.

1. From the Dimension menu, choose Style.



2. Choose New to indicate that you want to create a new dimension style.



3. In the New Style Name box, type ANSI-MECH. This will copy the properties of the Standard dimension style to the ANSI-MECH dimension style.



4. Choose Continue to exit this dialog box.
5. On the Symbols and Arrows tab, in the Center Marks area, select Line to indicate that you want to create center lines rather than center marks.



6. On the Text tab, type .25 in the Text height box.



7. On the Primary Units tab, in the Linear Dimensions area, from the Precision list, choose 0.000.



8. Choose OK to exit this dialog box.
9. Choose Set Current to make ANSI-MECH the Current Dimension Style.



10. Choose Close to exit this window.
11. From the Dimension menu, choose Radius.
12. Select the edge of the lower-right circle in the drawing.



13. Select a point below and to the right of the circle to place the dimension.



14. From the Dimension menu, choose Linear.
15. Press ENTER to indicate that you don't want to select the extension line origin. Instead, you would like to select a line and have AutoCAD find the end points automatically.
16. Select the long horizontal line near the top of the object.



17. Select a point above the line to position the dimension.



18. From the Dimension menu, choose Style.
19. Choose Modify.



20. On the Primary Units tab, in the Linear Dimensions area, from the Precision list, choose 0.00.



21. Choose OK to exit this dialog box.
22. Choose Close to exit this window. Note that the dimensions automatically update.

You can create dimension styles drawings then save those drawings as templates so you don't have to create them in every drawing. You can also use DesignCenter to display the dimension styles in any drawing so you can drag them into any other drawing. You can also use Design Center to show you all the dimension styles in an existing drawing, so you can drag it into the current drawing.

©1997-2005 OpenCAD International, Inc. www.opencad.com

This tutorial continues . . .