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.

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