AS Prototype DIMSTYLE won't change

[l_taylor2]

Ok, I have been fighting with this for hours now with no luck. I have been trying to customize the Dimstyle on my drawing prototypes as per this knowledge base article: Customize Dimstyle 

Seems straightforward enough, but it doesn't work. I modify the dimstyle in the prototype, set current, save the prototype, try generating drawings with that prototype, no luck. I get everything from totally messed up dimstyles (like odd sized text and decimals instead of fractions) to just no change at all. I have tried saving a differently named dimstyle and pointing to it in management tools to just modifying the AS_DIMSTYLE1 in case the managment tools pointing wasn't working. No luck with anything.

Please help, this seems like such a stupid thing to have to fight with considering that there is actually a very clear knowledge base article on how to do it.

Thanks in advance.

Levi

[DumitruBerteanu · Accepted solution]

Hi. Modifying the dimension style is indeed straightforward, especially when you do it from the prototype. All you need to take care is that its name from the prototype matches the name in the Management Tools Defaults : "Dimension style of linear dimensions"

Also you need to make sure that the modified prototype is used when creating the drawing(s) :), so if its a new prototype, you will need to modify the drawing process as well.

You mention "odd size text" and decimals : this sounds as one of the AutoCAD dim styles that exist in the prototype, or even one of the hardcoded options. This happens strictly because Advance Steel can't match the value of the Dimension style default to the actual dimension style in the prototype. Please make sure they are the same - including number of blank spaces or other characters that you may use. Also check if the prototype style or the default doesn't have a trailing blank space, not visible at first glance but that can affect the matching. 

[l_taylor2]

Ok, I think that may have helped me figure it out, it is still a bit odd but I'll test it a bit more today and see if my results are consistent.

Here is what I think I was doing wrong, rather than bother with changing the drawing processes right away I was testing the dimstyle changes on the prototypes by generating drawings using the standard processes and then just changing the drawing prototype from the document manager, which for the record does not yield the correct results. When I use a drawing style and then tell it to use my prototype then it does indeed use the correct dimstyle. I will now have to go modify the drawing processes so they use my customized prototypes and see if it still works. I will post back to let everyone know.

Thanks for the help so far.

Levi

[DumitruBerteanu · Accepted solution]

When you change the prototype, the dimension chain on your drawing retain its dimension style, and that dimension style also transfers to the sheet based on your new prototype. This can even overwrite the one on the prototype : for example you have a prototype where AS_DIM_STYLE1 is configured with red text, and a drawing created with a different prototype where AS_DIM_STYLE1 has the text blue. When you change the prototype, the existing AS_DIM_STYLE1 on the prototype (with red) will be replaced by the one coming from the existing sheet. 

Also, when you change the prototype the default dimension style is not "reset", so if you created drawings with the default on AS_DIM_STYLE1, but then changed the default to AS_DIM_STYLE2 and also changed the prototypes to one that has this dim. style, it will not get applied automatically (you would need to enter in each dimension chain properties and manually change).

If you want to make customization to the dimension style using a real drawing, to see the output, you can do it right on an existing drawing, by going in the Dimension Style Manager using the dedicated button on the Advance Steel ribbon tab "Change dim style" (Labels & Dimensions / Parametric dimensions". If you access it with this dedicated button, when you close the dialog (after making changes) , all the changes get automatically applied. 

[hornyaklaci89]

Thank you. It helped me, although if i have an existed drawing that I want to change then need to use the "Update detail" button on the left too, under "Labels & dimensions" for the dimension style change that set under the prototype chosen.