Can you change the line weight of your Revit drawings?

Short Answer

Yes — you can change the line weight of your Revit drawings by editing object styles, category visibility, or view-specific overrides, with the most common professional method being Object Styles for global control. This is the standard way to manage printed line weight in Autodesk Revit. A limitation is that some changes are view-dependent rather than project-wide.

What You Need to Know Before

Warning: In Revit, line weight often affects printed output more than what you see on screen, so users frequently think nothing changed when the issue is actually display scale or thin lines mode. Also, view templates can override your edits and make line weight changes appear to fail.

How to Change Line Weight in Revit

• Command: Object Styles

• Shortcut: None

• Quick Steps:

  1. Go to the Manage tab on the Ribbon, then click Object Styles in the Settings panel.
  2. In the Object Styles dialog, find the category you want to edit and change the Projection/Surface Line Weight or Cut Line Weight value.
  3. Click OK, then print or check the affected view with Thin Lines turned off to verify the result.

Variables & Settings

• Key Setting: Thin Lines toggle

• Expert Setting: If Thin Lines is enabled, Revit displays all lines at a uniform thin width on screen, which can hide your line weight changes. Turn it off when checking graphic results, especially before plotting or QA review.

Why it Fails

• Cause 1 (Geometry): The element may be shown in projection instead of cut, so you changed the wrong line weight field.
• Cause 2 (layers/Locks): A View Template or Visibility/Graphics Overrides setting may be controlling that category and overriding Object Styles.
• Cause 3 (Command/Logic): You changed line weight globally, but the issue is actually in a specific view, detail level, or imported file override.

Quick Fix & Best Practice

• Quick Fix: Open VG / Visibility Graphics in the problem view and check whether category overrides or a view template are replacing your Object Styles settings.
• Manager’s Verdict: Use Object Styles for office-wide standards and consistent documentation, but use view-specific overrides only when a single sheet or detail truly needs an exception.

FAQ

Can you change line weight for one view only in Revit?
Yes, use Visibility/Graphics or element overrides in that specific view.

Why do my Revit line weight changes not show on screen?
Thin Lines may be turned on, or the current view scale may reduce the visible effect.

Can imported CAD files ignore Revit line weight settings?
Yes, imported or linked DWG files can use their own mapped line weight behavior.

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