What is a ʼDimension Styleʼ in BricsCAD?

ByCADbrief Staff

Short Answer

A dimension style in BricsCAD is a saved set of dimension formatting rules—such as text height, arrow size, units, and tolerances—managed with the DIMSTYLE command. The most common professional method is to create or modify styles in Dimension Style Explorer and apply one standard style per drawing. Limitation: overrides can break consistency if used carelessly.

What You Need to Know Before

Warning: if dimensions were manually overridden instead of updated through the style, your drawing can show mixed arrows, text sizes, or precision without obvious visual warning. This often causes plotting errors when multiple users or imported DWG standards are involved.

How-to

  • Command: DIMSTYLE

  • Shortcut: D

  • Quick Steps:

    1. Type DIMSTYLE or use the Ribbon > Annotate > Dimensions panel > Dimension Style.
    2. In Dimension Style Explorer, select an existing style and click Modify, or create a new one from your office standard.
    3. Set key options such as Text height, Arrow size, Units precision, and Annotative checkbox, then click Set Current to make it active for new dimensions.

Variables & Settings

  • Key Setting: Annotative

  • Expert Setting: Turn on the Annotative option in the dimension style if the drawing uses annotation scales. This lets dimensions scale automatically across viewports, but it can produce inconsistent results if some dimensions are non-annotative and others are not.

Why it Fails

  • Cause 1 (Geometry): dimensions may appear wrong because the measurement scale, annotation scale, or unit precision in the style does not match the actual model geometry.

  • Cause 2 (layers/Locks): the dimension layer can be locked, frozen in a viewport, or set to no-plot, making the style seem broken when dimensions do not update or display properly.

  • Cause 3 (Command/Logic): users often apply local dimension overrides instead of editing the base style, so changes to the style do not update all existing dimensions as expected.

Quick Fix & Best Practice

  • Quick Fix: run DIMSTYLE, modify the correct style, click Set Current, then remove inconsistent manual overrides by matching dimensions to the office standard.

  • Manager’s Verdict: use one approved dimension style per scale/use case, and avoid object-level overrides except for rare exceptions. In production DWGs, standard styles are faster to audit, easier to plot, and safer for team collaboration.

FAQ

Can I have more than one dimension style in a BricsCAD drawing?

Yes, but too many styles usually make drawings harder to control.

Do existing dimensions update when I change a dimension style?

Usually yes, unless those dimensions have manual overrides.

Is an annotative dimension style always the best choice?

No, it is best only when your workflow uses annotation scales consistently.

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