How To Override In-use Dimension Styles In Zwcad

By Author: Paul W. Walker
Total Articles: 7
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When we use Design Center to override a dimension style (of which one with the same name already exists in the drawing), ZWCAD pops up a message that says that "...dimstyle(s) added. Duplicate definitions will be ignored" which means the override failed.

We need to update dimension styles, and want to keep other drawings up to date with the new dimension style. Perhaps you tried deleting the old dimension style, but this does not work, because it is in use. What to do?

Here I'd like to share with you what I do in these cases. The overall idea is to rename the old dimension style, so that there are no dimension styles of the same name in the drawing. Next, I insert the updated style into current drawing, and then I transfer all related dimensions to the updated dimension style. I do that with the Filter command or the QSelect command.

Here are the detailed steps, using the DIMN150 dimension style as the example:

1.Rename dimension ...
... style "DIMN150" to another name, such as "DIMN150 COPY."

2.Use Design Center to insert the updated "DIMN150" in the current drawing, setting it as current.

3.Use the Filter command to select all dimensions that are using the old "DIMN150 COPY" style.

4.Update them to the current "DIMN150" style by clicking the Update option in the Dimension menu.

5.You can now delete dimension style "DIMN150 COPY." As an alternative, you can use the Purge command to delete all styles that are not in use.

This is my workaround to override dimension styles that are in use. I made a video about the detailed steps. Click the following link to have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzNSIhjCe5Y

If you have any tips that work with ZWCAD, please share them with me.