Everyone has style. Some of us are born with it, while others are...well...born with a less attractive form of it. Function over form, right? Or is it the other way around? Either way, AutoCAD® users know that they need to draw with style and with "styles."

When it comes to working with AutoCAD, styles are a fundamental tool. We use them everywhere, sometimes even without knowing it. Many of our drafting tools come with styles and some won't work unless we establish a style.

Define your style
A style is a group of settings applied to a particular drawing tool in AutoCAD. A style defines how this tool will tell AutoCAD to create certain objects every time the user invokes them. Some examples of tools in AutoCAD that use styles are dimensions, text, multilines, multileaders, and tables. Defining a style for a dimension defines the appearance for a dimension. Changing the style's parameters will change the appearance of any dimension associated with that particular style.

Figure 1: The Annotation tab in the ribbon displays several objects that use styles to manage their appearance.

Why stylize a drawing?
Users stylize objects in a drawing for a number of reasons. Using styles saves time, makes drawings uniform in appearance, facilitates quicker revisions, enables branding (to some degree), helps you adhere to industry and client standards, and more. The major reasons to stylize are to to speed up the drawing process, speed up revision time, and to standardize drawings.

Text style
One of the oldest and most commonly used styles is the Text Style. In fact, to open up the Text Style Manager, you type in STYLE at the command prompt. In the Text Style Manager, users name a text style, assign a font, font style, effect, height, width, and other attributes. Several styles can be created in one session, or users can opt to create styles as needed. Set the desired style as current by selecting it from the box at the upper left-hand area in the Text Style Manager and click the Set Current button at the top right of the Manager. This text style will be used the next time text is created in a drawing.

Figure 2: The Text Style Manager

Dimension Style
Dimension Styles are the second most-used style type in AutoCAD. Since the very nature of AutoCAD is to dimension objects to be constructed, then dimensioning is a very important aspect of its use. Having the ability to dimension lines, arcs, holes, and any other object quickly and accurately is a must. The ability to quickly revise dimensions cannot be compromised. One of my pet peeves is to receive CAD files that have had not been updated; rather, just the numbers are changed in the dimensions. Why use CAD? Draw to scale and dimension to scale. There will never be a question. If there is a special circumstance, use paper space and place a "Not To Scale" note.

Figure 3: The Dimension Style Manager with the current Dimension Style set to Standard.

Dimension styles work similarly to text styles. Create the style, set its attributes, and select the current style. Dimension styles are much more complex to establish than text styles. In fact, dimension styles use text styles in them for their dimension text settings. To alter a dimension style, select the specific style from the list on the left of the Style Manager and click the MODIFY button on the right of the Manager. This opens the Modify Dimension Style window, which has several tabs in order to navigate the many settings. Each tab groups the settings in a relative fashion. When you are finished modifying the setting, click OK to save the changes.

Figure 4: The Modify Dimension Style window has several tabs allowing the user to navigate to a dimension style's many settings.

Multileader Styles
Multileader Styles are similar to dimension styles, though not as complex. The Multileader Style Manager works in the same manner as the Dimension Style Manager. Select the style on the left and click on the right modify to modify. Or click the NEW button to create a new style. This is the same procedure for dimension styles.

Figure 5: The Multileader Style Manager

The Modify Multileader Style window has three tabs. On the right is a preview pane where you can view what a particular style will look like on the drawing. I have found that sometimes this does not always update properly until the style modification window is fully exited and reentered, so be careful.

Figure 6: Each tab contains different settings grouped according to function.

Table Styles
Tables are not used as often as text, dimension, or multileaders, but when they are, it is useful to take advantage of predesigned table styles. This will speed up commonly performed tasks and revisions. The Table Style Manager works just like the other Style Managers. It has a list of available styles on the left, with options to modify, create a new style, or set one as current on the right. The Modify Table Style window works in a similar fashion, too.

Figure 7: The Table Style Manager

Style Basics
When using styles, keep it simple. Make as few as possible and stick to them. Standardize. Place them in your company’s template. That way when the standards need to change, it is easier to update your drawings. A standard method of naming your styles is a great idea, too. This will help other users understand what a new style is supposed to be in case a non-standard style needs to be created in a unique situation.

Keep in mind that styles can be inserted into other drawings. This can be achieved through many different methods. If a dimension, text, multileader, or table is being inserted into a drawing, the assigned style will come along with it. If a style having the same name already exists in that file, then the dimension will take on the settings of the existing drawing's style, not the one being inserted. This can be good or bad, so be wary.

If you need to change the way a drawing looks, change the style. If you need the dimensioning to match that of a different drawing, import that dimension style and assign it to your dimensions. They will all be updated to look like your other drawing. The alternative is to manually change each dimension, one... at... a... time. But why do that? We use CAD these days!

Styles save us time and effort. They help users adhere to standards and help us work together more smoothly.

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Brian C. Benton is a CAD technician and designer located in Fort Myers, Florida. Brian has been working with AutoCAD since release 10 in the mechanical, structural, and civil engineering fields. He has been a detailer, drafter, designer, IT assistant, CAD software manager, protector of standards, and proverbial "Help Desk." Brian is currently one of Cadalyst magazine's "Tip Patrollers." He can be reached at bbenton@cad-a-blog.com. His blog can be found at: http://CAD-a-Blog.com