Dimension Tick/Arrow Defaults

Ideas for making arrows the norm, rather than tick marks, in dimension callouts. January 24, 2005

Question
Can anyone tell me how to make defaults for dimensions? Every time I use our pre-set dimensions, I have to modify the leader tip to an arrow. I want to use the tick mark for our dimensions, but the leader end always defaults to tick mark also. Is there any way to default to leader end to an arrow? It drives me nuts to modify the setup every time I change dim scales.

Forum Responses
(CAD Forum)
From contributor J:
If you are not already using a template file to start a new drawing, then start a drawing and make all the changes that you want your standard drawing to have, i.e. dimensions, layers, text styles, etc., then save the drawing as a .dwt file. If that is not helpful, I can help you set up dimstyles for specific dimension entities, i.e. separate styles for leaders, radial, diameter, etc.

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I created a dimension substyle for each of my dimstyles. To do this, in your dimstyle manager box, highlight a dimstyle, click NEW, and select "use for LEADERS AND TOLERANCES". You just copied that dimstyle and can make changes that only effect leaders. I did this for each of my dimstyles (which are set to show inches) for angular dimensions so they don't show the inch mark, just degrees.

What happens is that all my dimensions are set to display inches, but when I dim an angle, it kicks into the substyle and shows degrees. This should work for you, too. Whenever you dimension, you'll get your ticks, except when you choose a leader, you'll get an arrowhead, or whatever you set it to be.