Can anybody here explain in "Layman's language" the FUNCTION of "ByBlock" (Color & Lineweight) of BOTH the Dimension & Extension Lines in the DimensionStyle DialogBox? I'm wondering....how does using the "ByBlock" affect my drawing objects? I'd appreciate ur help guys. Thanks
If you set the COLOR of the Dimension & Extension Lines to be BYCOLOR, the dimension & extension lines will use the color of the layer on which they are inserted. If the "A-Anno-Dims" layer is set to be yellow, then these two entities will be yellow on the screen. If the COLOR setting was set to BYLAYER, the same thing would happen. However, there is one difference between BYCOLOR and BYLAYER. When the color is set BYLAYER, the color can only be changed by changing the layer's color. When the color is set BYCOLOR, you can manually change the color of any individual dimension to be any color you want regardless of the layer's color. One thing you should be aware of, if you use BYCOLOR and you change the color of the dimension, and the drawing is xreffed into another drawing, you will not be able to change the color of the dimension from within the "host" drawing. -- Gary Lafrenière CAD Manager Plan B Retail Design Remove NO SPAM from address before replying
byblock = bycolor ? never seen "bycolor" used before, however it would make sense to change "byblock" to "bycolor" since dimension are no longer specifically block entities (well, now that we have dynamic blocks, maybe it should be "byblock" still, they are kind of primitive dynamic blocks).
As Tim Decker stated above, it comes from the old days when dimensions were all blocks. Much like most third party programs have a block for their arrow for leaders, ie. Loop block that loops the line instead of an arrow. That block "loop" can be given a specific color and no mater what the color of the dimension or the layer the dimension is on, the color will be as the block which comes down to linetypes and plotstyles. This is where Dean comes in asking about the dimension style and strategy. What your finished product is to be defines what method you use to draw it. If you don't have a specific block for the arrow, or the extension line, ie a center line with the "CL" text throughout, then the BYBLOCK is not for you. Otherwise, Create blocks for your arrows first and see how the BYBLOCK settting works. PS your "AGAIN AND AGAIN" only tells us that you are not using a template that has the dimension style as you want it, you are having to edit a dimension style and getting aggrevated over the BYBLOCK setting.
Mike, Im sorry for my phrase "again & again" Mike.. pardon me. I thought it was of no effect changing that setting coz i think very rare people opt to change the color of their dimension&extension lines.. should they change it to "bycolor" i dont know the reason why... seems odd to me.
