You can create annotative dimensions for measurements in your drawing through annotative dimension styles.

Annotative dimension styles create dimensions in which all the elements of the dimension, such as text, spacing, and arrows, scale uniformly by the annotation scale.

If you associate a dimension to an annotative object, the associativity of the dimension is lost.

You can also change an existing nonannotative dimension to annotative by changing the dimension’s Annotative property to Yes.

You can also create annotative tolerances. Geometric tolerances show acceptable deviations of form, profile, orientation, location, and runout of a feature.

Procedure

To create a new annotative dimension style

1. Click Annotate tabDimensions panelDimension Style. At the command prompt, enter dimstyle.
2. In the Dimension Style Manager dialog box, click New.
3. In the Create New Dimension Style dialog box, enter a new style name.
4. Select Annotative.
5. Click Continue.
6. In the New Dimension Style dialog box, select the appropriate tab and make changes to define the dimension style.
7. Click OK.
8. (Optional) Click Set Current to set this style as the current dimension style.
9. Click Close.

To change an existing dimension style to annotative

1. Click Annotate tabDimensions panelDimension Style. At the command prompt, enter dimstyle.
2. In the Dimension Style Manager dialog box, Styles list, select a style.
   NoteA icon next to a dimension style name indicates that the style is already annotative.
3. Click Modify.
4. In the Modify Dimension Style dialog box, Fit tab, under Scale for Dimension Features, select Annotative.
5. Click OK.
6. (Optional) Click Set Current to set this style as the current dimension style.
7. Click Close.

To create an annotative dimension

1. Click Annotate tab Dimensions panel Dimension Style. At the command prompt, enter dimstyle.
2. In the Dimension Style Manager dialog box, Styles list, select an annotative dimension style.

   A icon next to a dimension style name indicates that the style is annotative. If an annotative style does not exist, you will need to create one first. For information on creating an annotative dimension style see, To create a new annotative dimension style.

3. Click Set Current.
4. Click Close.
5. Click Annotate tab Dimensions panel Dimension drop-down list select a dimension type, or at the Command prompt, enter a dimension command.

   If the Select Annotation Scale dialog box is displayed, select the default scale you want to use for the new dimension object and click OK.

6. Place the dimension in the drawing area.
7. Select the new dimension and right-click. Click Annotative Object Scale Add/Delete Scales.
8. In the Annotation Object Scale dialog box, click Add.
9. In the Add Scales to Object dialog box, select the object scales you want to assign to the dimension. Click OK.
10. In the Annotation Object Scale dialog box, click OK.

To change an existing dimension to annotative or nonannotative

1. Select a dimension in a drawing.
2. Click View tab Palettes panel Properties.
3. In the Properties palette, under Misc, click Annotative.
4. On the drop-down list, select Yes or No.

To update dimensions to reflect the current annotative properties of the dimension style

1. Click Annotate tabDimensions panelDimension Style. At the command prompt, enter dimstyle.
2. In the Dimension Style Manager dialog box, Styles list, select a style.
   NoteA icon next to a dimension style name indicates that the style is already annotative.
3. Click Modify.
4. In the Modify Dimension Style dialog box, Fit tab, under Scale for Dimension Features, select Annotative.
5. Click OK.
6. (Optional) Click Set Current to set this style as the current dimension style.
7. Click Close.
8. In the drawing, select all the dimensions that you want to update.
9. At the command prompt, enter annoupdate.

To create an annotative tolerance

1. Follow the steps in To create geometric tolerances.
2. Click View tab Palettes panel Properties.
3. In the Properties palette, under Misc, click Annotative.
4. On the drop-down list, select Yes or No.

Quick Reference

Commands

DIMSTYLE

Creates and modifies dimension styles.

STYLE

Creates, modifies, or specifies text styles.

System Variables

DIMANNO

Creates a single-line text object.