SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Part V: Creating Drawings

FIGURE 23.17

The Geometric Tolerance settings

Using Dimension Styles

You can use dimension styles to apply many items to dimensions. Styles were formerly known as

favorites in SolidWorks. Unlike notes, this is not limited to fonts and formatting. Some of the most

common uses of dimension styles are

l (^) To add standard tolerances to dimensions
l To set precision values for dimensions
l (^) To add text, such as TYP, to a dimension
l To add a commonly used GD&T (geometric dimensioning and tolerancing) reference
You can save styles from one document and load them into another document, even between doc-
ument types. For example, you can load part dimension styles into a drawing.
When a style is updated from an external file, any document that it is linked to also updates. In
addition, you can break links to external styles (with the appropriate button on the Styles panel).
Otherwise, dimension styles have very similar functions to the other types of styles; the functions
of all the buttons on the Styles panel are the same.
Tutorial: Working with Dimensions and
Tolerances
In this tutorial, you can use a single part in several different ways to demonstrate different dimen-
sioning and tolerance functions. Follow these steps to learn more about these topics: