Manage Line Styles

Use the Line Style Manager command to control which line styles are available to apply to lines in your project and how specific lines appear in graphic views and in printed output. You can define line styles and weights for each layer, and once you have applied a line style to a specific line, you can edit the line weight. This ensures more efficient workflows for working with linework as well as plotting these objects.

You can import line styles from files with the following formats:

  • TGO line style (.ltp)
  • Trimble line style (.linestyle)
  • AutoCAD drawing(.dxf and .dwg)
  • AutoCAD linetypes (.lin)

Prerequisites:

  • None

To change a line's style and scale:

  1. Select the line in a graphic view, right-click, and select Properties from the context menu to display the Properties pane for the line.
  2. Optionally, in the Line style drop-down list, select a new style for the line. Or, select Import line styles to open the Line Style Manager where you can browse for a line style file and add new line styles to the list.
  3. Optionally, in the Line style scale field, type a new scale value.

    Notes:
    - The higher the line style scale number, the larger the scale. For example, if you have a dashed line with 12 dashes and you change the line style scale from 1.0 to 2.0, the line will then have 6 dashes.
    - If your graphic view is showing lines at a small scale, some line styles display as solid to improve performance. You may have to zoom in to see a line's style.

To import and manage line styles:

  1. Select Line Style Manager in Drafting > Drafting Elementsto display the Line Style Manager dialog.
  2. Select the Length unit to apply to the imported styles.
  3. Select the Unit reference to apply to the imported styles.
    • Paper – Select this option to import the line styles with the units used when the data in a project is plotted. See sheet units.
    • Ground – Select this option to import the line styles using a project's distance measurement units. See ground units.
  4. Click the Browse button and navigate to the line style file (.ltp, .linestyle, .dxf, .dwg, or .lin) containing styles you want to import.

    By default, the following line style files are installed in C:\ProgramData\Trimble\CADStyle:

    • Linetype.ltp
    • Simple.linestyle
    • acadt.lin

      Note: Optionally, if the Line Style Manager dialog is not open, you can simply drag-and-drop a line style file onto the Plan View. The Line Style Manager dialog opens with the file selected and its line styles displayed in the Source file line styles list, ready to be imported into the line styles list in the project.

  5. Do either of the following:
    • To add all of the line styles in the source file to the line styles list in the project, click the << button.
    • To add one or more line styles in the source file to the line styles list in the project, select the styles in the source file's line styles list and click the < button. To select more that one line style, use Ctrl+click or Shift+click.
  6. To remove a line style from the line styles list, select it in the list and click the X button.
  7. Click OK.

A word about Autodesk linetypes and shapes:

Note the following:

  • If you import a DWG/DXF file with standard (non-custom) Autodesk linetypes that use standard shapes, TBC automatically searches for the associated SHX shapefile so that it can import the shapes into the project. It searches first in the DWG/DXF source folder and then, if AutoCAD is installed, in the Autodesk support file path. If it is not found there, the application automatically imports the required AutoCAD line symbols from the standard Autodesk ltypeshp.shx shapefile that is now installed with TBC. This ensures that the line symbols display correctly in TBC even if the shapefile was not included with the DWG/DXF file and AutoCAD is not installed. (Note: If custom linetypes and custom shapes are used, a custom shapefile must be provided with the DWG/DXF file.)
  • If you import a DWG/DXF file with custom Autodesk linetypes that use custom shapes and the referenced custom SHX shapefile is located in the the same folder as the DWG/DXF file, TBC automatically copies the custom shapefile into the TBC project folder. This allows it to then automatically export the same custom shapefile to the destination folder when you export the DWG/DXF file. This ensures that the line symbols display correctly when the DWG/DXF file is opened in AutoCAD.

Related topics

Manage Text Styles

Manage Symbols