Style Library Manager

The Style Library Manager is used primarily by a CAD administrator to:

• Copy styles from one style library to another style library.
• Rename styles in a style library.
• Delete styles from a style library.

Any changes made to a style library are not available in other documents until the current Autodesk Inventor session closes and a new session is reopened.

The Style Management Wizard is a tool for administrators to assist in batch-style management for Autodesk Inventor files. Batch processes harvest or purge styles for multiple files in one operation. All files must migrate to the most recent version of Autodesk Inventor or they are skipped during batch processing, including assemblies that were migrated but contain components that were not migrated.

Styles Overview

Some styles reference other styles as substyles (for example, the dimension style references the text style as a substyle). When copying a style library, the Style Library Manager opens the Manage Styles dialog box if mismatched substyles are detected in the source and destination libraries. For each substyle, confirm to replace the current version with the source version.

Styles are predefined properties that can be applied to an object. They are used in one of two ways:

• To encapsulate a set of formatting properties for annotations, such as dimension or text styles.
• To encapsulate a set of cosmetic and physical properties, such as appearance and material.

Styles have traditionally resided in document templates, but the preferred method is to store them in style libraries. Multiple designers can use a style library. They all have access to the same styles.

Some styles use other styles to complete their definition. The referenced style is known as a substyle in this context. When a style is copied, it also copies its required substyles.

Style definitions are stored in style libraries. To learn more about the role of style libraries, see Understanding style libraries.

Many legacy design projects have custom styles defined in one or more documents. To learn more about how to transition from template and document-created styles, see Learn about transitioning legacy projects to a style library.

Style management tips

Consider these practices to preserve styles that you create or edit:

• Save styles to the library.

  New or edited styles are saved only in the current document. Click Manage tab Styles and Standards panel Save to save a style to the library. After the style is saved in the style library, it is available to other documents. If the library setting is Read Only in the current project, this option is unavailable.

• Move several styles from a document to a library.

  Click Manage tab Styles and Standards panel Save to move several styles from a document into the styles library. The current project must have its style library setting as Yes to use this option. If the library setting is Read Only or No, this option is unavailable.

• Import and export styles

  Use the Export context menu option to export a style and its substyles to an external file. Use the Import menu option later to import into other documents.