Styles are sets of parameters that determine the function and appearance of objects in AutoCAD Architecture 2023 toolset drawings. For example, a door style specifies a door’s type (single or double, bi-fold or hinged) and shape (rectangular or arched), as well as its default frame dimensions, standard sizes, materials, and display properties.
Each object in a drawing is an instance of a particular style. You use the same style for all objects that are to have the same characteristics. For example, you might use one door style for all office doors in a building and another for all fire doors.
Generally a style is applied to an object through the tool you use to create the object. After the object is created, you can apply a different style to it or edit the style, either in the Style Manager or in a dialog box accessed from the object’s context menu. When you edit a style, the changes apply to all instances of that style in your drawing, making this an efficient way of modifying a large number of objects at once.
AutoCAD Architecture 2023 toolset uses styles to define objects in 3 different categories:
For most architectural, documentation, or multi-purpose objects, there is a default standard style, which you can access and customize through the Style Manager. The default tool palettes also provide tools representing many specific styles. For example, the Doors tool palette includes tools for creating door objects of the Bifold - Double style, the Bifold - Single style, the Cased Opening style, and so on. As soon as you use one of these tools to add an object to your drawing, the associated style is added to the list of styles for that drawing in the Style Manager, where you can view and edit the properties that define the style.
Additional predefined styles are provided in the Stock Tools catalogs accessible through the Content Browser. All styles are defined in Styles drawings located in the C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ACA <version>\enu\Styles\<Imperial or Metric> folder.
You cannot change an object style in an external reference while refediting it from its host drawing. You can open Style Manager and make changes, but they will not be saved when the external reference is saved and closed in the host drawing. To make changes to styles in external references, you need to open the external reference drawing directly, make the changes there, and save it. The external reference should then be reloaded to update the changes.