About Configuring Leaders (AutoCAD Mechanical Toolset)

By default the leader settings for all elements of the drafting standard are derived from the master settings of the drafting standard. If you change the master settings, the corresponding settings in each of the elements of the standard follow. However, if you do not want specific element to follow the master settings, you can override the text settings for that element of the standard.

How Master Settings Apply Across Leaders

By default, the leader color, arrowhead style, arrowhead size of annotations that use leaders are set to “By NameOfCurrentDraftingStandard.” When you change the master settings for leaders, they automatically acquire the new settings. You can override this behavior by explicitly setting a different arrowhead, color, or size for each annotation type, independently, if necessary.

Implications of Linking to a Dimension Style

In AutoCAD, you control the appearance of leaders using the leader dimension style. If necessary, you can acquire the settings of this dimension style as the master settings for leaders. To do this, link the master settings to the leader dimension style.

Control all Annotations using Master Settings

If you link dimension styles to leader and text settings, the options in the Standard Settings dialog box apply across all annotations in a drawing. This is because the master settings now apply to AutoCAD Mechanical toolset-specific annotations as well as dimensions.

To ensure that the leader and text settings control all dimensions, clear the Link to the leader dimension style only check box. When you clear this check box, master settings become linked to the base dimension style. When you modify master settings, they apply to the base dimension style, which in turn causes dimension substyles to follow the changes.

Note: If you override a dimension substyle, changes you make to the base dimension style (and hence master settings) are not applied to that substyle.

The link to dimension styles is a bi-directional link. When you modify the linked dimension style, the Standard Settings dialog box automatically reflects the changes.