I have had the same dimension request a few times and even needed something similar when I was designing before coming to Autodesk in 1998. People ask for a different extension linetype then the dimension baseline. Every since AutoCAD 2000 this has been possible. I have shown this to a few in the public Autodesk discussion groups as well as at user group meetings. The way I used to do this in R14 and prior was by making all of my dimensions using the hidden linetype then using a LISP routine to place a continuous line over the baseline all to create a dimension with two separate linetypes.
The first step is to be using color based plot styles CTB.
Now go into the Dimension style dialog and change the color of the baseline and extension lines to separate colors. I selected green for the baseline and blue for the extension.
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Now onto creating a plot style to plot the drawings dimensions with different linetypes.
Create a plot style and in this example I am going to plot them all to monochrome black but you could plot them all to a standard plot color meeting your standards.
Now I set all colors to plot as black and linetype bylayer except for the extension line color of blue to plot using a dashed linetype. Make sure you are not using this color elsewhere otherwise you may get other layers plotted dashed.
click image to see larger size
Now your drawing will look like the following image:
click image to see larger size
Now on the Page setup for the Layout, set the option to display plot styles and you will see what it will plot like.
click image to see larger size
All done.
While I know some would prefer this to be in the dimension style itself I wanted to show this is currently possible if you use plot styles. Perhaps we can rewrite the dimension styles in the future to accommodate this request.
I cannot wait for Autodesk University in 3 days as I am getting sick and tired of Thanksgiving leftover turkey…
Cheers,
-Shaan
