When modifying the 2D template in Inventor, there are a few things that need to be updated before the template will act accordingly and behave as you intended. In this blog we will discuss some of the pitfalls tat you might encounter whilst modifying your template.
In this example I will change the line weight and colour of the dimension geometry and see what occurs. Open the Styles nad Standard Editor and navigate to the Dimension Layers in Layers. Changing the colour to red and the Line Weight to 4mm as in the below image.
To test to see if the change was recorded I created a view and dimensioned it. It came out red and looked pretty much like 4mm.
After saving the idw as a template file, I opened it and tested the dimensions. The following is what shows. This is a warning from the software stating that there sia difference in the styles that are saved inside the drawing vs the styles that are saved in the design data folder.
After clicking on OK, i dimensioned the same part but the colour cam out black and the Line Weight definitely did not look 4mm.
So what happened. When we created the template and made the changes to the colour and Line Weight, the changes are saved inside that particular drawing.
Once I save it as a template those properties are held inside the template file. When you create a new file from a template, it is a copy of the file. Any new file that is created from a templates reads it’s properties from the Design Data folder that you map in the project file.
Inventor made this change many years ago, to more easily share design changes like this across a wide range of team members who need to use the same formats etc whilst creating these drawings. This is explaiend in the error message that pops up. It states that it will use the style library definition.
To copy the changes that you made to the colour and line weight, you need to use the save option in your Styles and Standards Panel in the Manage Tab when you have the template idw open.
The issue you see in the above image is that the Save button is greyed out and we cannot save the changes into the library. This is because the library in the project has been set to read only (see below image).
To change this setting to read/write you need to open the project settings and modify that option. In the below image you will notice that I do not have the option of changing this setting to read/write. It is also greyed out. Why? As you will also notice, the project is set to read only so what is blocking this process, You will notice that I still have the drawing open. Until I close all Inventor drawings or parts or assemblies, I am not able to modify the project settings.
Once you have closed all the open files, I am able to make the change from Read to Read-Write.
Once this change has been made, open the template file that you created. If you struggle with finding the location of where your template files are stored, Inventor 2025 has included an easy Open Template Folder when you start a new drawing.
Open the 2D template that you created and open the Manage Tab. You will now notice that the save button is not greyed out.
This is the part that most users make a mistake when crating their own templates. They wil click on Update. This will override any changes that you have made in the IDW and revert the styles back to what is in the Design Data folder. If you click on Save, this will save any changes that you made in the 2D template and over write the data in the library.
When saving you will get a warning notificatiom that this action cannot be undone, so before you take these major steps, save a copy of your Design Data folder to fall back on in case anything goes wrong.
Save your template and create a new drawing from the template.
When placing your new base view and dimensions, you will see the red colour change and the line weight looking more like 4mm.
In conclusion, when making changes to your 2D template file, check that your project library settings are read-write and use the save button and not the update button when making changes to your library options.
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