Dimension tool options and settings

Last updated on Sep 12, 2025

Learn about Dimension tool options to set preferences for your dimension objects, such as measurement units, scale, precision, and appearance.

You can double-click the Dimension or select the Tool Options in the Dimension tool taskbar to open the Dimension Tool Options dialog box.

The Dimension Tool Options dialog box is highlighted with sections like Units & Scale, Dimension Lines, Extension Lines, and Dimension Text.
Use Dimension Tool Options to configure settings for the dimension objects you'll plot.

UI option

Function

Units

Sets units like inches, millimeters, points, picas, or pixels for dimensions.

Precision

Sets the number of decimal places or rounding rules for displayed measurements.

Scale

Defines the drawing scale, for example 1:1, 1:10, to reflect real-world measurements.

Hide Units

Hides the dimension units.

Arrow Style

Defines the arrowhead style at the ends of the dimension lines.

Arrow Scale

Controls the size of the arrowheads relative to the dimension line.

Line Weight

Defines the thickness of the dimension or extension line.

Line Type

Sets the style of the dimension or extension line, such as solid or dashed.

Offset

  • Sets the gap between the extension line and the object being measured.
  • Sets the gap between the extension line and the object being measured.

Extension

Sets how far extension lines extend from the measured object to the dimension line.

Hide Extension Lines

Toggles the visibility of extension lines on or off.

Font Family

Sets the typeface used for the measurement text labels on dimension lines.

Font Style

Sets the text style variant of the selected font.

Font Size

Controls the size of the dimension text labels displayed alongside the dimension lines.

Position

Specifies the placement of the dimension text. Select one of the following from the dropdown menu:

  • To set the dimension text outside the dimension line, select Away from Dimension line and object icon.
  • To set the dimension text between the object and the dimension line, select Between Dimension line and object   icon .
  • To align the dimension text to the left, center, or right of the dimension line, select Align Left   , Align Center  , and Align Right   icons respectively.

Reset

Restores the original settings.

Modify the properties of existing dimensions

While you can use the tool settings to define the properties of the future dimensions that you'll plot, you can change the properties of existing dimensions only from the Properties panel. For this, you just have to select the dimension objects and go to the Properties panel. You can then apply these new properties to the dimension objects that you've selected or apply them to all the existing dimension objects by selecting Apply to all. Additionally, you can select Set as default to change the settings for all the existing and future dimensions.

Furthermore, if you transform the objects, the associated dimensions adjust automatically. For example, if you increase the width of a rectangle, the dimension object that measures the width will update automatically to reflect the new measurement.