To Associate or Lock an Active Element Template before Placing an Element

In the Attributes ribbon group, click the Element Template drop-down.

A list of available templates is displayed.

Click the name of the template in the drop-down list.

The selected template becomes active and the active element attribute settings in the Attributes group change to the properties defined in the selected template.

Click the Element Template Association icon so that it is highlighted with a depressed background.

The template is locked.

Place the element.

The placed element is associated with (or "locked") to the template.

Note: If you want to place an element with slightly different attributes but still want the element to be associated with a particular template, you can lock the Element Template Association icon and select different attributes before or after you place the element.

Note: If you select different attributes and save your settings, when you open another DGN file your saved settings will remain active. They will not be overridden by the attributes in the active element template, even if it is set or locked.