Patent ID: 7990396

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for updating a definition of an object style included in each of a plurality of computer-aided design (CAD) drawings generated by a CAD application executing on a computer system, the method comprising: receiving a selection of a project standard drawing, selected from the plurality of CAD drawings, which includes a preferred object style definition to use in each of the plurality of CAD drawings, wherein the preferred object style definition defines the appearance, functions, or properties of a drawing object that corresponds to physical characteristics of a real-world object; comparing the preferred object style definition included in the project standard drawing with a definition of the object style included in each of the plurality of CAD drawings, wherein different object styles are used for the same drawing object in the plurality of CAD drawings; determining, from the comparison, that the definition of the object style included in at least a first CAD drawing does not match the preferred object style definition included in the project standard drawing; prompting a user to specify how to resolve a mismatch between the definition of the object style included in the first CAD drawing and the preferred object style definition included in the project standard drawing; synchronizing the definition of the object style included in the first CAD drawing with the preferred object style definition included in the project standard drawing by, based on the user specification of how to resolve the mismatch, replacing the definition of the object style included in the first CAD drawing with the preferred object style definition included in the project standard drawing to produce an updated definition of the object style; and displaying a graphical representation of the updated first CAD drawing on a display device.