X'reffing - What do you do?

[drafting.33933]

My typical plan set - floor plan, foundation plan, roof plan, building sections, wall sections, and building elevations. I create a "base" drawing that has the building layout + sections (no text nor dimensions) it is then x'reffed into the A1, S1, and so on drawing sheets. I x'ref the section views to generate the wall sections. My theory is when you move an exterior wall, the arch. wall moves, struct. wall moves and I move the wall in the section all at the same time in the base plan. I then go to the appropriate sheets and adjust the dimensions.

My drafting staff wants me to re-think my idea to only have the plan view of the building as the base plan and draw my sections on a separate drawing sheet, and place dimensions on the base plan. I don't agree with this idea, but am I in the wrong?

I'm trying to keep the productivity level up, and my way seems to work. I really don't want to "fix" what ain't broken.

What does everyone else do?

[Ken.Leary]

There is almost never a "best" way to do things in AutoCAD, a lot of it is personnal preference as to what is most efficient.

In my experience, the industry, in general, used to put more dimensions in the reference files and seems to be trending more towards dimensioning in the sheet drawings. This seems to be what you're in favor of.

I've also gotten the impression that AutoCAD is pushing more for that as well. Transpacial dimensioning is geared specifically towards this, allowing the abilty to dimension model space objects while in paper space.

Also, dimensions and callouts are different per sheet, a refence file can get very complicated with difference layers containing different dimensions and callouts.

Also, you may limit the number of people that can work on one project at a time. If everything is in one file, only one person can modify it.

Maybe a compromise of placing sections in a seperate file will help calm them down, but stand firm on the dimensions. At least they'll know you considered it.
I'm interested to see what everyone else feels about this, I hope you get more replys.

[devilfrog]

We use ADT and set up our working dwgs (Constructs) and sheets seperately then xref our constructs into our sheets. Our floor plan is x-ref'd into the foundation, electrical, framing, etc plans (attached xref). All dimensioning and text is done in the constructs, the only thing on the sheets is the border w/ all the project info. May sound complicated but if you set up your templates with xrefs already in them you can ensure the correct layers are frozen or whatever lineweight you need for that dwg.

[Maverick91]

The best thing to do is what makes your work flow easiest all way 'round. This may mean that it won't be a perfect fit to all departments. Usually, the things I know will be used in many different drawings I'll make an xref. Since most of what I do is from a civil engineering-type point of view, this means that I'll have an overall site drawing as a background, greyed out, xreffed into drawings. But this can also extend to title blocks. I chafe against using blocks as title blocks. I'd rather include text and other common elements into a xreffed title block, with sheet-specific entities in the right locations.

Your mileage may vary depending on road conditions and driving habits.

[sschwartz]

We are an electrical and mechanical engineering firm, and work with out of the office architects, and other disciplines. External references are used with backgrounds, (base files) and in-house for coordination purposes. We also xref in the titleblocks, keyplans, etc. The project title is part of the titleblock, the issued dates and sheet titles are part of the block attributes. A few important things to note that are pretty basic concepts, yet I see frequently as NOT common practice as much as I would like: (AutoCAD specific).

1. NO saved paths! How many of us have opened a drawing with no background, or linking to a path that doesn't exist at your place of business. If you copy a set of drawings to another directory, or even another drive, (like for separate issuances, or for archiving), the saved path looks to its original directory.
2. NO attachments! Using the overlay function is simple. It requires no extra effort to use more than the attachment method.
3. I lock the layer the xref is actually on. This prevents from accidentally moving an xref.
4. Same insertion point!
5. PLEASE! Make entities BYLAYER. On layer 0 within blocks.
6. Most important on larger multi-floor projects: every floor should line up with the one below it. I may need to check where that pipe or conduit is actually going to appear on the next floor, and exactly where. This is absolutely grand if the site plan works with the building plan!

Other additional things: I personally prefer to see the layer with the extension "NEWW" to new work, "EXST" for existing to remain, and "DEMO" for demolition work.

Thank you ahead of time, Mr. or Mrs. Architect Guy or Girl

[workworkwork]

As a sub, of a sub for the MEP, we receive files created in many different ways. I prefer an architect's base files with no dims or text. We don't have to "cleanup" files before use. Pass it on...

[mpemberton]

As long as any drawing is correctly layered, and drafted with common sense, Clean up is a pretty easy job, by freezing all dimension layers. I have created a massive lisp routine that will screen back the base plans and freeze any layer I don't want to show. The wild card key dose wonders. Now placing everything in one file is really bad. All floor Plans, Sections, Elevations, Etc. should be in separate files. They should be Xreffed into Plot sheets along with specific key notes. Arch dimensions along with the floor plan makes it nice So, you don't have to track down and open any un-needed drawings to the size of a chase. All you need to do is turn on the dims, then shut them back off.

I also think that placing all of the keyed notes in MODEL Space works well with any Addendums and Revisions. Cut one viewport along with a new 8.5x11 title block and your done. Any time you need to plot a full size drawing, you can rest assure that all revisions show up.

Matt