Source Drawing

[smooth shoes]

When working with source drawings, is there a way to view the source drawing while working on your own drawing through a "window". I've seen it done before, but I think they wrote a LISP routine to do it.

Does anybody have a clue, or do I need to put more information explaining what's going on?

Thanks in advance.

[kathy71046]

umm....xref?

[lpseifert]

_refedit or _xopen maybe?

[irneb]

Usually just double clicking on the xrefed entity will open it in refedit (after a dialog pops up to ask you if this is the right one). The entities in the referenced file is opened for editing, while the rest (those in the "current" drawing) is locked - you can still see them and use them for osnap, extend, trim, etc. But you can't modify them. Just DON'T close that toolbar that's suddenly opened ... unless you already know all the keyboard commands like refclose and all those nifty stuff like taking entities to / from the referenced file out of / into the current DWG.

Just expect some problems ... they don't often occur, but they might. Sometimes stuff like dimstyles aren't imported correctly when you're inside the "In-Place-Editor". Also if you've got DIMASSOC=2 you might get errors as dimensions are associated with entities not really part of the drawing you're editing. Also associative hatches could make for some headaches. Igenerally don't use this type of command when inside refedit. If I need to do this I rather just select the xref, right-click on it & choose "Open XRef" - this just opens the xrefed file as if you've gone through the actions of opening it without actually going through the trouble of using the Open dialog.

[ccowgill]

Usually just double clicking on the xrefed entity will open it in refedit (after a dialog pops up to ask you if this is the right one). The entities in the referenced file is opened for editing, while the rest (those in the "current" drawing) is locked - you can still see them and use them for osnap, extend, trim, etc. But you can't modify them. Just DON'T close that toolbar that's suddenly opened ... unless you already know all the keyboard commands like refclose and all those nifty stuff like taking entities to / from the referenced file out of / into the current DWG.

Just expect some problems ... they don't often occur, but they might. Sometimes stuff like dimstyles aren't imported correctly when you're inside the "In-Place-Editor". Also if you've got DIMASSOC=2 you might get errors as dimensions are associated with entities not really part of the drawing you're editing. Also associative hatches could make for some headaches. Igenerally don't use this type of command when inside refedit. If I need to do this I rather just select the xref, right-click on it & choose "Open XRef" - this just opens the xrefed file as if you've gone through the actions of opening it without actually going through the trouble of using the Open dialog. I think that refedit also causes some issues with xdata in drawings. We use EaglePoint, they use xdata on their centerlines and other objects, I found that after using a refedit that the centerline graphics would need to be updated due to Eagle Point no longer recognizing that it existed. hence we have stopped using the refedit command.

[smooth shoes]

the only problem with those commands is that I haven't inserted an xref. I'm linked to a drawing and I've queried that dwg to pull out the objects that I want to modify. I don't bring in the entire drawing, like an xref, instead only the objects that I want to modify.

See, when my co-workers and I opperate this way, we can all work on the same drawing without even opening it. we just "pull" the specific objects that each one us wants to work on and then save those objects back to the original source drawing. I can work on the curbs and the building while someone else works on the landscaping and streets while someone else is working on the utilities. Once we have all done our own parts, we've got one "source" drawing that each one of us has contributed our own little part to.

Does that make sense?

[Firmso]

This is interesting. I have never seen a project completely drawn in Acad managed this way. Sounds pretty much like how Revit is setup with "Save to Central".

I will definitely be tracking this thread.

[irneb]

See, when my co-workers and I opperate this way, we can all work on the same drawing without even opening it. we just "pull" the specific objects that each one us wants to work on and then save those objects back to the original source drawing. I can work on the curbs and the building while someone else works on the landscaping and streets while someone else is working on the utilities. Once we have all done our own parts, we've got one "source" drawing that each one of us has contributed our own little part to.Usually in AutoCAD, you'd then have one amalgamated DWG, which is seldom modified - it just has all the other DWG's xrefed into it. You then have a DWg (say) for curbs, one for landsacping, one for streets , etc. Each draftee then opens the DWG he/she's going to work on. You only open the amalgamated drawing once you want to issue it, then as soon as you've got it open all the latest modifications from all the other DWGs are already loaded - no copy-n-paste involved, and you don't have to open the main DWG to put your modifications back every time. Which means that each draftee can modify & save at will without affecting anyone else.

Firmso's partly correct, your method is a manual way of making AutoCAD work like Revit Worksets. You'll still have to open the "Central" file exclusively every time you want to save to it, and then copy-n-paste from your local version manually (after erasing those parts you've modified from the central file). Unfortunately AutoCAD doesn't do this automatically - and as you can guess, it opens space for human error: You could easily delete an element which another draftee's just saved into that file, since you don't have any way of knowing which portion who's working on at present (unless you ask everyone).

[Firmso]

When working with source drawings, is there a way to view the source drawing while working on your own drawing through a "window". I've seen it done before, but I think they wrote a LISP routine to do it.

Does anybody have a clue, or do I need to put more information explaining what's going on?

Thanks in advance.


the only problem with those commands is that I haven't inserted an xref.......Once we have all done our own parts, we've got one "source" drawing that each one of us has contributed our own little part to.

Does that make sense?
You do not necessarily have to have a source drawing with Acad, but you should be able to have "Open" more than one dwg file at a time regardless, whether you have xrefed objects or not.

Just out of curiosity, are you familiar with Modelspace/Paperspace and Viewports?