Nested XREF Layer Control

[MissChristie]

Currently our standard is to take the Site Plan(A) and Topo(B) and reference these into our Base(C) drawing. The base is then referenced into our sheet drawing(D). Formatting to our company standard is completed in the Base drawing as layer overrides.
The basis for this method is that we receive multiple versions of a site plan throughout a project by updating the reference search path to the newest site plan version the layer overrides are maintained and it reduces time spent formatting.
The problem I am having is when I update layer overrides in drawing 'C' and reload this reference in drawing 'D' the changes aren't coming through..
1. is there a way to bring these layer changes into drawing 'D' (i thought visretain set to 0 and reloading the reference would work but no luck)
2. Is there a better method to accomplish this - I'm not a fan of nested references.

[Tom Beauford]

Setting visretain to 0 simply means it will not remember xref layer settings when the drawing is reopened. Just set it to 0 with only drawing(D) open, close the drawing,reopen it, and the layers should show the same as in drawing(C). As visretain is saved in the drawing leaving that way for drawing(D) would mean future updates to drawing(C) would be reflected in drawing(D) as long as it's opened after drawing(C) has been saved.

Congratulations on your first post and welcome to AUGI forums!

[Tom Beauford]

Lee Mac also has a lisp method worth looking at that will reset all or specific layer properties of xref dependent layers to match the properties present in the xref source drawing file.
http://www.lee-mac.com/resetxreflayers.html