Xref Confusion: Attachment or Overlay?

[richardarchitect]

yeah, good organization...

Unfortunately, the organization/standards we DO have get ignored by some (who I don't have the power to fire or beat). Can't really say by "rogue" operators since that implies actual thought and intent, which might be an improvement...

my boss just says "KILLEM"

[richardarchitect]

my boss just says "KILLEM"

Are those standards in written form? That is what I am about to embark on.

[Yancka]

I've been using OVERLAY method mostly. And since today I thought it was fine. Now I have to change plenty of xrefs from OVERLAY to ATTACHMENT (to meet the goal of having all information stored in one place as much as possible).We had a little discussion on this subject in our office and the conclusion was: use ATTACHMENT always except when you know for sure that you don't want this particular xref to be nested in next level references.

I believe in large offices this would create chaos, since few people would commit mistakes... what else we do to avoid mistakes, is having special layer (locked) for xrefs.

[p.eddington]

With regard to xrefs what I really want is something that tell you which drawings a dwg file is used in as an xref

[jaberwok]

With regard to xrefs what I really want is something that tell you which drawings a dwg file is used in as an xref

The search function inside the Design Centre can do that for you.

[dgladfelter]

I understand each firm works differently, but in my firm (a Civil firm) our preferred method is OVERLAY. We are a full-service Civil/Survey firm of about 350 employees. Thanks to a strong CAD Standard we have been able to promote a great amount of inter-departmental collaboration.

Before we had a single, unified CAD Standard, each department did their own thing. Now that everyone uses the same layers, blocks, text styles, etc, we can actually share between departments. Especially in larger projects, it's not uncommon to have our Site Development, Transportation, Public Utilities, and Landscape Architecture departments working together on multiple parts of a project. Generally speaking everyone is going to reference the master C-SPLAYO dwg, but not everyone (say Landscape Architecture) is going to need to reference our C-SPUTIL (utility) drawing.

We have promoted an a-la-carte approach to XREF's. As the CAD Manager that has to support those users, I can say at least 90% of my xref related support requests have had to do with Attached xref's. Since you only reference what you need for a given sheet, the errors are reduced, and when they occur the RECOVERALL command in ACAD 2008 most often fixes the problem rather quickly.

[dom.187380]

I learned the hard way about the difference in Attaching vs. Overlaying an xref. Ss there a method to simply convert xrefs of one type to the other?

Dom
v. 2009

[LanceMcHatton]

I learned the hard way about the difference in Attaching vs. Overlaying an xref. Ss there a method to simply convert xrefs of one type to the other?

Dom
v. 2009

Go to the Xref Manager where it lists out your xrefs. Click on the xref you want to change. At the bottom, you will see the xref info. Click where it says either OVERLAY or ATTACH and then click on the down arrow on the right to change it.

[dom.187380]

That's the ticket. Many thanks.

dom

[archie.manza]

Here we go - Attach versus Overlay... this means two different way of working. If you chose "ATTACH" you have to learn to unload unnecessary xref's and learn the consequences of binding it (if you can). But if you use "OVERLAY" all you have to do is have patience of xrefing. What I'm saying is like our company we have base and sheets. And most of the time (due to laziness) some drafters will attach it to their base so that it will come to their sheets. So the other discipline will xref their base which will create a Circular Reference. I concluded that "Overlay" should be used in a multi-discipline company and "Attachment" should be use if there are no other discipline(s) are involved.