As the bard said: "That is the question." Although actually in this case: "That is the start of the questions." A lot of people use a set of DWG's in which they draw the actual linework. Then have a set of "Layout" DWG's which each simply XRef one of those drawings to make it into printable sheets.
As far as I can determine, it's not truly necessary just for this purpose to use XRefs. Maybe it's a spin-off from earlier versions like R14 where you only had one "Layout Tab". Could anyone please provide other reasons for using this (or alternatively for not using) method of drawing organization, instead of using multiple Layout Tabs in one drawing?
I'm thinking there's no benefit, only extra DWG files and several duplications when eTransmitting. E.g. you have a floor plan, which is split into 4 sheets. If you use the XRef method, you've got 5 DWG files. And if you eTransmit you've got 4 ZIPs, each with a copy of the entire floor plan DWG. Whereas if you use the Multi Layout method you've only got one DWG file and one ZIP.