How do I manage xref when filename changes with revision bump?

[wellsshane]

I know this seems funny to ask about but we are not using any document managment system for our cad data at this point. Is there another way to manage xrefs when file name revision letters change rather than the manual process listed below? This gets very cumbersome when dealing with hundreds of files.

For instance we have a Shop drawing called WC-1300-S1R0. We created a customer drawing called WC-1400-S1R0 and xreferenced the shop drawing into WC-1400-S1R0. The problem occurs when we rev up our shop drawings to WC-1300-S1RA our link is broken and we have to manually re-load the xref into our customer drawing.

I guess I've always assumed our autocad did this at other companies I worked with; in reality I am learning now it was most likely our document managment system maintaining relationships. Any suggestions on another way of working with our xref files or a 3rd party application that will maintain xref relations? Thanks in advance!

[scourdx]

There is no easy way around it. If you want to cheat, you can rename the revised drawing to the same name as your reference drawing. This may screw up your insertion point if consultant changes their basepoint.

[tedg]

I know this seems funny to ask about but we are not using any document managment system for our cad data at this point. Is there another way to manage xrefs when file name revision letters change rather than the manual process listed below? This gets very cumbersome when dealing with hundreds of files.

For instance we have a Shop drawing called WC-1300-S1R0. We created a customer drawing called WC-1400-S1R0 and xreferenced the shop drawing into WC-1400-S1R0. The problem occurs when we rev up our shop drawings to WC-1300-S1RA our link is broken and we have to manually re-load the xref into our customer drawing.

I guess I've always assumed our autocad did this at other companies I worked with; in reality I am learning now it was most likely our document managment system maintaining relationships. Any suggestions on another way of working with our xref files or a 3rd party application that will maintain xref relations? Thanks in advance!

I think there's a couple ways of doing this, but the easiest way to do it and keep kind of the process you have now is create a "proxy" xref who's name never changes.

Create a drawing file called something like "ABC_SHOP-BASE.dwg" and xref your shop drawing into that with the ATTACH option. Then your ABC... drawing is the one that gets xreffed into your "WC-1400-S1R0". This way when the shop drawing gets revised, updated and renamed, you simply replace the reference with the new one in the base.

Or, you could simply rename the revised shop drawings to a generic name and replace them in the location your drawing is looking for it (I assume you have a logical file structure).

Does that make sense?

[jaberwok]

The easy answer is similar to syew's. The current file always keeps the same filename, only old versions have an issue number or letter added.

[tedg]

The easy answer is similar to syew's. The current file always keeps the same filename, only old versions have an issue number or letter added.

Yea, that's kind of what I meant as my second suggestion.

[s_morgan_b]

The easy answer is similar to syew's. The current file always keeps the same filename, only old versions have an issue number or letter added.

Agreed.

Been trying to get that done here so that only superseded drawings get a date or revision number appended to the filename.

[wellsshane]

Thanks everyone. I agree the easiest way is to keep the file names the same and eliminate room for error or confusion.

I'm not 100% I follow on the other method of attaching a base file ect?

[Ryder76]

The easy answer is similar to syew's. The current file always keeps the same filename, only old versions have an issue number or letter added.

Just my 2 cents...

In order to accomplish what you need the current revision filename should always remain the same (ie. WC-1300-SRC with "C" meaning current) any subsequent drawings can be saved as WC-1300-SR0, SR1, etc. any similar system will work just keep it super simple.

[irneb]

I'd also advise having a "Current Working Drawing" with a non changing filename, then only issued / superseded drawings to have their revision numbers suffixed. Maybe something like the lisp in this thread (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=82705) could even help with that. Although, as I've stated in that thread, I'd prefer not to bind as well.

As to the "proxy xref" tedg's suggested. It's basically an empty DWG which has the latest revision shop drawing ATTACHed to it. You then have this xreffed into the client DWG. When a new revision of the shopdrawing is made, you only need to repath the XRef in the Proxy ... the client DWG will get the path "through" the proxy drawing. The benefit here is that you only have to change the path of one xref, instead of everywhere it's used. Of course, if you only have it xrefed the one time into one other DWG, it's not going to save any time .

[tedg]

As to the "proxy xref" tedg's suggested. It's basically an empty DWG which has the latest revision shop drawing ATTACHed to it. You then have this xreffed into the client DWG. When a new revision of the shopdrawing is made, you only need to repath the XRef in the Proxy ... the client DWG will get the path "through" the proxy drawing. The benefit here is that you only have to change the path of one xref, instead of everywhere it's used. Of course, if you only have it xrefed the one time into one other DWG, it's not going to save any time .

Good point, if it's only being referenced once, the "proxy" dwg is an extra step that's not needed.


In that case, it would be easier to just "rename" the newest shop drawing base to the "constant, generic name" and place it in the same location so it updates automatically.

(while keeping records of what's been recieved and sent in other locations)