Working with XREF Files in AutoCAD

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Introduction

In this project you learn how to use external references to create background drawings. You'll find techniques demonstrated in this project useful whenever you use external references.

You learn how to:

• Externally reference data from one drawing into another
• Specify the colors used to display externally referenced drawing data
• Modify externally referenced blocks to show the colors specified by the layers on which they reside.

By the time you complete this project you should feel comfortable externally referencing drawings for use as architectural backgrounds.

©1997-2005 OpenCAD International, Inc. www.opencad.com

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Attaching a Drawing with Xref

In this lesson you learn how to display drawing data stored in one drawing in another using the XREF command. You also learn how to use the LAYER command to specify the colors used by the referenced data. You use the VISRETAIN command to ensure that the colors you specify appear whenever you open the drawing that contains the Xref drawing.

Prior to proceeding with this project, unpack the source files contained in the 7207a.exe or 7207a.zip file to a folder on your local hard disk. To unpack files from a self-extracting executable, just save the .exe file to a folder on your local hard disk. From the Windows Start Menu choose Run. Select the .exe file, choose OK and specify where you want source files to be placed.

1. Open the 7207b.dwg drawing file.
2. From the Insert menu choose External Reference.

   

3. Use the file selection tools to select 7207a.dwg.

   

4. Choose Open to open the drawing.
5. Make sure that no Specify On-Screen check boxes are selected. When these boxes are checked, you enter position, scale and rotation information after you exit the dialog box. In this case, we want the incoming drawing to be placed at 0,0 with no rotation and no change in scale.

   

6. Choose OK to insert the external reference.

   

7. From the Layers toolbar, choose Layer Properties Manager. You can type LAYER if you prefer.

   

8. Hold down the Shift key and select all the layers that start with 7207.

   

9. Select one of the color squares to the right of the 7207 layers.
10. From the list of colors choose a light gray color.

    

11. Choose OK to exit the color selection window.
12. Choose OK to exit the layers window. Note that what all layers you attached are gray. The only exception is that the doors in the attached drawing are still displaying in yellow and red. This is because the elements of the door blocks were assigned the colors yellow and red before they were blocked. In the next lesson you learn how to make the doors obey the layer settings.

    

13. At the command prompt type VISRETAIN.
14. Type 1 to insure that the next time you open this drawing the referenced layers will display in gray.

    

In this lesson you learned how to attach one drawing to another, how to specify colors for referenced layers and how VISRETAIN will make sure properties you assign to referenced layers are held over each time you open a drawing.

This tutorial continues . . .

Inserting Blocks in AutoCAD Drawings

Inserting Blocks in a Drawing

After you create blocks, you will probably want to place them in your drawing. To do this, you can use either the INSERT, AutoCAD DesignCenter or the Tool Palette.

In this lesson you use multiple techniques to insert a block.

1. From the Object Properties toolbar, in the Layer Control list, select all the On/Off icons required to turn all the layers on, except for the Landscape layer. Leave this layer off.



2. From the Insert menu, choose Block.



3. From the Name list, choose Bed.



4. Choose OK to exit this dialog box. Note that you now have the BED block attached to your cursor. You should also note that it is attached to your cursor by the lower-right corner, which is the corner you selected as a base point when you made the block.
5. Select OSNAP on the status bar, if necessary, to turn this feature off. This will let you place your block without snapping to intersections and endpoints.
6. Select the point shown in the following image to position the bed. The object is placed in the drawing at its original size. Options in the Insert dialog box would have let you change the insertion scale if required.



7. From the Tools menu, choose DesignCenter.
8. Select the Open Drawings tab.
9. Select Blocks from the list of options. Note that you are looking at a list of blocks in the current drawing. You can use DesignCenter to see the list of blocks in any drawing.

10. 

    Select the BED block and drag it into the drawing.

    

11. 
    
12. Release your left mouse button when the bed is correctly positioned. This will place the bed.
13. Use the techniques just demonstrated to create and place a BIG-DESK block in the scene.

    

14. From the File menu choose Save. You must save the drawing before you move on to the next step or you will receive an error message.
15. Right-click in the DesignCenter's block area, then choose Create Tool Palette. This will add all the blocks in the drawing to a new tool palette.

    

16. Drag the BIG-DESK symbol from the Tool Palette into the drawing.

    

    You will find our version of the drawing to this point in 7201c.dwg.

    Tip:
    Once blocks are inserted, you can move, copy, rotate and scale them just like any other AutoCAD identity.

    Tip:
    Use the PROPERTIES command to change the scale of a block after insertion.

    Tip:
    Right-click on blocks displayed in DesignCenter and select Insert to display the standard insertion dialog box. This will let you specify position, scale and rotation by typing values in text boxes if desired.

    

This tutorial continues . . .

©1997-2005 OpenCAD International, Inc. www.opencad.com