Referencing a Data-Link Profile: "Create Reference..." is grayed out

[nloder]

When I try to reference an object in the Data Shortucts menu, when I right-click the a profile in Prospector under Data Shortcuts, the option to "Create Reference..." is grayed out, and I am unable to reference that profile into the drawing I am working on.  It works fine on other profiles that are being referenced from the same drawing. 

I have tried:

1. Re-creating the alignment and profile data shortcut in the drawing being referenced

2. Creating a reference in my drawing to the alignment, which actually works.  However, it still does not allow me to "create reference" for the profile.

3. Refreshing the data shortcuts.

4. Synchronizing the alignment referenced in the drawing.

Nothing seems to work.  My only other option is to move the C3D profiles from the referenced drawing to the drawing I am working in.  Is there a way to do this?

[mathewkol]

These are disabled typically becasue of one of two reasons:

1. The drawing into which you are attempting to reference this data shortcut is not saved.  Save the file and you should be able to DREF.
2. You are trying to reference an object that already exists in the file.  (The source profile is already in this file).

[nloder]

Thanks for the reply!  I have already checked both of your suggestions:

1.  Both the referenced drawing and drawing-to-be-referenced are saved.

2.  The source profile does not exist in this file.  I have checked in Prospector under Sites, Alignments, and Offset Alignments.

Any other ideas? 

[dgordon]

are you sure the object your trying to reference isn't already referenced into the drawing?

Dan

[Anonymous]

option 1) was my problem, thanks, I knew it was something simple

[Hidden_Brain]

is your file path too long (too many characters)? do you get the same behavior if you copy your target dwg (the one in which you are trying to bring in the DREF) to your desktop and try again?

[jmayo-EE]

Is it possible that the dref is broken? Can you start a new dwg, save & get the ref in? Can you right click on the surface in the data ref tree and select Open Source Drawing?

[nloder]

I ended up moving the profiles and alingments into the same drawing so we could move forward with the project.  Next time this happens I will try this, and let you know how it worked.

[mpryor433]

I was having this problem too. It turned out that the profile already existed, but it wasn't where I expected to find it. It was in the alignments listed under the sites and using and older name. I just deleted it and then was able to dref again.

[rkmcswain]

mathewk wrote:

These are disabled typically becasue of one of two reasons:

• You are trying to reference an object that already exists in the file.  (The source profile is already in this file).

I know this is an old thread, but wanted to say that I was recently trying to solve this same issue where 2 pipe networks were not able to be referenced in.

In this case, the two networks were deeply nested in a block. There was no evidence of either network, either visually or in the prospector. It was largely a process of trial and error to narrow it down. But once the insert was erased and the block reference purged, the ability to dref in the pipe networks was restored.

[dave.harms]

We just had that happen and it turned out that a user was given a large area of contours from our GIS group and made a dtm from the contours. The resulting dtm file size was more than C3D could handle and everyone who was working on the project had their Data reference greyed out.

[janis.prodnieks]

Thanks for the hint @rkmcswain!

In order to restore ability to reference a profile I had to purge the block "A$Cd387fcee" which looked as suspect No 1. (because of it's name).  Didn't even need to save the drawing.

[morgan_cropp]

Shortening the file path length fixed my issue, thanks.

[SWrightAMXBE]

Solved my issue. Thanks!

[dan.fedor07]

What could also be the reason is. You have a ghost reference to the object you are trying to reference.(possibly a broken object).

Try the -Purge command and then -Audit to make sure you have no errors.

[santhoulakis]

Just solved a similar issue with the help of your comment.

Was trying to create a reference for an alignment but the command was greyed out.  Tried PURGE and AUDIT in case it was in any blocks with no success.

Finally, found the x-refed alignment inside a Site. Don't know what it would be there?