Best Practices for multiple projects sharing similar models?

[EricNyh]

On our site, we have multiple projects proceding at the same time.  In these projects, there are pipelines that cross through projects. Each project has a different capital billing ($) number, so creating matchlines between projects doesn't really work.

Is there a way where we can reference these other models, for background use and ortho creation, but *NOT* have these models be a part of the project database?  Since these projects are proceding at the same time, it would be nice if they could maintain a *LIVE* status.  Meaning as they get updated, the reference copy gets updated as well.

In short, I'd like to xref an outside project model (that's progressing at the same time) into my project model to use for my design.

Thanks.

[martinTstewart_Adsk]

You could try creating a ‘host’ drawing in the active project that serves only to bring in the ‘reference’ drawings as external references. These xrefs do not need to be part of the project and can reach into other projects. Just the ‘host’ drawing is part of the active project in this scenerio. That should meet your *live* status needs by reloading xrefs as needed.

So the host drawing bridges the gap, allowing these live reference drawings to be seen in the active project, but not part of the project. Then that host drawing (or drawings) can be xrefed into other project source drawings as needed. I believe orthos should still work. I recommend testing out this approach to see if it meets your needs.

(If this answers your question, please mark it as an Accepted Solution.)