Expert XREF File Management Help Needed

[BHandleson]

I maybe trying to something that might prove to difficult to do but wanted some expert advice. I am designing retail millwork store fixtures with Autocad 2013. I am working on a kiosk that has 13 millwork cabinets. Including all the millwork parts and hardware, there are 2467 parts in the complete kiosk containing the 13 millwork cabinets. The way it is drawn here at my employment, we will draw each millwork cabinet with all it's corresponding hardware in it's own file. Then we copy and paste each millwork cabinet file into one file that contains all 13 millwork cabinets to create the complete kiosk. In each millwork cabinet file, we will draw and detail all millwork parts in the same file. This is where the problem comes in at. If there is a change, we make the change on the millwork file, but the change isn't always made on the complete kiosk file causing descrepencies. I started to XREF the millwork cabinets in the complete kiosk file, but when we detail the parts, those to come across into XREF complete kiosk. other than XREF'ing all the parts and millwork parts into a millwork cabinet, then xref'ing the millwork cabinet into the complete kiosk, is there a way another way to do it so the part drawings in the millwork file do xref into the kiosk file?

[steve216586 · Accepted solution]

I sort of do a similar operation. I have single drawings of tanks with fixtures and instruments, with three ortho views. Then I have a complete layout of the system with tanks, pumps, etc. I typically xref the tanks into a main layout drawing. I then use XFEFClip to just clip the top view, to place in my layout plan. Turn off the XREF dimensions and annotation layers. This way I don't get all the other views or annotations in my main drawing.

I can repeat with another copy of my tank xref'd for other views. Any changes I make in the main drawing is updated in the details and vise-versa.

[BHandleson]

Much appreciated. That did it.