Odd XREF Behavior with Annotation Scale

[ashroads]

Hey all - I've done some looking around, but can't find anything regarding this problem I'm having. Using C3D 2014.

I have 2 files that I set up to test the problem that we're experiencing. One is BASE.dwg and the other is XREF.dwg. BASE.dwg is xreffing XREF.dwg as overlay.

XREF.dwg has a some annotative text in it - that's it. 

Problem 1: If I am in BASE.dwg and change the annotation scale while XREF.dwg is closed, XREF.dwg is re-saved (the time stamp updates on the file itself). I am not saving or anything, just changing the annotation scale in BASE.dwg. This seems odd.

Problem 2 (the bigger problem): I am in BASE.dwg and someone updates XREF.dwg and then closes out of XREF.dwg. I DO NOT update xrefs while in BASE.DWG and then I change the annotation scale... it overwrites XREF.dwg with the old version that is on my screen. AHHH!

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Andrew

[Maine-iac · Accepted solution]

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D-General/XREFs-saving-themselves-quot-behind-the-scene...   Andrew, I too was perplexed a while back by this issue. I pay close attention to the time stamps of drawings I work on and found that xref drawings were being updated and stamped with my user ID when I had not opened them that day. See past post which somewhat explains. Your scenerio adds additional jeopardy to this "bad" feature.

[ashroads]

Thanks - I looked at the previous post that you linked. I will play around with turning off the "Automatically add scales to annotative objects..." and see if I can stop the XREFs from updating/saving on their own. I'll post my results in a few days.

Andrew

[ashroads]

It looks like the only fix for this is to turn off "Automatically add scales to annotative objects". If turned off, the xref no longer updates on its own when changing annotation scales in the base drawing, but you have to remember to add the annotative scales that you want manually to your xref... not ideal. Hopefully Autodesk can rework this feature.

[jmayo-EE]

OMG I can't believe this is acutally doing this.

Just found it myself when we noticed that 20 files had new dates spanning 2 minute2. No one can open 20 files in 2 min and save.

This is a very dangerous feature....