topic Re: Notification of Xref Changes in AutoCAD Forum

Notification of Xref Changes

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:57:08 GMT

I recently moved to a new company. Here I am using ACAD 2017; at my old company I was on 2015.

I am not receiving the bubble notification of xref changes. At my old company, whenever an xref was changed, I would get a bubble in the bottom right with a button to update the xref. Anyone know how to turn that on? I've googled to no avail.

Thanks.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

imadHabash — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 16:09:21 GMT

Hi,

change your XREFNOTIFY system variable. set it to 2 which will enables xref notification and balloon messages.

Command: XREFNOTIFY
Enter new value for XREFNOTIFY <2>:

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 20:16:15 GMT

Thanks for the reply.

XREFNOTIFY is already set to 2.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

schurthing — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 23:13:45 GMT

I've found that it also depends on your network. If the xrefs are on a local drive, the notifications pop up immediately, if you are on a WAN or a slow busy network, I think the signal for the updated xref gets lost in transit. And if your sharing files over a cloud server like Dropbox, the notification definitely won't work.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 12:31:50 GMT

Thanks for the reply.

I had considered that since the xrefs are on a network, but I tested the theory by xreffing something on my local machine and seeing if it gave me the bubbles. It did not.

Additionally, yesterday I observed that a college gets xref notification bubbles on his machine. So something is going on with mine.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

schurthing — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 18:31:02 GMT

If you haven't already, try seting TRAYNOTIFY to 1.

Also see this:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2017/ENU/AutoCAD-Core/files/GUID-3DE106E0-95E7-493C-9C03-8EA2BB6FA90C-htm.html

"By default, the program checks for changed xrefs every five minutes. You can change the number of minutes between checks by setting the XNOTIFYTIME system registry variable using (setenv "XNOTIFYTIME" " n ") where n is a number of minutes between 1 and 10080 (seven days). "

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 18:42:53 GMT

TRAYNOTIFY was already set to 1.

I changed the XNOTIFYTIME from 5 to 1. I find this setting odd because I usually see the bubble pop up immediately after saving a referenced file. I checked this on a colleague's computer and if he saves an xref the bubble pops up almost immediately. In any case, I saved an xref and waited a few minutes and the bubble did not pop up.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

john.vellek — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 21:10:22 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

Are any notifications working in your AutoCAD 2017? Is this happening only on one workstation?

If this is only on your workstation, try logging on as a new user to see if they start working. If so, there might be too many restrictions on your account or that you profile might be damaged.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

john.vellek — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 21:52:46 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

I am checking back to see if my post or others helped you with your problem. Please add a post with how you decide to proceed and your results so other Community members may benefit.
Please hit the Accept as Solution button if a post or posts solves your issue or answers your question.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

Anonymous — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 20:10:57 GMT

John, thanks for your reply. I did not have time to try a new profile on Friday. I will have time to do so Monday or Tuesday and then I will reply. Thanks.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 13:20:08 GMT

John, I created another user profile on my machine. I opened autocad and it did its initial setup. I checked that XREFNOTIFY was set to 2, and that TRAYNOTIFY was set to 1. I attached a file and then modified that file, and the balloon never appeared. I tried saving both files, waiting a while for the balloon, etc.

The 'Manage Xrefs' icon is in the bottom right of the screen. If I modify the xref then go back to the file, the icon will display a '!', and the Xref dialog will say it needs reloading. So it is monitoring the xreffed file and it does know it changed, it just won't pop up the bubble.

Thanks.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

john.vellek — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 20:14:09 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

Thanks for taking time to do that test. I was hoping that the outcome was different.

TRAYNOTIFY can only be turned on or off (1 or 0). Can you verify that it is set to 1?

Can you also check your Options>System>Hidden Message Settings?

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 12:36:02 GMT

TRAYNOTIFY is set to 1.

None of the boxes under Hidden Message Settings were checked. None said they were for xrefs, but I checked them all anyway. Afterward, I tested and still no modified xref balloon.

Thanks.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

john.vellek — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 15:43:00 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

Clearly this is not functioning as intended. It fails on both network and local files. I hate to say this but in my opinion, I would perform a clean uninstall and then re-install your product using Best Practice.

Please let me know if this is an option. If so, I would test this feature before doing ANY customization on the application.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

schurthing — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 17:36:00 GMT

Just a last-ditch idea before you go with the nuclear option. I think I had this issue a couple of years ago. There are a bunch of Windows 10 settings that could be causing this.

Go to Control Panel (right-click the window icon at lower left corner and pick Control Panel).

Search on 'taskbar' and then click on Taskbar and Navigation"
Make sure "Automatically hide the taskbar" is off. You may also want to try changing setting for the size of taskbar buttons.

Also search on "notifications" and then click "Notifications & actions settings"
Make sure "Get notifications from apps and other senders" is on. Make sure "Hide notifications when I'm duplicating my screen" is off. At the bottom of that screen, make sure under "Get notifications from these senders", Autodesk Desktop App is on (this may cause annoying Autodesk ads and probably doesn't affect AutoCAD xref bubbles, but it's worth a try).

Also under "Choose how long notifications are shown", see if "Play animations in Windows" is on, and see if that makes a difference.

There could be other settings to try also.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

scbunker — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 12:40:13 GMT

So I finally figured out what's causing this. Notification bubbles will not appear if you have AutoCAD on other than your main computer display. I was using AutoCAD on my secondary (extended) display. I recently reconfigured my monitors and the notification bubbles are appearing again, now that I have AutoCAD on my defined 'main' display.

Seems like a bug in the software...

By the way: I am the original poster. I merged two different forum accounts and lost access to some of my old posts. So I can't mark a solution.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

gotphish001 — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 12:42:20 GMT

At least you fixed it quickly. haha Thanks for posting an update so long after.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 19:23:55 GMT

Definitely feels like a bug.

Thanks for posting the solution though. My boss recently showed up with big ass Curved Samsung monitors, and when I Added it to my desktop, I tried to make my secondary monitor (the small one) as the primary, so I could have the Windows taskbar over there and use the entirety of the new monitor for cad.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 20:22:26 GMT

holy cow that really did fix it! I've been having this problem since moving everything to work from home and then coming back to the office and it has been driving me insane! IT didn't know and it was such a trivial problem I felt bad asking them to dive into it..reading through this thread I was going through all of the same heartburn but finally found this was the solution! Thanks for circling back.

Re: Notification of Xref Changes

myhome615 — Thu, 12 May 2022 20:25:32 GMT

Thanks for this! I swapped my two unmatched monitors with matching (& bigger) monitors from another desk and couldn't figure out what happen to my bubbles! As soon as I read the solution, I knew it would work because I had to switched monitor 1 for 2 & monitor 2 for 1. They're now physically switched back, lol, Thank you! ...Whew. Drove me nuts having to go into the x-ref manager each time.