topic Re: xref placement problems in AutoCAD Forum

xref placement problems

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 22:18:36 GMT

For background, I'm a novice at CAD, everything I know I have taught myself. I'm currently editing and updating a very large file (313 layers, 8 xrefs), none of which I have personally created.

Two of the xrefs--communications.dwg & lights.dwg--needed to be combined into one electrical xref. To do this, I made a copy of the existing communications xref and copied/moved all the lights layers to this new file, and then renamed it "electrical."

When I attempt to attach this new xref, it keeps appearing about 2" to the left of where I need it to be. I figured this problem has something to do with the units or scale used. I checked both the xref and drawing file's annotation scale (both the same) and the drawing units. Now, the drawing units of the two drawings are different, but when I change then both to the same type and attach the xref, it is still "off" 2" to the left (the same exact way as before). Also, it's important to note, I checked all the other xrefs as well and they all have the same drawing units as the xref I'm trying to attach (architectural--pictured below) and they are all in the correct place.

I also checked the insertion points and scale of the ORIGINAL communications xref (the one I copied and built the new electrical xref from) that is still attached to the drawing file. That data is listed below.

 BLOCK REFERENCE  Layer: "c-road-futr"
                            Space: Model space
                   Handle = 307491
       Block Name: "Communications"
                  External reference
                at point, X=   0.9167  Y=   0.9167  Z=   0.0000
   X scale factor:    0.0833
   Y scale factor:    0.0833
   rotation angle:   0.00
   Z scale factor:    0.0833
         InsUnits: Inches
  Unit conversion:    1.0000
  Scale uniformly: No
  Allow exploding: Yes

Even when I try to insert the "new" xref with these specification it is off (which I don't understand because these specs are literally FROM THE SAME ORIGINAL FILE!!)

Please help.

Re: xref placement problems

Alfred.NESWADBA — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 23:42:05 GMT

Hi,

what does command -DWGUNITS give you as units of that drawings?

>> attach the xref, it is still "off" 2" to the left

Have you seen, that the blockreference is not inserted at 0,0,0? Might that be the movement vector?

Question: Is the block just shifted about 2", but the distances are ok? ==> in that case you don't have a units problem, you just have to move the block to the correct position. You can also look to the original drawing where that 2 XRef's were inserted ==> do they have the same insertion points?

- alfred -

Re: xref placement problems

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 16:53:23 GMT

Both the drawing I'm trying to attach the xref to and the xref had these drawing units:

Command: -DWGUNITS
Drawing units:
  1. Inches
  2. Feet
  3. Millimeters
  4. Centimeters
  5. Decimeters
  6. Meters
-DWGUNITS Unit for length <2>:

> > this is a dumb question, but this means the drawing units is in feet, no?

Also, when I have tried to insert it at 0,0,0 it does not appear anywhere near the drawing (i.e. I'll zoom extents and one is in far upper right corner of the screen and the other the lower left).

I think the distance may be off (I've attached a picture below for reference--highlighted is the new xref) but I'm not sure, just from eyeballing it, it looks like it may be slightly lower than where it should be

Both the new electrical xref and the original communications xref have the same insertion points as well.

Re: xref placement problems

Pointdump — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 18:34:38 GMT

Jesse,

What is this distance?

Dave

Re: xref placement problems

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 20:39:35 GMT

The distance between those two points is 2550.2831

Re: xref placement problems

Pointdump — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 21:09:33 GMT

Jesse,

I was thinking it might be a scale problem (100"=2540mm, or something) after all, but Alfred is probably right on this one.

Dave