Mirror Xref Without Mirroring Text

[Anonymous]

Has anyone heard of a way (without binding or modifying the xref) to do something like the MIRRTEXT variable when mirroring an xref?  Been looking around on the internet for about an hour to no avail.

If anyone can help, thanks!

[dbroad]

Open the xref.  Mirror the drawing.  Then attached the mirrored xref.  No other way.

[Anonymous]

That is quite unfortunate.  Definitely submitting this as a feature request.  Thanks for the response!  

[dbroad]

Isn't the workaround easy enough? Just name the extra xref with an MI suffix.   I don't see the need for a new feature here.  Mirrored text, including dimensions need to be processed manually anyway to avoid overstrikes and misplacements. This cannot be done in external references. 

[Anonymous]

I work with custom curtain wall drawings that are VERY xref heavy and that workaround would effectively double the amount of xrefs we need to manage. Simply put...they just need to make MIRRTEXT compatible with XREFs. To me, an XREF is not much different than a block, so it should have all the same capabilities.

[dbroad]

Mirrored text doesn't work in blocks either.  You need attributes to get properly mirrored text like objects in blocks.  Xrefs do not support attributes.  I would support your feature request to have special editable/mirrorable attributes for xrefs as that might be useful.

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah, my bad!  So, yeah what I really want is to be able to have an attributed xref.  I just tried and sure enough, if you have a text attribute in your xref, it is not visible in the host file.  That's a bummer because that would be an excellent work around.  I still think they need to somehow make MIRRTEXT "just work".  As in, it should work regardless of where your text is or how it's inserted or what type of text it is.  For what it's worth, an Autodesk representative just told me that the request has already been logged and product design team is notified.

[dbroad]

Since you are posting in the ACA forum, I assume you have AutoCAD Architecture.

Instead of putting the text in your xrefs, you should start using property sets and tagging.  You can tag (add relevant text) to all of your parts by the tagging process. The xrefs can be like the elements in the project navigator.  Add the textual information there in the form of properties.  Then tag all of your parts/systems in the view drawings.  Once you tag one part, you can choose the all option.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I am on ACA 2014.  I will have to look into property sets as we do a lot of data extraction type stuff for glass sizing and unit management.  Thanks for the input.

[Anonymous]

I know its been some time, but any success with this?

It appears that someone had figured it out as a plugin and was possibly available at some point. Any ideas on who might have the capability of writing this plugin? Is it available somewhere under a different name in the AppStore? I'm happy to pay for this add-on feature. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hY4tFZAvyo

Thanks in advance for any help!

[baleti3266]

+1

[yanhan.lim]

Hi @baleti3266 , 

Thanks for raising attention onto this query turned into feature request. 

This matter has been logged and discussed before and within the AutoCAD forum. I will escalate this to the AutoCAD team again for further evaluation. 

In the meantime, there are some workarounds (some already mentioned but worth revisiting) 

• Mirroring the contents of the xref, SAVEAS a new file and XREF the new mirrored file.  
• Mirror blocks workaround, this support article outlines a workaround "How to prevent text in blocks from being mirrored with blocks in AutoCAD products" - link

If you wish to contribute or make your voices heard, do consider joining the Feedback Forum -  click here for more details

Hope this helps!