Binding XREFs to Send, eTransmit not working

[Anonymous]

I was given a sheet set to bundle up and send to someone,  it was set up by someone else. They want all the files to have no XREFs, so I'm converting them to blocks. I tried eTransmit using all Overlays with Relative Pathing to bundle into a group of folders to send to a client. However, when I set it to Bind-Bind, the files still come out as XREFs, and sometimes the XREFs are missing. When I try each file manually, I need to close and reopen the files in order to convert each XREF separately. Does anyone know what I could be doing wrong or a faster way to get this to work?

[ian.mag]

Hey @Anonymous 

A quick question, were the files in the sheet set created from layouts within a drawing or are they individual sheets that reference model views in another drawing?

While etrasmit the drawing, are you doing it from a network or copying the files locally then etrasmit?

[pkolarik]

A few years back (I can't recall which version of autocad this was), we stumbled upon a bug in autocad where if you're trying to etransmit files and bind the xrefs into them, if you have xrefs loaded into xrefs loaded into drawings the bind portion would fail on the second "level" of xrefs.

The solution we found at the time (since the company we were working with refused to change their methods of linking xrefs) was to open each xref file that had another file xref'd into *it*, bind that one manually, and then entransmit would work on the sheets in the set.

However, I'm not sure if this is still an issue in more current versions of autocad or not.

[Anonymous]

They are individual sheets that reference model views in another drawing, and have been doing it from a network.

[Anonymous]

One of my XREF's does have another XREF, I will check this.

[ian.mag]

Hey @Anonymous 

Remember the sheet cross reference the files in the first place. Therefore, having the sheets minus the XREFs would mean to just have the base drawing solely.

So I am not sure what they want "...They want all the files to have no XREFs, so I'm converting them to blocks..." may be possible (correct me if I am wrong). You therefore just need to send the base drawings themselves, and possibly the sheets in a readable format.

[s.borello]

"They want all the files to have no xref"  That seems silly, if not ridiculous.  Good luck.

[Anonymous]

It is taking more time/money and is really frustrating. He said that they need to upload it online or something, so maybe whatever they are doing doesn't support XREFs. Thanks for the luck

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry I don't quite follow...the base drawing themselves (i.e. C-101) doesn't have the background info I also need to show. I'm not sure what you mean by sheets. C-101 XREFs XC-101 (proposed site) and XC-100 (ex. site) which are both also DWGs.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your help and suggestions. I am working from home so once I get some better internet speeds to practically troubleshoot this I will respond.

[R_Tweed]

I believe they are asking that all xref's are bound so that they have a plan set of dwg's where the references are locked and displayed.  This would normally seem like a cumbersome prospect except for the person who receives the drawing will only have to deal with a fixed number of dwg files.   They do not want to weed through 80 xrefs from plan backgrounds to elevator cores to individual details.  Any of which that are pathed to your network in multiple folders and multiple drives. Sometimes on peoples desktops.  They want something that won't be broken when they open the files.

In my experience circular references do not bind.  I suggest you run etransmit to a local folder as a test with xref's as-is then take the xrefs and see how they are organized. Then open the local files to ensure the xrefs load. Run etransmit on the local files to see if the xref's bind.

[pkolarik]

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@s.borello wrote:

"They want all the files to have no xref"  That seems silly, if not ridiculous.  Good luck.

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There are many very good reasons to need to have cad file xrefs bound into the main drawing. Many softwares don't accept/recognize xref files, for example.

[RobDraw]

Why won't the receiving party bind them?

I almost always have to process the files that I receive, including binding XREFs when necessary. 

[jggerth]

All my final submittals for .GOV work require single bound files, one dwg per sheet, with a matching single pdf and unique naming.  (basically magic-code from GOV plus sheet number)

A really quick way to turn a 650 Mb into a 3.4 Gb set of dwgs to send out 🙂

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure if that was a decision made by us or them, but I'll be sure to ask next time.

[murray-clack]

I noticed the XREFs you are trying to bind are from a Civil discipline.  Were these files created by Civil 3D?  If so, get someone who uses Civil 3D to do the eTransmitting c/w xref binding

[TuyaTs]

I am experiencing very peculiar issue with eTransmits in both AutoCAD 2018 and 2022 software. I changed, checked, and tested with each setting 5 times and still no luck. No matter what setting I have the XREF's folder is blank. The eTransmit is not grabbing my drawing xrefs. Did anyone have this issue? How did you fix it or what is the root cause for it?

#etransmit blank xref issue @murray-clack @jggerth @RobDraw @pkolarik @R_Tweed 

[pendean]

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@TuyaTs wrote:

I am experiencing very peculiar issue with eTransmits in both AutoCAD 2018 and 2022 software...

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Screenshots of both of your ETRANSMIT pop-ups (initial and Setup) are going to be needed here, share as soon as you can.

[TuyaTs]

I figured out that it was a version issue. Meaning, back then I used 2018 version of CAD, and my colleague is on 2022 version. I could see their xref backgrounds in my drawings, but when it comes to etransmitting the drawing, the xref went blank in the eTransmitted folder. 

So my solution was, upgrade my drawings to 2022 (open in 2022 and save it), then etransmitted everything. They are showed up in the folder where it supposed to be.