Make AutoCad not show specific xRefs in specific viewports

Make AutoCad not show specific xRefs in specific viewports

Anonymous
Not applicable
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Message 1 of 7

Make AutoCad not show specific xRefs in specific viewports

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi everyone!

 

I'm working with a document that contains a large amount of xRefs and multiple viewports. For one of the viewports i want layers in all the xRefs to be visible and for one of the viewports I want only 3 of the xRefs to be visible. The way I've solved this right now is by just using VP freeze for all the xRefs layers that I don't want showing in that VP, but the problem is that when I add new layers or new xRefs to the file, these becomes visible because they're not freezed yet and I need to remember to turn these off all the time.

 

I'd like to know is there's a way to modify one of the settings of a specific viewport so that it only shows certain layers in certain xRefs. This would mean that neither new layers or new xRefs becomes visible in that specific viewport when they are created/attached. 

 

Is there a way to do this? 


Thanks! 

Erik 

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4,355 Views
6 Replies
Replies (6)
Message 2 of 7

Alfred.NESWADBA
Consultant
Consultant

Hi,

 

>> for one of the viewports I want only 3 of the xRefs to be visible

You can set each XRef to a separate layer, freezing this layer (VPFreeze) in the one viewport makes all content from this XRef invisible.

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
ISH-Solutions GmbH / Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS
www.ish-solutions.at ... blog.ish-solutions.at ... LinkedIn ... CDay 2026
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 3 of 7

ian.mag
Collaborator
Collaborator

Hey,

I addition to what has been posted above, the other option I would recommend is make a copy of the original xref file (or save as), freeze/ put off the layerlayers you don't want to show in the drawing, then insert the modified drawing as a new xref

Message 4 of 7

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi Alfred!

 

Thank you for your quick reply. I'm not sure if I understand completely how to do this. The thing is that each xRef contains from 10 to 100 layers each and they all have their own layer settings. It's just that in one specific viewport, I want everything to look exactly the same even if new xRefs/new layers are added.

 

The reason this is a problem is that we are multiple people working on the same files and each xRef is used for multiple layout files. So for each delivery we have to remember to check that this viewport looks right (no new lines) for each of the drawings. I'll insert a picture of what it looks like for one of the drawings so it's easier to see whet I mean. 

 

I'm very happy to try your out your solution but I'm not sure how to proceed.

Erik  

 

 



 

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Message 5 of 7

Alfred.NESWADBA
Consultant
Consultant
Accepted solution

Hi,

 

>> The thing is that each xRef contains from 10 to 100 layers each

Yes, but the XRef itself is placed on one specific layer in your current dwg-file ... and when you freeze this one layer all objects within the XRef will be hidden.

 

When you select your XRef you can see the insertion layer in the property window, freeze this layer (or in the viewport VPFreeze) als the whole content disappear. Or assign your XRef another layer and freeze this other layer.

Freezing the insertion layer of a block or an XRef hides the whole content of the block or XRef, indepentent of the layers used within the block or within the XRef.

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
ISH-Solutions GmbH / Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS
www.ish-solutions.at ... blog.ish-solutions.at ... LinkedIn ... CDay 2026
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(not an Autodesk consultant)
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Message 6 of 7

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi Ian!

 

Thank you for your reply!


I would recommend is make a copy of the original xref file (or save as), freeze/ put off the layerlayers you don't want to show in the drawing, then insert the modified drawing as a new xref


Ah, that might work! Do you mean that it would be two different xRefs for two of the viewports then? So one with the layers permanently freezed for just the sparse viewport? But wouldn't new layers in the "original" version of the xRef still show up in that case? 

 

I guess what I'm asking for is to set the default setting for a new viewport to "freeze all new layers/xRefs" or something like that. 

 

Best regards, 

Erik 

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Message 7 of 7

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi again, 

 

Now I see what you mean! Thank you so much for the help, think this will help us a lot with this. 

 

Best regards,
Erik 

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