Xref Question

[Anonymous]

Hello and thanks for reading to help me 🙂

I hope this makes sense, so i have 5 thousand drawings and i need to change the xref attached to the 5 thousand drawings to another xref that is in the same path. In other words i do not want to open 5 thousand drawings detach the xref and attach the other xref that i need. How do i do this please, ive tried LSP's and have had no luck please please please help me out. so the path doesn't need to be updated, the xref that the 5 thousand drawings are linked to needs to be changed. My quick fix was to just edit the current xref that the 5 thousand drawings are linked to so i can just do a batch PDF publish and then reverted it back to its original condition.

Thanks in advance

P.S the reason for why i want to attach a new xref and replace the old one is due to the fact that i am moving into a further stage in my project and the title block is different has more detail and some things removed.

[BeKirra]

I am afraid that won't happen until you open the drawings to update the link to new Xref.

BTW would this help?

Give the same file name to new Xref as the existing Xref (obviously you have to change the existing Xref file name beforehand).

[Anonymous]

Sorry i dont think i quite understood what you suggested, also ive had a colleague say name all xref same and have multiple versions of the xref in different folders.

[BeKirra]

Regardless the method you select, you have to open the 5000 drawings to update the Xref link(s).

[Anonymous]

are you 100% sure?

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

One method I have used in the past is to keep all my current working drawings named exactly the same and in the current working folder.  When a phase of the project would change, I would copy the entire working folder into a new folder with the PREVIOUS phases name. Then I would never have to adjust any xref's.

I believe what @BeKirra is mentioning about each file could be correct but I don't recall ever intentionally having to open each one. If the Xrefs in the file are in the same location and named the same I am not sure you have to do anything else.

I suggest making a quick sample project folder and mimicking this process before committing to a large project with so many files involved.

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

[TrevN]

You need the Reference Manager.

Follow this link: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Change...

[RobDraw]

Why not just edit the existing title block XREF? That's why you set it up as an XREF in the first place so that it can be edited and the change will take place in all the files, correct?

[Anonymous]

beccause the original xref is not only linked to the 5000 that needs to be changed but its linked to other drawings that i want to remain the same

[Anonymous]

Everyone keeps saying this but it doesnt work because reference manager only changes the path of the source xref i don want to change path i want to change 5000 out of 10000 for a certain xref no one understands my question im just going to delete it and forget i ever made this post please read before replying.

[Anonymous]

i dont understand how this relates to my question? 

all i am asking is that in total i have more than 5000 drawings linked to one xref and i only want to change the xref for the 5000 out of 10000 so if i use reference manager its just going to update the path to the original xref which is useless to me. I want to replace the xref that the 5000 are linked to and leave the rest of them linked to the original xref.

[BeKirra]

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@Anonymous wrote:

i dont understand how this relates to my question? 

all i am asking is that in total i have more than 5000 drawings linked to one xref and i only want to change the xref for the 5000 out of 10000 so if i use reference manager its just going to update the path to the original xref which is useless to me. I want to replace the xref that the 5000 are linked to and leave the rest of them linked to the original xref.

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I have explained that you have to open all the drawings to edit/update the Xref. Any lisp or other program won't help you.

Here is more details.

Supposed the Xref is "A-xref.dwg" and you need to replace it with "B-xref.dwg". One of the options would be

• rename "A-xref.dwg" to anything you like.
• rename "B-xref.dwg" to "A-xref.dwg".
• then open the drawing which you want to updated.
• save the drawing.
• And you have to update them (5000+ files) one by one. Unfortunately nothing else can help, I am afraid.

Heop this explains.

[JTBWorld]

There is certainly no need for manual work. If interested to automate your work please contact us at JTB World.

[Anonymous]

I figured it out and i didnt have to open 5000 drawing to update the link of the new xref

[RobDraw]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I figured it out and i didnt have to open 5000 drawing to update the link of the new xref

---

Congratulations!

Marking the solution that worked for you would be good. 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

None of the solutions here helped i made my own solution which was a Lisp Script, long story short any command that can be executed in autoCAD i have learned to automate it. So i manually did the required actions and commands i needed copied the command history and made a script to apply the same thing to all the drawings. 🙂

[RobDraw]

What were those commands and how long did it take to apply it to all the drawings?

[Anonymous]

it doesnt matter what command you just type a - before any normal command you use, then it gives u the options on the bottom once i did the couple of commands which was like detach and attach and save as to a different folder i needed that done 5000 times. I then copied command history and made a script with it so i applied the script to all the drawings and it literally took 3 mins to do 5000. Taking into consideration i have a i9 7960 128gb ram

[RobDraw]

Wow! A script that is not dependent on the commands. Brilliant!

[Anonymous]

its no reliant on commands but you do need to key in the commands like a command prompt, you know what im talking about? or have i lost you