External References only loading when I Reload all references

[chris_white6N6KW]

I am working on a suite of drawings in AutoCAD LT 2022.

They were all referenced absolutely but I didn't have access to the drive so they were copied over to a box location for me. I have box sync on my Laptop so they are all saved on my hard drive locally. I've updated the references so they are now relative and they all work fine aside from one file.

When I load the drawing I have the following errors, however if I "Reload all references" the errors clear.

I would be interested to know if anybody had any tips.

Thanks,

Chris

[Valentin_CAD]

@chris_white6N6KW ,

These links may help you understand:

• AutoCAD LT 2024 Help | About Setting Paths to Referenced Drawings | Autodesk

• External reference(xref) file is missing or unresolved in AutoCAD products (autodesk.com)

[imadHabash]

Hi,

• Xref is "Orphaned" if its parent xref that the child xref is attached to is unloaded or unresolved.

• If the file is showing up as Not Found, it might be because:

  • You have a bad connection to the location where that Xref is stored, or
  • The Xref path is incorrect.

[chris_white6N6KW]

Hi,

1. The file is stored locally

2. When I reload all references the error clears, so the path is correct.

It could perhaps be due to the length of the path but then would it resolve simply by reloading the references? You'd imagine the path would still be too long

[paullimapa]

Perhaps the orphaned file is xref into the not found file?  I would open the not found file to make sure if there’s an xref in it that it’s xref appropriately and do a save

[chris_white6N6KW]

Hi thanks for the reply I tried that but when i opened it there was no xref issues.

IT's strange that all i do is click the reload button, change nothing else and the issue disappears. I don't need to change any xref locations to fix it. What's different when it tries automatically when I open the drawing I wonder.

[paullimapa]

Try using the recover command to open each of the xrefs and then do a save. See if that makes a difference 

[pendean]

@chris_white6N6KW So which of the three xrefs are you actually editing? I'm not clear on that in any of your posts.

Why does XR-003 have a different path? maybe that is why it is "not found".

As noted by others, "orphaned" is what needs to be corrected i you are editing -002 or -003, i you are editing -001 then detach -002 and -003 from there?

[chris_white6N6KW]

Hi I have edited both xrefs.

When I open TK-42-XR-001 directly, it loads both TK-48-XR-002 and TK-48-XR-003 without any warning, so paths are correct.

When I open TK-42-DR-005 which references TK-42-XR-001 it doesn't load TK-48-XR-003 and thus not the orphaned TK-48-XR-002 either.

When I click reload all references (without changing anything else) it all gets fixed. So the paths are correct.
I can't figure out why it won't load them first off, that's the part that is causing me confusing.

I've included two screen shots below to show what I'm trying to explain.

When I save the file after "reload all references" it'll still have the error when i open the file again, until I click "reload all references"

[pendean]

"overlay" is likely the cause of your issue

Are you familiar with how those two types behave, especially in nested situations?

[chris_white6N6KW]

Thanks, I have a rough idea of the difference but not all that familiar!

when I Open TK-42-XR-001 it loads TK-48-XR-002 and -003 as attachments.

However When I open TK-42-DR-005 it loads TK-48-XR-003 as an overlay but I can't change this to "attach" as it's a nested reference....

[chris_white6N6KW]

thanks, I tried this but no joy

[pendean]

---

@chris_white6N6KW wrote:

... but I can't change this to "attach" as it's a nested reference....

---

In AutoCAD you can only change an XREF type while in the top file of that xref: "nested" alerts means you are not in the correct DWG file for that XREF (or worse, it xrefs itself? rare but I don't have access to your files to rule it out). Try again please.

[chris_white6N6KW]

Apologies I had an error above in my explanation and was travelling for a couple of days so didn't get  a chance to reply.

So When I open TK-42-DR-005 (and "Reload all references" I get the below)

So TK-42-XR-001 is overlay, TK-48-XR-002 is attach, TK-48-XR-003 is overlay.

I open TK-42-XR-001, and look at Xrefs

It confuses me that TK-48-XR-002 is a nested reference, it's attached to TK-42-XR-001 as an overlay. When TK-42-XR-001 however gets referenced (as attach) it has TK-42-ZR-001 nested as an overlay? So I can't see where I could change things to get it to come in as an attach.

I've now changed all to attach but still now way to get the nested reference of TK-48-XR-003 to change to attach. Even though it's referenced as attach to TK-42-XR-001 per screenshot above.

1*

[pendean]

@chris_white6N6KW Do yourself a huge favor and in the XREF palette choose this last icon at the top-right so you can see your XREF is tree-form to stop the confusion about nesting items

And try to remember the following moving forward:

1) OVERLAY means you will never ever see it in any other file than the one it is in at all. never ever.

2) ATTACH means you see the xref everywhere it's top file is attached as an xref.

It appears to me you may not ever need to should never use the OVERLAY option. Just my observation from our long discussion on this topic.

HTH

[paullimapa]

could you share all these drawings so we can take a look?

[chris_white6N6KW]

@pendean thanks I'll put in that view. yeah i couldn't understand why people would use overlay either, these were drawings I inherited.

That view shows something very interesting...It's references drawings twice! So this gives me a good clue as what is going on! 

[chris_white6N6KW]

@paullimapa thanks very much for the offer but I better not share them as might get in trouble from the company I'm working for. I think the fact that they are referenced twice seems very messy so that must be the issue. only came to light when I changed the view of the Xref links per above post.

[paullimapa]

So to test if the problem has to do with nested attach xrefs do the following:

1. open the 003 dwg and change the 002 xref from being attach to overlay and save 

Then open the 005 dwg and see if now all the xrefs are automatically loaded

2. If still not then open the 001 dwg and change the 003 xref from attach to overlay and save. Then close and reopen the 005 dwg to see if all the xrefs now automatically load. 
If problem is resolved whether after step 1 or step 2 notice the overlay xrefs are now no longer showing in your 005 dwg. If you require them to show up in 005 you’ll have the overlay them again in this current dwg