Reference template Best practices

[Joe-Bouza]

What are the best practices? 

I recently had a hiccup trying to modify a part list in the current drawing. It want to ignore the change or make a local copy. If I don't want a local copy and detach the reference template all the part list disappear

[neilyj666]

My best practice is to avoid reference templates...😉

[Joe-Bouza]

sounded like a good idea at the time. what a mess. If I simply detach it it takes most of the styles and part list with it

[rl_jackson]

I'm still trying to figure out there purpose to be completely honest.

[Joe-Bouza]

In theory they would be good to control / update styles as a project template but in practice it too squirley

[MSchille-1994]

.....a couple of things I have noticed.......

Yes, as it states in the help file too, once you unload or detach the reference template, any unused styles or layers will disappear.  There are a couple of ways to combat this.....

a) copy your parts list, thus making a new one that is independent in your new drawing, all while leaving your reference template attached.

b) set the "aeccreftemplateautoupdate" to 0, which will only notify you of changes that were made in your "master" template while not updating your new drawing.  I am not completely sure though if this allows you to make changes to a referenced style in your new drawing though.  If you set it to "2" you can make layer changes without them getting "reloaded" the next time you open your new drawing.

Not sure if this helps or not, just things I have found.

[chriscowgill7373]

"As Designed"  we've been asking forever (well since they were introduced in 2017) for them to leave any unreferenced styles when it has been detached, unfortunately it isn't a high priority,  even during the overhaul during the 2020 release it still didn't get added.  I think you can tell it to no longer sync the items and it will at least leave them in there.  Otherwise another option would be to create a copy of the reference template and link to the copy instead.

[MSchille-1994]

@chriscowgill7373 I am with ya, I wish they would add that capability.  It was our wish to be able to start a new sheet drawing or design drawing, and detach the reference template so on the rare case that you need to edit a style, you can, without having to create a copy of it.  But yes, when you detach it the unused styles go away.

Unfortunately too, the "aeccreftemplateautoupdate" system variable, when set to 0, still does not allow you to make changes to the referenced styles without having to make a copy.  All that setting does, when set to 0, is it doesn't ping the master template to pull in any updates that have been made when you open your drawing.  Kind of lame too, considering, why would I not want to pull in any updates from my master template if I cannot change styles in my sheet drawing without creating a copy.

It is what it is though.