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XREF - Attach or Overlay

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Message 1 of 9
neilyj666
66598 Views, 8 Replies

XREF - Attach or Overlay

Never really understood which was the best one to use (mainly Attach) and now I'm using C3D (large models, lots of objects etc) I'd like to optimise my use of XREFS.

 

How does everyone else handle them and what works best for you??

 

Thanks

neilyj (No connection with Autodesk other than using the products in the real world)
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AEC Collection 2025 UKIE (mainly Civil 3D UKIE and IW)
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8 REPLIES 8
Message 2 of 9
nicolas.menu
in reply to: neilyj666

"An overlaid xref is not included when the drawing is itself attached or overlaid as an xref to another drawing".
That is the key thing to remember.

More on that below.
http://exchange.autodesk.com/autocad/enu/online-help/search#WS1a9193826455f5ffa23ce210c4a30acaf-5d72...

Beside that, it all depens how you work and what are your goals.
I almost never used Overlay in my life, but I guess others may never have used Attached...

Probably some consistency will be good, so you know what to expect, whatever drawing you load.
I would tend to avoid having here a drawing "attached" and there a drawing "overlayed", unless you have a clear folder structure with "rules", so results can be predictable.
 



Nicolas Menu
Support Specialist, Civil 3D
Product Support
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 3 of 9
Joe-Bouza
in reply to: neilyj666

DON"T USE ATTACH FOR CIVIL DRAWINGS! (I make it sound so scary)

 

I may get skewered for this but I would avoid using "Attach". I have found many many drawings all gummed up due to nested xrefs. It may be conjecture on my part, but the correlation cannot be ignored. It may work well for architects backgrounds, but I have yet to see a civil project work without errors.

 

The use of "attach" may be ideal for deliverable sheet construction but look what happens to working drawings:

In our office we use xrefs for alignment(all the flatwork), Grad&drainage(contours&structures), utilities(sewer,gas, elec,...), and landscaping... x-align, x-grade, x-util, x-lscape.  For working purposes each of those xref need to see the other for reference. If x-align has-grade,x-util.... "ATTACH" then in x-grade needs x-align and it ends up trying to xref in itself because of "ATTACH", and this can spiral out of control because each xref keeps building these nested occurrences. By the time you get to a sheet file it becomes a complete mess.

 

I'm sure someone can prove me wrong but I would not use "ATTACH" unless I was absolutely sure of the consequences

 

I create a template with relative path, overlay (empty)xrefs. copy into a project folder and everyone is ready to go. No one really needs to concern themselves with attaching xrefs, the project template has it done for them - all I need is a better layer standard and states and I would be golden> IMHO it keeps this clean.

 

Joe Bouza
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Message 4 of 9
neilyj666
in reply to: neilyj666

Thanks for the replies

 

Joe, I had been using Attach in the past but over the last few projects the XREFS did seem to get a bit out of control with circular references messages, hence the original question.

 

Can you please clarify how you "..create a template with relative path, overlay (empty)xrefs. .." as this sound like its worth a try

neilyj (No connection with Autodesk other than using the products in the real world)
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Message 5 of 9
AllenJessup
in reply to: Joe-Bouza

Joe,

 

I too believe Attach can lead to trouble. We use only Overlay. How are you Creating empty Xrefs? That sounds like a great thing to include in a template!

 

Allen

Allen Jessup
CAD Manager - Designer
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Message 6 of 9
Joe-Bouza
in reply to: neilyj666

Email me: jbouza(at)cameronengineering(dot) com

 

If you look at an example you'll get the idea pretty quick. Essentially, I create a prototype project folder with all the subfolders I want. The I made file new with my c3d.dwt, saved as xref\x-name. Then did all my relative attaching for working drawings, next made a starter sheet file, and again loaded all the xref relative. Even setup a starter SSM.dst file. So now when a job open all the user needs to do is copy the prototype folder to the projects drive on the server, rename the folder to the job number, insert the survey into X-topo, load any aerials to X-aerial, and start working. The relative path for xrefs does not care where the root folder is - try it. Add some crap and copy the root folder around the xref path goes with it - this is great for archiving.

Joe Bouza
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Message 7 of 9
Anonymous
in reply to: neilyj666

XREF - OVERLAY

When you Xref-Overlay FILE A to FILE B, then you Xref (Overlay/Attach) FILE B to FILE C,

by the end your File will contain FILE B and FILE C

 

XREF - ATTACH When you Xref-Attach FILE A to FILE B, then you Xref (Overlay/Attach) FILE B to FILE C,

by the end your File will contain FILE A, FILE B and FILE C

 

I have attached a graphic illustration of the difference in these two methods.

You must know beforehand how you would want your File Structure to be.

Message 8 of 9
Cadguru42
in reply to: Anonymous


@Anonymous wrote:

XREF - OVERLAY

When you Xref-Overlay FILE A to FILE B, then you Xref (Overlay/Attach) FILE B to FILE C,

by the end your File will contain FILE B and FILE C

 

XREF - ATTACH When you Xref-Attach FILE A to FILE B, then you Xref (Overlay/Attach) FILE B to FILE C,

by the end your File will contain FILE A, FILE B and FILE C

 

I have attached a graphic illustration of the difference in these two methods.

You must know beforehand how you would want your File Structure to be.


With C3D it's not as simple. Generally, as was mentioned before, you almost always want to use Overlay for C3D. The exeption is for cross sections and corridor drawings. Those you want to use as Attach because of the bugs with how C3D handles XREF'd corridors. 

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Message 9 of 9
scott67UA6
in reply to: Cadguru42

I believe you should be utilizing datashortcuts to bring in your corridorbase.dwg instead of attaching an xref.

Why would you need attach at that point?

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