XREF does not come in at correct coordinates

XREF does not come in at correct coordinates

Anonymous
Not applicable
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Message 1 of 17

XREF does not come in at correct coordinates

Anonymous
Not applicable

I have an XREF drawing of the legal lines of my site, let's call it drawing A, that I'm trying to XREF under all of my design drawings for pipes, alignments, corridors, etc.  When I XREF it into drawing B it it does not show up in the correct coordinates.  Both files have the same reference coordinate system, my BASE parameters are the same and my INSBASE parameters are the same.  

 

I've grabbed a reference block from the surveyor's DWG and inserted it into both drawing A and B to check if it was inserting at the same coordinate each time and it was.  If I XREF the surveyor's original drawing into drawing B it comes in at the right spot.

I

had a similar problem with another file but that was solved by closing drawing A before I XREF'd it into drawing B.  No such luck here. 

 

EDIT: I should add that I'm XREFing drawing A using the "Locate using Geographic data" option.

 

Any ideas?

 

I'm using Civil3D 2019.3 on Windows 10.

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Replies (16)
Message 2 of 17

Jeff_M
Consultant
Consultant
If all things are the same, then inserting at 0,0 should be what you use.
Jeff_M, also a frequent Swamper
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Message 3 of 17

Anonymous
Not applicable

Yes, that did work.  Do you know why using the geographic location is not working in this case?  We do this method for a lot of projects and haven't had an issue until recently.

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Message 4 of 17

Anonymous
Not applicable

I've had issues in the past importing like you described but my xrefs look rotated. Then if you copy and paste from one file to the other is is correct. Normally restarting cad or deleting the xref and reloading works. GL

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Message 5 of 17

Anonymous
Not applicable

I tried restarting CAD and also deleting the XREF entirely and starting over but no luck.  This has only happened with two subdivisions we recently started designing. Every other project has been fine.  I have no idea what the correlation there is... we do the same procedure with all our projects.

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Message 6 of 17

Anonymous
Not applicable

Check the UNITS in both drawings. Both should be the same. We have issues when one is set to Feet and the other to US Survey Feet.

Message 7 of 17

Anonymous
Not applicable

Both drawings are made from our template unfortunately, so unless something weird happened between opening up a new drawing and XREF'ing in the units shouldn't have changed.

Message 8 of 17

AllenJessup
Mentor
Mentor

Lets reshape the terminology. it's not units or the drawing coordinates as defined in AutoCAD. For the "Locate using Geographic data" option to work. Both drawing have to have the same Geographic Coordinate System set. I just want to make sure we're talking about the same thing. Also. Check if there is a UCS set in the drawing that's being Xreffed.

 

Allen Jessup
CAD Manager - Designer
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Message 9 of 17

Anonymous
Not applicable

Yes, I thought I had mentioned in the original post but both drawings are set to the same Geographic Coordinate System.  Thanks for showing me a new way to change the coordinate system!  I usually use the command ADESETCRDSYS instead of going into the drawing settings.  Also, both drawings are using the WCS.

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Message 10 of 17

Beka_Tchigladze
Advisor
Advisor

check -dwgunits sometimes it helps me to insert in a proper location

Beka Tchigladze
Road/Highway Technical Designer

AEC Collection/C3D 2025
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Message 11 of 17

ChicagoLooper
Mentor
Mentor

@Anonymous wrote

<<….I should add that I'm XREFing drawing A using the "Locate using Geographic data" option….>>


It sounds like your xref isn’t georefenced properly. 

 

Perform this experiment:

  1. Open a clean, brand new OOTB template and assign your coordinate system. Turn on Bing Hybrid aerial map. The Bing logo will appear in lower right corner of modelspace. 
  2. Zoom-out until you see the red geomarker (it looks like a bicycle wheel with red spokes).
  3. Zoom-in on the geomarker until you can read the labels of the aerial map, then using pan and zoom, navigate to your site. 
  4. Draw a circle surrounding your site. Copy the circle with 0,0 as the base point.
  5. Go to your xref drawing and paste the copied circle using 0,0 as the insertion point. (You may also paste it to your subdivision drawing.)

 

The pasted circle should surround your xref. If it doesn’t then your xref isn’t georefd properly. 

 

Chicagolooper

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Message 12 of 17

ChicagoLooper
Mentor
Mentor

Duplicate post.

 

Chicagolooper

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Message 13 of 17

rgrainer
Collaborator
Collaborator

Check the following:
INSUNITS, INSUNITSDEFSOURCE, and INSUNITSDEFTARGET

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Message 14 of 17

arodriguezDQBHW
Contributor
Contributor

Importing surveys done in Microstation causes havoc in Autocad including coordinate problems where there is no way to align the drawings properly unless you use brute force (moving the drawings to align them). Is a pita. I strongly suggest that if you procure survey work that the drawings are done in Autocad and not microstation.

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Message 15 of 17

walelign_ayaliew
Observer
Observer

For me setting the "INSBASE " as 0.000, 0.000, 0.000 fixed it. Sometimes you may set everything, including the units and the coordinates system correct or consistent but the XREF drawing may appear away. Setting the reference insertion base point in the used UCS as 0.00, 0.000, 0.000, and then setting the insertion point in the XATTACH window the same will do the trick.

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Message 16 of 17

Jerry_Barnes
Collaborator
Collaborator

My two cents worth:

Of course, Drawing B in this instance must be in world coordinates before xrefing in Drawing A. Secondly, the BASE parameter in Drawing A must be set to 0,0,0. And thirdly, the Set Autocad variables to match box must be checked as well. 

Jerry_Barnes_0-1732829285106.png

 

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Message 17 of 17

rajender.kumar
Observer
Observer

Thanks, it worked for me