Organizing drawings with AutoCAD - 5 Section

CHAPTER 24: EXTERNAL REFERENCES

An External Reference (RefX) is a drawing inserted in another but that, unlike the blocks, maintains its independence as a file. In this way, if this drawing undergoes modifications, these will be reflected in the drawing of which is External Reference. This has clear advantages when it comes to teamwork because it allows different cartoonists to deal with different parts of a project that, in the course of it, can be integrated into one as external references to evaluate progress in the global.
In that sense, the usual thing is that the blocks are limited to simple objects that are going to be reproduced many times in the drawing, as symbols of furniture or doors. On the other hand, external references are usually more complex drawings that cover a part of a larger drawing and are separated to delegate its design to other people or to divide files that can become very large. Therefore, the difference is that when inserting blocks, they become intrinsic parts of the drawing; Inserting External References creates that, a reference to an independent drawing that may still be in development. A very simple example of this would be an urban development project, where in a single extension of land, we can have external references for public lighting, sewerage, land subdivision, etc., and each engineer, architect or town planner could take care of only of the part that corresponds to him. However, this does not prevent us from being able to insert an external reference several times in a drawing, as if it were a block.

24.1 Insertion of references

To insert an External Reference we use the Link button in the Reference section of the Insert tab, which consecutively opens two dialog boxes, one to choose the file and the other to set the parameters that allow us to correctly insert the reference: Position of the file in screen, Scale and Angle of rotation. In addition, we must choose between “Link” or “Overlay” the External Reference. The difference between one and the other is very simple: overlapping references disappear from the file if the file itself becomes an external reference. Attached References remain in effect even when the files that contain them become an external reference to a larger drawing.

Once the external reference is inserted, we must consider that its layers are generated in the current drawing, as we saw in the previous video, but their names are preceded by the file name that is external reference. These layers can be used in the current drawing through the layer manager, deactivating, becoming unusable, and so on.

In our drawing, external references behave as a single object. We can select them, but we can not edit their parts directly. However, we can modify the blurring on the screen, just as we can establish a delimiting frame. If we are going to draw new objects near or on the external reference, then we can also activate the Object References markers we saw in the 9 chapter. In the case of image files, we can also modify the brightness and contrast of them.

24.2 Editing external references

To edit an external reference in a drawing, we use the button of the same name in the References section. As is logical, Autocad will request the designation of the reference to be edited and then it will show us a dialogue box to confirm it, as well as to set the parameters of the edition, which, it may be said, are the rules of the game for edit the external reference within the current drawing. After that, we can make any change in the reference. Note that a new section appears on the ribbon with the buttons to record or discard the changes. It also allows you to add objects from the current drawing to the reference and, conversely, extract objects from the reference to leave them in the current drawing.

When we record the changes we make in an external reference, these are not only reflected in the current drawing, but also in the original one when it is opened.
In computer networking environments, when a user is editing a drawing that serves as an external reference to another or, conversely, when editing an external reference, the usual thing is to enable a blocking that prevents others from editing the same drawing at the same time. Once the edition is finished, either the original drawing or the reference, the Regen command regenerates the drawing, updating it with the latest changes for the other users of the network.

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