AutoCAD Xrefs have been around for years, and provide benefits to design workflows in any industry. The good news is that Autodesk Vault honors the link to referenced DWGs within an AutoCAD file – also known as Xrefs. From inside the AutoCAD User interface, there is a ‘browser ’ to manage External References that can be turned visible and docked to the left side of the window. When you open a DWG with Xrefs, the files will be listed. In the following image, I have enabled Tree View to display the nested dwg’s under the parent file.
Now, there is a specific type of Xref we’ll examine in this article. Common Xrefs like titleblocks, borders, standard notation, or even common ‘Library’ geometry may be referenced in from a shared network location. This enables the Administrators to make global changes to standard geometry and this in turn affects all parent DWG’s globally. A pretty nice setup, but one that should be understood when using Vault.
The challenge is checking in the Xref and its placement within Vault. By default, during a Check In from any AutoCAD platform, if the Xref is outside of the Working Folder, it will be nested under the parent file in a subfolder. The following example shows a Vault folder that will be created (Xrefs) to contain the DIN_A3.dwg.
This is NOT the desired location of the Xref as this is a titleblock, not project-specific geometry. Furthermore, in the following image a different parent AutoCAD file uses the same Xref titleblock/border drawing. Upon Check In of this file, the DIN_A3.dwg file will be placed in yet another ‘Xrefs’ subfolder.
The problem compounds itself resulting in duplicate named folders in Vault containing the same titleblock/border drawings. But there is a great solution for this…
The solution involved creation of a Vault Library folder for these common Xrefs, then configuring them to ‘know’ where the Xrefs are Checked In from. At the Vault Explorer root, right click and create a Library folder. I suggest keeping the same name as the network folder name.
Next you’ll need to right click and modify the properties of the Xref Vault Library folder.
In the Map to shared Server entry, add the location of the Xref Title Block location. Upon Check In to Vault, any files found in this network folder will be redirected to this Vault Library folder. Remember that the Vault location of the Library folder is under the Vault root, parallel to the Workspace folder, and most important, above and away from the DWG parent files.
Now when the parent DWG is Checked In, the DIN_A3.dwg Xref is placed in the Xrefs folder, and just once. When Check In occurs for other files that use the same common titleblock/border dwg’s, the Xrefs will already be in Vault.
It is recommended to store all Xrefs that are used across multiple DWG’s – and rarely modified – in a Vault Library folder using the procedure outlined here. Once the Xrefs are loaded into this location, the AutoCAD Vault add-in will download these to the Vault Working Folder the next time the parent DWG is opened. The controlled copy of the titleblocks, borders, and other common Xref files are now in Vault if global modifications need to be made.
-Brian Schanen
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