AutoCAD: Know the properties of a Nested Object

What is the layer of an Object in an Xref? Does it use color byLayer? List the properties of a Nested Object with this easy to use command.
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If you need to know the layer of a nested object (to switch off that layer for instance) or other of its properties, you might want to use the XLIST command.
This command allows you to see the Object Type, the Block Name (in case the object is neted in a Block), the layer, the Color and the Linetype properties. The image below is an example of the results of using the XLIST command.


The command can also be called on the command line bar, using the -XLIST version. LazyDrafter reported recently that this helps when having very long XREF or Layer names, as the dialog box is sometimes too small to allow you to see the layer name complete.

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AutoCAD: Use Curved Frames to Clip your References

Clip your Blocks or XREFs using curved polylines, circles, etc
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A common problem found when using the XCLIP command is that it doesn't clip properly if the polyline we use has curved segments. The same way we can't use circles to clip Blocks or XREFs. If you try to clip a block using a polyline that contains curved segments you will see that along the curved segment the clipping is not done properly. See the following image. The block was clipped using the yellow polyline. The result is not satisfactory at all.




The first image shows the original block, the second one is the block clipped with the XCLIP command. As you see we need a work around this result. The work around is to use an Express Tool Command.

CLIPIT is an express tool command that will allow us to do what we wanted to do. CLIPIT will ask us to select the new clipping frame, that can actually be a POLYLINE, CIRCLE, ARC, ELLIPSE, or TEXT object. It works the opposite as the XCLIP command. With CLIPIT you first select the frame and then the Block, Image, Wipeout or XREF you want to clip. See the following image with the result.



What CLIPIT does, is turn the curved clipping frame into a set of segments. If you switch on the XCLIPFRAME and select the block, you will see that the frame is actually made of straight lines. See it below.



The only bad part of this express tool, is that so far (till version 2009) it doesn't allow inverted clips. We talked about how useful inverted XCLIPS can be on a previous post. Hopefully in future versions of AutoCAD this will be solved.

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AutoCAD: How to Modify the XCLIP Frame Without Redrawing it

You can easily edit which part of an XREF is clipped without redrawing a new polyline.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
A few months back a wrote a post about the XCLIPFRAME system variable. What I didn't know back then is that the frame shown with this system variable could actually be edited.

For those who don´t know what an XCLIP is: with the XCLIP command, we can clip (hide) part of a Block or XREF. This will allow us to keep the Block or the XREF unexploded while showing only the part of it that we want in our drawing. As I already mentioned before, I hate people who explode blocks as a hobby, but I understand they do so because they don´t know they have these options.

So back to editing the XCLIP Frame, if we set the XCLIPFRAME system variable to 1, we will be able to see the frame that is used to hide part of the Block or XREF. This frame can be modified by selecting it and moving its grips. In many cases, when we have created a very complex XCLIP Frame, this becomes extremely useful so we don't have to redraw the polyline we used to clip de Block or XREF while still allowing us to hide or show a different part of the object. I made a quick video showing the power of the XCLIPFRAME system variable. Check it out below.



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AutoCAD: Muiltiple XREF repath - The Reference Manager

AutoCAD Installs an external application that allows you to repath multiple XREFs.
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The Reference Manager is a utility introduced in AutoCAD 2004 that is not very well known since it is external to AutoCAD itself. The purpose of it, as it name states, is to Manage the External References.
To access it you need to go to Start --> Programs --> Autodesk --> AutoCAD 20XX --> Reference Manager.
The interface is pretty simple. The main use I found for it is to re-path XREFs that have been moved to different folders. You cans elect all the XREFs that need re-pathing, right click on them and click "Edit Selected Paths". See the image below.
The Reference Manager allows you to Manage any file that a drawing uses as a Reference, such as plot style tables, Fonts, Images and XREFs. Being Images and XREFs the ones that most commonly are misplaced, this are the types of files that you will most commonly re-path through the Reference Manager.
Re-pathing is something that you can do in AutoCAD using the XRef Manager, the Image Manager, etc. But when a file that was referenced in 100 drawings has been chenaged of location, you don;t want to enter those 100 drawings and repath this XREF in each one. The Reference Manager allows you to do this for the 100 drawings in a few clicks.
What I miss in the Reference Manager is the option to not only repath (choose the folder of the XREF) but also choose a new XREF. Sometimes the broken path is due to a change on the name of a file rather than a change of location. It would be great if the Reference Manager allowed us to point multiple files to the new XREF.



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AutoCAD: Attachments or Overlays?

Know what it means to use Attachments or Overlays as XREFs. It is important to avoid file troubles.
Català - Castellano
XREFs can be inserted as Overlays or as Attachments. That choice will affect the behaviour of the drawing where they are inserted.

• Overlay: Inserting a drawing A as an overlay in drawing B is the equivalent of just allowing that external reference A to bee seen in the current drawing B. The external reference does not become part of that drawing. When inserting drawing B in another drawing, let's say C, A will not appear.
• Attachment: Attachments work the opposite way. An external reference inserted as an attachment becomes part of the drawing where it is inserted. In this case, drawing A would become part of Drawing B when inserted as an attachment. They would still remain two separate drawings, but any time we'd attach drawing B in lets say drawing C, drawing A would be attached too since it is "part" of drawing B.

Letters apart, consider the implications of this. If you are working on a section and insert a floor plan as an attachment, this floor plan will become part of the section drawing. Then if you work on the floor plan and insert the section (as attachment or overlay, it doesn't matter) you will be also inserting the floor plan (the same you are working on) creating a circular reference.
You will get a warning message when this happens, and remember, when you do is it time to consider what are yo doing. Circular references are number 1 ingredient i a recipee for disaster.
In general, when projects get more and more complicated, the amount of circular references could be so big, you will have big trouble detaching XREFs or worse you will be unable to batch Plot, etransmit files, etc.
In my team we have long ago decided to not use attachments at all, since they have been giving us a lot of trouble.
The use of attachments is in general only justified to save some steps reattaching drawings. On certain situations, you might choose to use them, sometimes it feels almost unavoidable, but remember the possible problems described when doing so and consider if an overlay would do the trick.
My advice is to use always overlays, only use attachments wisely and because you feel there is no other option. And s a general rule, if you are in charge of the file structure of a project, don't let anyone else use attachments except with your permission. Knowing who is using attachments and why will allow you to control where the problems could arouse and how to solve them.



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AutoCAD: Getting Back the old XREF manager

Are you missing the old and simple XREF manager? Don't worry, it is still there.
Català - Castellano
Since version 2007, AutoCAD uses by default the External References Palette instead of the old XREF Manager to handle External References and Images all in one interface.
Although it is useful to have a palette always on to handle XREFs, it is sometimes a big annoying to have all images and XREFs listed. What we do with images and XREFs tend to be pretty different, so it could be good to see only the XREFs listed if we wanted.
If we add that the External Reference Palette tends to be much heavier in terms of computer resources used, we have enough reasons to want to old XREF manager back. That wish is granted just by knowing that the old XREF was never deleted from AUTOCAD (at least till the day and version 2009), and it can be accessed typing CLASSICXREF. See the image below where I have the new External References Palette and the old XREF both showing on the screen.

I have my list of aliases customized so XR points to CLASSICXREF instead of opening the External References Palette. By typing IM (for Image) I still get to access easily the new External References Palette. (note that the old Image Manager can also be accessed using the CLASSICIMAGE command)



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AutoCAD: Full power of the LAYFRZ command

Trouble freezing layers on XREFs or Blocks? The solution is on the command line
Català - Castellano
Many commands in AutoCAD have more options than we really know. We just need to take a look at the command line once the command is active to find these extra options. LAYFRZ is not an exception to this rule.
We often have trouble trying to freeze layers within XREFs or Blocks. THis is because of the hierarchy system of AutoCAD, but also because the LAYFRZ command might be configured wrong.
Once we start the command, we have the chance to type "S" for settings and we will access a world of possibilities. What is basically important to understand is the set of options regarding Block Nesting.


We have b (for Block) that will do 2 different things:

• If a selected object is nested in a block, freezes the layer of that block.
  
• If a selected object is nested in an xref, freezes the layer of the object.

E (for Entity) will freeze the layers of the selected objects even if they are nested.
N (for None) would freeze the layer containing the block or Xref.
I think it is good to remember that with any tool there might be some extra options that we are not considering that we can discover by paying some attention to the command line.

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AutoCAD: Excessive Xref Scales

How to get rid of the long and annoying list of Xref scales.
Català - Castellano
One thing we noticed at work after installing AutoCAD Architecture 2008 was the extremely long list of scales when a file had Xrefs. We would get some scales like "1:20_XREF_XREF_XREF_XREF_XREF_XREF".
The manual procedure to get rid of them is to use the command SCALELISTEDIT, and remove all the scales that we didn´t want to see or use. This can be a pretty tedious process if it needs to be done on lot of files.
A way around is to create a script containing this line (COMMAND "-SCALELISTEDIT""R""Y""E") and batch run it in all the files we need. We will need a program like ScriptPro that will allow us to batch run the script in as many files as we want.
Good news for those who are planning to update to AutoCAD 2009, the issue has been partially solved by adding an option on the scale list. We can select to "hide Xref Scales", so we don't have to deal or see the long list of scales that are mostly useless for the most of us.
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AutoCAD Express Tools: NCOPY

Copy entities from nested objects or files.
Català - Castellano
The NCOPY command is a very useful one when we are working with XREFs or Blocks. NCOPY stands for Nested Copy which means that it will allow us to copy objects that are nested in XREFs and Blocks.
Instead of opening the xref and copying an pasting the entities we want to move from the reference file to the drawing we are at we can use NCOPY and directly copy this entities without opening the file.
The same applies for Blocks, no need to open the Block Editor to copy objects from inside the block to outside of it.
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AutoCAD System Variable: VISRETAIN

Control if you want your XREFs to retain the visual changes or not.
Català - Castellano
Sometimes we change colors of the layers of an XREF for different reasons. Eventually we might want to get the layers to they original state. If we inserted the XRef on 0,0,0 coordinates and didn´t move it, scale it or clip it, we can just detach it and attach it again.
But in many circumstances we might have moved, clipped or scaled the xref, so we don't want to do that again. If we want to get the layers to they original color, we can use the command VISRETAIN. This system variable controls whether the changes made to XREFs are retained or are only temporal. If the variable is set to 1, the changes are kept, if we set it to 0, reloading the XREF will bring back the original colors.
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AutoCAD 2008. Inverted Xclips

Clip the inside of the frame inside of the outside when using the XCLIP command.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
From 2008 version we can create a cutout in the middle of an xref or block using xclip. Before selecting or creating the polyline we have an option called "inverted clip" which will make the part of the object inside of the polyline disappear instead of the outside.
If you look at the command line, after running the XCLIP command and have selected teh object you want to clip, you will bsee this line:
[Select polyline/Polygonal/Rectangular/Invert clip] :
If you type "i" and press enter, you will be inverting the way the XCLIP command works, so instead of keeping the inside of the frame and hiding the outside it will do the opposite. Once you have clipped the XREF you can actually modify its frame later, see this post and video for how to do that.

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