Using XRefs

You can place a drawing file or a DGN/DWG/DXF/IFC file as an XRef in a document as often as you need. The advantage is that you do not have to enter the same elements again and again. For example, think of the furniture of hotel rooms. Just create the elements in another document and insert this document as an XRef as often as you want. In the case of changes, you must change the original data only once - all linked XRefs will adapt dynamically. You can insert XRefs at any scale and angle. But you cannot insert empty documents as XRefs.

You can place XRefs as normal XRefs or as advanced XRefs. For more information, see Comparison between normal and advanced XRefs.

The XRef size matches the element size in the document. If the size changes later, you can update the XRef by selecting Update All XRefs on the shortcut menu. If you want, you can clip an XRef later by modifying it. You cannot do this when you place the XRef.

In Show/Hide, you can turn XRefs and XRef borders on and off. Regardless of the settings in this tool, Area detection always considers the XRef border. If you want to prevent this, place the XRef on a separate layer and hide this layer. Elements in advanced XRefs will still be considered.

XRefs are always placed on the current layer. However, the individual elements of an XRef retain their layers. When you change the status of a layer, you must update the screen contents to apply the change to elements within XRefs.

You cannot create nested XRefs (in other words, documents including XRefs cannot be inserted as XRefs again). If a document, which has been inserted as an XRef, no longer exists, the border and reference remain unchanged, and the file name of the associated document is visible in the border.