MALICDAN, JUNNIELE B.

“EXTERNAL REFERENCES”

AUTOCAD XREF
(EXTERNAL REFERENCE)
AN XREF IS A REFERENCE TO AN EXTERNAL FILE, THAT APPEARS IN THE CURRENT
DRAWING AND GIVES YOU THE VISUAL IMPRESSION THAT IT IS PART OF THE DRAWING.

XREFS ARE OFTEN COMPARED TO BLOCKS, BUT THEY HAVE A MAJOR ADVANTAGE
OVER THE LATTER. WHEN A BLOCK IS INSERTED INTO A PROJECT, ITS GEOMETRY DOES
NOT CHANGE REGARDLESS OF THE SOURCE FILE’S CHANGES. WHEN AN XREF IS
INSERTED TO A PROJECTS, THE HOST PROJECT IS UPDATED AT EVERY OPENING WITH
WHAT THE CURRENT STATE OF THE XREF IS.

LET’S SAY, I HAVE JUST XREFED A DWG PROJECT MY COLLEAGUE IS WORKING ON,
EVERY TIME I OPEN OR INTENTIONALLY UPDATE THE XREFS, I WILL HAVE THE LAST SAVED
VERSION OF THE CONTENT OF HIS FILES.

ANOTHER ADVANTAGES OF XREF IS THAT ITS CONTENT IS NOT STORED IN YOUR

DRAWING, IT JUST ACTS LIKE A POINTER THAT RETURNS THE IMAGES OF THE SEED FILE
WITHOUT EATING ANY SPACE.

WHEN THE PROJECT YOU ARE WORKING ON HAVE SOME XREFED FILES, YOU WILL SEE
THE FOLLOWING TOOLS IN YOUR STATUS BAR.

HOW TO XREF IN AUTOCAD

TO ATTACH AN EXTERNAL REFERENCE TO YOUR DRAWING IN AUTOCAD, YOU NEED TO

STEP 1
MAKE SURE YOU ARE ON THE APPROPRIATE LAYER WHERE YOU WANT THE EXTERNAL
REFERENCE TO BE, TYPE XREF AND PRESS ENTER
MALICDAN, JUNNIELE B. “EXTERNAL REFERENCES”

STEP 2
CLICK ON THE ICON SHOWN ON THE PREVIOUS IMAGE.

BROWSE YOUR COMPUTER (OR YOUR NETWORK) AND SELECT THE FILE YOU WANT TO
ATTACH

STEP 3
SPECIFY THE PARAMETERS IN THE WINDOW BELOW.
MALICDAN, JUNNIELE B. “EXTERNAL REFERENCES”

YOU CAN USE THIS

WINDOW TO SET
AN INSERTION
POINT, SCALE THE
OBJECT YOU ARE
GOING TO
INCLUDED, ROTATE IT.

REFERENCE TYPE
THIS FEATURE JUST TELLS AUTOCAD WHAT TO DO WITH OVERALL PROJECT. IF WE SET
THIS TO ATTACHMENT, IF SOMEONE ELSE XREFS OUR DRAWING, HE WILL ALSO SEE FILES
THAT ARE XREFED TO IT, BUT IF WE SET THIS TO OVERLAY, THAT SOMEONE ELSE WONT BE
ABLE TO SEE FILES XREFED TO OUR DRAWING IF HE DOES ACTUALLY XREF OUR
DRAWING.

PATH TYPE
MALICDAN, JUNNIELE B. “EXTERNAL REFERENCES”

THE PATH TYPE SIMPLY TELLS AUTOCAD HOW IT WILL INDEX THE SOURCE FILE OF THE
REFERENCE OBJECT.

IT IS RECOMMENDED TO USE THE FULL PATH OPTION WHILE ATTACHING FILES TO YOUR
DRAWING, THIS OPTION WILL STORE THE PATH TO THE FILES, AND AUTOCAD WILL
ALWAYS FIND THE XREFED FILES AS LONG AS ITS LOCATION DOES NOT CHANGE ON
YOUR COMPUTER OR NETWORK.

AS FOR NO PATH, WHEN USING IT, AUTOCAD WILL ACTUALLY STORE ONLY THE NAME
OF THE XREFED FILES, AND THIS WORKS BEST WHEN ALL XREFED FILES ARE LOCATED IN
THE SAME FOLDER WITH THE HOST DRAWING.

XREFING FILE TYPES

YOU CAN ATTACH FILES OF OTHER TYPES.

MALICDAN, JUNNIELE B. “EXTERNAL REFERENCES”

XREF IS A VERY IMPORTANT TOOLS WHILE WORKING ON A TEAM PROJECT IN

AUTOCAD, AND REMEMBER YOU CAN ALWAYS HIDE, UNLOAD, LOAD BACK, DETACH
FILES FROM YOUR DRAWINGS.
MALICDAN, JUNNIELE B. “EXTERNAL REFERENCES”

List of Options
THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS ARE DISPLAYED.

External References Palette

Toolbar
ATTACH

ATTACHES FILES TO THE CURRENT DRAWING.

SELECT A FORMAT FROM THE LIST TO DISPLAY THE
SELECT REFERENCE FILE DIALOG BOX.

REFRESH

REFRESHES THE LIST DISPLAY OR RELOADS ALL

REFERENCES TO DISPLAY ANY CHANGES THAT MAY
HAVE OCCURRED IN THE REFERENCED FILES.

CHANGE PATH

MODIFIES THE PATH OF THE SELECTED FILES. YOU

CAN SET THE PATH TO BE ABSOLUTE OR RELATIVE.
IF THE REFERENCED FILE IS STORED IN THE SAME
LOCATION AS THE CURRENT DRAWING, YOU CAN
ALSO REMOVE THE PATH. YOU CAN ALSO SELECT
A NEW PATH FOR A MISSING REFERENCE USING THE
SELECT NEW PATH OPTION. THE FIND AND REPLACE
OPTION PROVIDES YOU A WAY TO LOCATE ALL REFERENCES THAT USE A
SPECIFIED PATH FROM ALL THE REFERENCES THAT YOU SELECTED, AND REPLACES
ALL OCCURRENCES OF THAT PATH WITH A NEW PATH THAT YOU SPECIFY.

HELP

OPENS THE HELP SYSTEM.

MALICDAN, JUNNIELE B. “EXTERNAL REFERENCES”

FILE REFERENCES
LIST AND TREE VIEW BUTTONS

CLICK THE BUTTONS TO SWITCH BETWEEN LIST AND TREE VIEW.

LIST OF REFERENCED FILES

DISPLAYS A LIST OF REFERENCES IN THE CURRENT DRAWING, INCLUDING
INFORMATION SUCH AS STATUS, SIZE, AND DATE OF CREATION.

DOUBLE-CLICK THE FILE NAME TO EDIT IT. DOUBLE-CLICK THE CELL UNDER TYPE
TO CHANGE THE PATH TYPE (DWG ONLY).

DETAILS
DISPLAYS INFORMATION OR A PREVIEW IMAGE OF A SELECTED REFERENCE.

DETAIL DISPLAY AND THUMBNAIL PREVIEW BUTTONS

CLICK THE BUTTONS TO SWITCH FROM THE DETAIL DISPLAY TO A THUMBNAIL

PREVIEW.

PREVIEW IMAGE
SHOWS A THUMBNAIL IMAGE OF THE FILE SELECTED UNDER FILE REFERENCES.

DETAIL DISPLAY
PROVIDES INFORMATION ABOUT THE FILE SELECTED UNDER FILE REFERENCES.
YOU CAN MODIFY SOME INFORMATION BY CLICKING THE RIGHT COLUMN.