Feilds in an xref

[Lucid]

I'm trying to have my xfrerenced titleblock to automatically update it's number with the name of the layout tab that it is on. At first I couldn't do it, but then at one point I swear I had it working, now it doesn't work again. I've already tried messing around with FIELDEVAL and I have it set to 31 so that's not the problem.

[StykFacE]

What Field Variable are you using to pull the text from the layout tab? make sure it's the CTAB variable.

[Lucid]

Yes it's definately the CTAB variable.

[StykFacE]

Well I just tested it and it worked fine for me, and i'm on AutoCAD 2008. Here's what I did.... I put the title block in model space with the page number as a FIELD set to the CTAB variable, and saved it TITLEBLOCK.DWG. Then I started a new drawing and XREF'ed the TITLEBLOCK.DWG drawing into Paperspace, and it showed the name of the layout. When I would copy the layout tabs in Paperspace and named them, the FIELD picked it up fine.

Is this how you set yours up?

[Lucid]

That's exactly what I did. I'm so confused. Also, when I use UPDATEFIELD and select the titleblock, all instances of the titleblock are changed to the tab name of whichever is current when I use the command. For example if I use the command in tab "2" all the titleblocks are changed to say "2".

[StykFacE]

Can you upload the file(s)? or PM me and email them? Let me take a look at them.

[Lucid]

Here ya go.

[StykFacE]

Okay, after messing with it here's what I came up with. when you 1st XREF the Titleblock in, it works fine. as soon as you Save, Close, Re-Open the file, it stops working correctly. I even messed with the FIELDEVAL settings on both the XREF drawing, and the Titleblock drawing, and still it didn't work. you can use the UPDATEFIELD system variable, but then you have to do a REGEN for it to show up, but it still does not work when switching layouts beyond that. I even changed the system properties of the layout tabs to automatically Regen when switching between them, and not Cache the last layout, but that didn't work. Somehow the FIELD loses it's linking properties through the XREF.

Maybe if you can't get an answer here, try and post the issue over at www.theswamp.org (http://www.theswamp.org) to get the answer, just another board that might have someone who knows how to help is all. Sorry I couldn't figure it out, but at least I did figure out what's wrong with it... haha. Good luck with it. :wink:

[Lucid]

Thanks for trying! I'm just gonna put the field in a block for now.