Xref basics...embarrasing questions!

[Miniver]

Hi,
Im doing a bit of drafting and i know i need to incorporate an architect's xref plan to start my drawing off. Ive successfully inserted the xref to my modelspace. All well and good.. But what now?!
There are no layers on the x ref and i need to create a multi layer drawing, and i asume, ultimately switch off the xref so is no visible. So do i basically create all new layers and trace over the xref just using it as a plan? Can i snap to it ok...and how would i figure out any curved sections?
Any ideas?
Thanks
Min

[danellis]

If you put the xref on it's own layer in your drawing you'll be able to free that layer off either globally or in individual viewports.

In terms of using the geometry from the xref you're best off using the xref to do that.

When you say "there are no layers on the xref," do you mean that the xref is all drawn on a single layer? If so my instinct would be to create a copy of the drawing and put the entities on appropriate layers myself - well, I would after trying to scream at the architect to learn how to draw properly!

dJE

[Miniver]

Hi, thanks for replying.
The xref ive got seems to have been 'flattened' with all the architects layers aopearing as one. The problem is there is more information than i need and i think it'll look very confusing unless i can pare it down. In theory, could i have been sent his 'normal' multi-layer drawing and xrefed that in, allowing me to pick and choose the layers i need? Tha would have been easier. Although i guess i could have just cut and pasted that into m new drawing and worked on top then?
At the moment, when i click on a line, all the lines are selected. If i cant get hold of him to send me a 'multilayer' drawing is 'tracing'over my best bet?

[Miniver]

(apologies for appalling typing, doing this on ipad)

[rickh]

To copy items into your active drawing, you can use NCOPY. It's a one at a time picker, so if there is a lot of stuff to copy you can also open the architect's drawing and copy it from there (select the objects to copy, do an edit-copy, then in your file do edit-"paste to original coordinates").

You can probably also find some lisp routines out there to select multiple objects to copy from xrefs to the active file.

To avoid all this copying though, yes you should ask for the file with layers in it....assuming there is one. Then you can just freeze the layers you don't want to show.

[nestly]

Hi, thanks for replying.
At the moment, when i click on a line, all the lines are selected. If i cant get hold of him to send me a 'multilayer' drawing is 'tracing'over my best bet?

An xref is a single object, so it's normal for everything in the xref to "selected" if you click on any part of the xref, so that doesn't tell you anything about whether the xref has multiple layers. Open the layer manager and see if there are new layers with the following format: filename|layername That's how many layers are in the xref.

If the drawing has indeed been "dumbed down" and put on only one layer, I would not re-create/trace anything, I'd first request an original with layers intact, and if you can't obtain that, I'd add more layers directly to his drawing and organize his objects on layers so you have control over what you do/do not want to see.

[Miniver]

Thank you for your replies. I'll have a look at it and see whcih i need to do. Fingers crossed!