drawing setup

New to autocad. I have autocad 2014 with east coast cad as a third party for duct and pipe. I imported my x refs to my template. They don't lineup. How do i select one xref so i can move it and line it up. Thanks

Imported? What do you mean by imported? Didn't you attach them as external xref's? You have to be careful with terminology when asking questions about a complex program like AutoCad. You can import, attach, insert, and hyperlink things to AutoCad drawings, and they are all very different. As well, AutoCad has a template system, and you may have your own office standard Template. They may or may not be two different things. See what I mean. Here, I will use your word "Template" to mean your new drawing complete with your standard title block and border line already in a couple of layout tabs.

How do you mean they don't line up, with your drawing, with each other, what?

Are they the same scale? if not the same scale, just destroy them, and the person who drew them too.

If they are attached external xrefs, or pdf underlays, or even attached images, they can be moved just like any other object in the drawing. By the way, each xref is ONE object. You can't break it apart unless you go way, way out of your way. Simply select them by click or crossing window. Please explain why you think they cannot be moved.

Each drawing that is intended to be used as an xref, for instance separate floor plans of a multi-level building, has to have at least one known common reference point that is used to get them to line up with each other, and this is usually oriented exactly the same X,Y distances from the 0,0 coordinate in each drawing

The orientation to the 0,0 coordinate in their respective drawings are probably the issue. Commonly, one would insert attached floor plan xrefs at the 0,0 coordinate in the new drawing. Is that what you did? How do you want them to line up, stacked on top of each other, side by side?

These xrefs were probably each drawn by different people at a random distance away from 0,0. For now, I will assume that is the case, and I will assume that you want them to stack on top of each other so you can reference your work to more than one floor at a time.

An easy fix is, find a point in both reference drawings that is common to each, like the center of a vertical column, or a particular corner of an elevator shaft (I am assuming these are floor plans). In the "template drawing", over each of the xrefs, draw a small yellow (easy to find) circle or donut, with it's center snapped to that common point. You can snap to the objects and lines in an attached xref. Now MOVE one whole xref using the circle center point as the base point, then snap it to the center of the circle in the other xref. Bingo, lined up.

You can use COPY so you still have the same point of origin if it doesn't work the first time. Of course. the UNDO button works too. There may be some trial and error involved. In large buildings, elevator shafts can have different thicknesses of walls on different levels. Column centers usually line up, but they can be staggered inward a little on higher levels.

Of course you can repair the original drawings that were xref'ed instead of simply moving the xrefs in the "template".

Close (save) your "template" drawing and open one original xref plan. Draw a rectangle using the rectangle command, from 0,0 to that common point you discovered. Without closing that drawing, open the other(s), one at a time if there are several. Copy only the rectangle, with basepoint using 0,0, and paste it to 0,0 in the other drawing(s). Now select the entire plan using that common point you found for your 'move' basepoint, and move the entire plan (drawing) to the same corner of the rectangle the common point is on in the first drawing. Erase both rectangles, close and save the xref'ed original drawings.

Now, when you go back to your "template" drawing, the xrefs should be lined up.

Now, if you don't want them stacked up, you'll have to show us what the issue is, or experiment with lines and/or geometric objects to get some orientation going on.

I moved your thread to the AutoCAD Drawing Management & Output Forum since it is related to XREFs and you do not use AutoCAD MEP.

Why do you show AutoCAD 2004 in your profile if you are using AutoCAD 2014?