Multiple spaces in source dwg for deliverable (titleblock drawing)/X ref question...

Hi everyone

I'm a recent prodigal son to AutoCAD (thank god!) after several years using microStation.

I haven't been using AutoCAD much recently but will be a lot from now (exporting from 12d and drafting) and am wondering a couple of things:

 

1. Is it possible to have multiple spaces in the one dwg so that this single dwg can be x reffed into a titleblock drawing?

By this I mean that one feature I liked about MicroStation was I could have as many "model spaces" and "paper spaces" as I liked. I'm not suggesting I have 32 model spaces in the one dwg, but would like to have one model space for the plan (eg a road) and a paper space model each for profiles and sections (which are exported at scale anyway, so 1:1 is perfect for them.

 

2. I'm very used to being able to x ref in any drawing elements (for working purposes) to another and copying the required info into the destination dwg; leaving the x ref there for updating but turned off unless copying from it.

I don't know what I'm doing, but I can't get this sort of thing to happen in AutoCAD. From memory I should be able to just copy with base point, paste to orig, leaving the x ref unloaded and 'dormant'.

 

3. Can you x ref a paper space from one dwg into the paper space of another dwg?! Couldn't seem to do this, but I would like to be able to x ref the profiles or sections from the source dwg paper space to the destination title block/deliverable dwg's paper space.

 

A lot of questions I know, but I would really appreciate help with this!! It's very important!!

 

Thank you! .

AutoCad, by default is set up with a modelspace where we draw everything at FULL SIZE, and multiple "Paperspaces" or page layout tabs where we scale the drawing or parts of the drawing to fit the output paper size with multiple page output capability. Modelspace is pretty much what it is called, lots of space. No need for any separate modelspaces in AutoCad.

 

You seem to have the xref concept a little bit off. I have ONE template titleblock/border drawing that is xref'ed into each of my page layouts (paperspaces) in any one drawing file. That xref is "Attached" and then loaded at least once when the receiving drawing is opened.

 

Yes you can "Import" a page layout from one drawing to another. It only brings in the page layout and paperspace xref's, if any, nothing from modelspace.

 

You can copy (clipboard) and paste anything from one drawing file modelspace or paperspace to another as long as you have them both open at the same time. Once again, copying from paperspace does not bring anything from modelspace. Any viewport in paperspace will be copied along with the paper layout, but it will show what is in the current (new) modelspace at the coordinates it was aimed at in the original drawing.

 

The way you have asked these questions leads me to think that you need to follow some tutorials through a couple of example lessons to get to where AutoCad is useful to you. This is one program where you definitely cannot feel yourself around and arrive at a good place. Your questions are at a general enough level, that it will take many pages of postings to get them answered well. This site has a lot of FREE tutorials for the beginner. Click the FIRST blue tab under the CADTUTOR logo at the upper left of the page.

Thanks very much Dana.

You actually answered all of my questions perfectly!

Up til about 10 years ago I was a bit of an AutoCAD nerd, but the mining industry standard where I lived was MicroStation, and I need a little help achieving what I need by understanding the nuances between the two programmes.

The point about having both source and destination files open at the same time for pasting to original coordinates is exactly one of these! Thank you.

 

The reason I need to know this is I export civil design plans to dwg from 12d. I completely understand model space should never have anything scaled up (that's what view ports are for!) and the only reason I am asking about content from one dwgs paper space to another is that profiles (long sections?) for roads are exported at a specified scale, and so can go directly from PS to PS with a titleblock.

 

Thanks so much for your help!

 

Ps: love your sig!

Perhaps a bit more, I have a street project at the moment with 88 layouts ie one per sheet Plan longs cross sections etc the master street layout is in model space. You have a choice you can have all these details in model space if you want and just create a layout with a window looking at the correct details the layout can have multiple views so you can have plan long & cross on one sheet, we normally have the plan as a view but the long resides in paperspace because its all ready been plotted to true scale to fit a certain size sheet so just place it. We use Advanced Roads like 12D it creates layouts or new dwgs so we just leave the output in a layout. Lastly others here will talk about using sheet sets another way again.

 

One little enhancement I have a copy layout lisp as ARD creates new layouts when plotting say longs we might make a change to the design replot and the routine copies this new output to the correct existing title sheet.

Ps: love your sig!

Don't do that. I will interpret it as an invitation to post pictures of my dog.

 

I get the feeling that you are way more advanced in "general" CAD knowledge than I am, but I may still be able to help in the detailed program manipulation a bit, as long as it is vanilla AutoCad.

 

You'll have to excuse BIGAL. There is a city ordinance against using punctuation in Geelong.

Omg. Twice I have replied to this only for the wi fi session where I'm staying expire!!!

 

Succinctly, I love dogs Dana.

 

My idea of three spaces in the one x ref drawing (one MS, 2x PS) will work?

 

For example, a plan and profile titleblock drawing can have the same dwg x reffed in twice: once in its MS (the plan which is in the x refs MS) brought in through a viewport, and again into its PS (the profile section from the x refs PS) clipped?

My idea of three spaces in the one x ref drawing (one MS, 2x PS) will work?

 

For example, a plan and profile titleblock drawing can have the same dwg x reffed in twice: once in its MS (the plan which is in the x refs MS) brought in through a viewport, and again into its PS (the profile section from the x refs PS) clipped?

Yes, this will work, but the drawing to xref relationship is pretty much reverse of the norm. You will want the titleblock to be stored so you can make changes to it one time that will be reflected in existing projects as well as new ones started from scratch. So, you make the titleblock the xref, and call it from the plan & profile (Main) drawing.

 

You don't want to consider the title block drawing as the main drawing of the template set, the DWT AutoCad file. Set up a template.dwt file that has the title block drawing xref'ed into it instead, already inserted on one or two page layout tabs.

 

Now you copy the template.dwt (saved as New-Project.dwg) and the titleblock drawing (not renamed) into New-Project-Folder on day one. The titleblock drawing, used as an xref will then be isolated from the other projects, in its own project folder, and will have the project/client text altered independent of the other projects.

 

Succinctly, I love dogs Dana.

I tried to warn you about this. Now you have to look at a picture of Daisy, our 4 1/2 year old APBT/AST mix.

She looks awesome and what a great shot! I thought she was drooling at first look.

She looks awesome and what a great shot! I thought she was drooling at first look.

Hmmmmm. maybe I should photoshop out her tag. She says "Thanks, I know I am awesome."

 

When I come back next time, I want to be a Pit Bull. Look at those leg muscles. jeeeeeze.

 

Alright, back to the topic.

She's awesome!!! I love dogs with different coloured eyes! My little guy Rush (am staffy lab x) is currently staying at boarding kennels as I've only just moved from perth to Brisbane (new job hence the scrambling to get my head around a few things!). Apparently he's got himself a nice Rottweiler girlfriend there! Lucky thing!

 

Anyway, I was obviously up too late last night because just as I went to bed I thought "profiles aren't exported to the one dwg": 12d exports profiles paginated at a given chainage in a series of numbered, sequential dwgs.

 

Maybe a little 12d-centric, but my thought about having the paper space for the profiles in the same dwg as the plan is dumb; it is basically me being conditioned to having to always bring dwgs into a MicroStation DGN.

 

What I proposed is now completely unnecessary! It would mean x reffing the profile into a dwg, then x reffing that into the dwg with the titleblock: what a waste of time!!!!

...hey at least I got there eventually!

 

As for the titleblock itself, I would always only ever have this as its own singular dwg to be x reffed into all of the drawings. This would be x reffed into the PS of what I have referred to as the destination dwg.

 

Thank you so much for your patience. Although it took a while, I now know exactly the best method to get what I'm trying to achieve.

 

I'll have to wait til I'm in my own house, but I'll post a pic of Rush when I can.

She's awesome!!! I love dogs with different coloured eyes! My little guy Rush (am staffy lab x)....

I'd have bet a month's pay that you had one of the bully breeds around you somewhere. People that don't know them, don't understand my signature at all.

As for the titleblock itself, I would always only ever have this as its own singular dwg to be x reffed into all of the drawings. This would be x reffed into the PS of what I have referred to as the destination dwg.

Maybe you tried to say that before, but it may have come out wrong above, because that is how it is done in AutoCad. I thought you had said exactly the opposite before.

 

I am ignoring the 12D and Civil stuff on purpose because I have no clue beyond plan and profile, what you are talking about.

 

I'll have to wait til I'm in my own house, but I'll post a pic of Rush when I can.

Good. There's an old chat thread around here someplace about pets. Then again, Daisy is not a pet, she's family, as I am sure so is Rush. In fact we have inquired at the shelter about adopting a little brother for Daisy. We have our eye on a 1 1/2 year old solid black, except for a white chest blaze, Pit Bull named Arson by the shelter. Having seen him and the fire in his eyes, I can see why they named him that. He'd be a good match for Daisy since she is pretty much a Weapons Grade Crazyclown.

There have definitely been challenges for me using the correct terminology as what a word means in one package is often very different in another!!

Rush:

Anyway, I was obviously up too late last night because just as I went to bed I thought "profiles aren't exported to the one dwg": 12d exports profiles paginated at a given chainage in a series of numbered, sequential dwgs.

 

Maybe a little 12d-centric, but my thought about having the paper space for the profiles in the same dwg as the plan is dumb; it is basically me being conditioned to having to always bring dwgs into a MicroStation DGN.

 

There is an excellent 12d macro (http://forums.12dmodel.com/macro_view.php?m=3) which will combine & translate plot models to a common plot model so you can export the profiles you want to a single dwg. How I set it up is I add the macro to a chain (e.g a copy of the macro in a chain for plotting stormwater long sections, a copy for plotting sewer long sections, a copy for road long sections and a copy for road cross sections) and then I can have the data exported neatly next to each other in a single dwg file (my 12d titleblock file is setup to plot a box the size of an A1 sheet around each of the profiles so they are nice and neat when copied into AutoCad). E.g. I get a single dwg file that contains 20 stormwater long sections lined up next to each other etc which I can then copy (or xref) into the master CAD file.

There is an excellent 12d macro (http://forums.12dmodel.com/macro_view.php?m=3) which will combine & translate plot models to a common plot model so you can export the profiles you want to a single dwg. How I set it up is I add the macro to a chain (e.g a copy of the macro in a chain for plotting stormwater long sections, a copy for plotting sewer long sections, a copy for road long sections and a copy for road cross sections) and then I can have the data exported neatly next to each other in a single dwg file (my 12d titleblock file is setup to plot a box the size of an A1 sheet around each of the profiles so they are nice and neat when copied into AutoCad). E.g. I get a single dwg file that contains 20 stormwater long sections lined up next to each other etc which I can then copy (or xref) into the master CAD file.

 

That is exactly what I'd love to be able to do! I use chains extensively and the addition if this profile combining macro would be awesome.

Thank you so much for the link!!!

I'm onto that beauty ASAP!

 

 

Ah, good ol Sam Cech: he is the macro king! Helped me so much with a set out points table.

 

Is the macro hard to customise? I am only on my iPad right now and can't download it to play around with.

Edited August 23, 2015 by jt6572
Additional info

That is exactly what I'd love to be able to do! I use chains extensively and the addition if this profile combining macro would be awesome.

Thank you so much for the link!!!

I'm onto that beauty ASAP!

 

 

Ah, good ol Sam Cech: he is the macro king! Helped me so much with a set out points table.

 

Is the macro hard to customise? I am only on my iPad right now and can't download it to play around with.

 

I'm not really familiar with writing macros so not sure with regards to cumstomising it. It is fairly simple to use and you can us wildcards in it for the model name.

 

He seems to have written most of the macros hosted on the forum!

Ok, you guys have started speaking gibberish now. I think I'll just sit and listen, and occasionally throw in something about Pit Bulls, and Vanilla AutoCad.

 

We've had Labs and Pit Bulls, and Amstafs, but never in the same creature. Rush must have an entertaining personality being both.

Ok, you guys have started speaking gibberish now. I think I'll just sit and listen, and occasionally throw in something about Pit Bulls, and Vanilla AutoCad.

 

We've had Labs and Pit Bulls, and Amstafs, but never in the same creature. Rush must have an entertaining personality being both.

 

Lol...classic. He's a happy dog which makes me happy. I'm picking him up from his resort on Saturday so it'll be great to hang out with him again after 3 weeks (I have visited him...). He's awesome but I need to take him to training as I haven't been able to the last couple years. He's friendly, excitable and a 4.5 year old pup! Very similar to me in those aspects...

 

Getting back to AutoCAD issues, it's looking like a good idea for me to be more proactive on this front at work. Our team is small and a couple of the guys aren't permanent either, so I'll do more.

 

The first thing I need to do is edit an existing titleblock by inserting my company's image where the vendors to the client have theirs. Don't worry, I'm not plagiarising, it is the clients request to use their titleblock!

 

Years ago I could do this no problem, but I'm now so rusty I have holes in me!

 

From memory, I would explode the titleblock block, delete the image I want to replace, insert our logo and then have a check that the attributes are where and what is required.

 

Is this the correct method at least?! Would I even be able to simply explode the titleblock from an existing drawing and use it?

How do I insert an image?! And is it still ddeattedit to edit attributes?!

 

Actually, I'm not sure I know how to edit attributes in a titleblock that is x reffed into a drawing sheet?!

 

I'm hard work...

Edited August 26, 2015 by jt6572
More info needed...about Rush!

I'm not really familiar with writing macros so not sure with regards to cumstomising it. It is fairly simple to use and you can us wildcards in it for the model name.

 

He seems to have written most of the macros hosted on the forum!

 

I'm hoping to get a spare few minutes to break that little beauty out tomorrow actually. If so I'll let you know how it goes.