XREF's and revisions

[CADuser20]

I've wanted to do this for a long time and have finally had the time to do it right. In my case I have a master architectural plan of each floor of the structure. I show all my reflected lower level lighting and ceiling information on this plan for every room on the floor. As it is a starting point to lay out the entire job I need to break it out by room later on for their respective individual drawing sets. However in the individual drawings sets it's nothing more than a quick reference for an installer to see the room floor plan in one shot without whipping out an E size plot (11x17 for the sets) and finding his way through the entire sheet.

 

So I've returned to the idea of using XREFs for this application. I want to have a master floor plan where I can bring it in as an XREF in the individual room drawing set and just clip the boundaries of the walls for that particular room and show that. And when I make changes to the master it updates in the drawing sets.

 

Hope that makes sense. So my question, how do you manage the file paths when you need to revise the file. I tend to archive old revisions in case I need to access them again. So I would go from say "file name revA" to "file name revB". Can I simply save a copy of the master revise it up and be on my way or do I need to go into all of the drawings where I brought the Xref into and update the file path to reflect the new file? I need to get away from chopping rooms out of a master plan and updating two pieces of information - it is just so inefficient and a horrible waste of time. Thanks for your help.

[tzframpton]

Many different ways to do this. Personally I can't stand the "rev1, rev2, etc..." file naming. Here's what we do.... when a new architectural comes in, we copy/paste the current DWG file into a folder with the current date, then move that folder into a directory called Archive. That way you increment your backups by folder date, all synchronized and then overwrite the existing file with the new architectural and bam - you're done. If you have the master drawing open, simple reload the XREF and the new changes are there.

 

Remember, this is just one of many ways to do this. It just works best for us.

[edwinprakoso]

If you use Autodesk Vaults, you can manage revision quite easily...

[Pablo Ferral]

We reverse the process. The name of the current drawing never changes, that way Reference paths never have to change. When it comes to archiving we then save a copy with the revision appended to the filename...

[CADuser20]

Thanks for your help guys, appreciate you taking the time. I like the idea of just archiving and not putting a rev#/letter until it gets archived. Otherwise the xref always stays the same. However as it is tedious I do like having the latest file with a rev on it too. It eliminates any confusion or chance to overwrite it. Say I send it to the client for internal review, they already have a few archived revision copies but they also have the current. Since the file name hasn't changed how can they be sure they are getting the latest file without popping it open and checking the title block first? Or do you just have to be more careful?

 

My thoughts were to do what you said and when I send the file or want to release it I archive it. Then send them the file with the rev in it so there is no confusion and yet no worries with trying to re-establish link names.

[Pablo Ferral]

Well, we don't send X-Ref's out for client review so we don't have that problem! I'd be interested to hear from any one that does.

 

My first thought is to use E-Transmit to send out a drawing set. You could bind the X-Ref's so that you only have to rename the top level file. Or put all the files into one folder, so that as long as the client opens the file from within the folder Autocad will always find the X-ref's that go with the file, because it will look in the same folder first.

 

My final thought is that you get to know the reference manager really well!

[tzframpton]

Pablo is definitely on the right path. Just use E-Transmit and use the "Bind XREF's" option to gather all external references into a single CAD file. Done and done.

 

Also, if you're ready for an "archive" then my suggestion to you is never archive the XREF by renaming it, but you can surely archive the master file. When you open up the master file for editing, simply do a Save As and put a "Rev 1" etc etc as the suffix of each file. Or instead of numbering them, use the current date so if your file name is "ARCH LEVEL 01.DWG" then you will name it "ARCH LEVEL 01 - REV 100520.DWG" for today's date of 05-20-2010. Naming it by Year/Month/Date (in a YY/MM/DD format) then you always will have the files ascending in the correct order from oldest to newest. This is what we do on jobs that require heavy editing and pre-design work.

 

Play around with your own methods and procedures and what works best for you. Ask yourself,"Should I do a Save As upon opening the file, or closing the file? Should I use a date or an increasing number for my file naming convention? Should I move the archived master files into a directory or not?" Being proactive in questions like this is definitely a plus for your quality of work in the long run. Hope this all makes sense.