MaKeSHift_Generation Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 I have a set of drawings for a hotel. The hotel has around 6,000 drawings to make up the set. Each of the 6 levels are broken up into 18 sections (drawings) and each drawing contains around 18 xrefs. I need to combine each level into one drawing that I can manipulate and mark up with symbols. I would rather only have 1 large drawing to hand out to the tech's. Is there and easy way to colapse and combine the levels into one drawing each? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 There is a very good reason for using xrefs and if you circumvent this you could end up with a massively large drawing that will be tough to handle. Do you have a fairly robust computer and good graphics card? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaKeSHift_Generation Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 My computer seems to be pretty hefty. I have already been working on a project much larger than this one with no problems. I don't really need all the details on these drawings. I just need a total floor plan that shows walls, doors, and maybe some room names. My problem is that I just cannot combine these xref'd drawings to create the single floorplan that I need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 You have the xreffed drawings on your hard drive as individual drawing files right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaKeSHift_Generation Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 Yes, they are on my hard drive burried under the 6,000 files for the property. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 The job was purposely set up using xrefs. I don't think you should be trying to combine everything into one large drawing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaKeSHift_Generation Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 It was set up that way because of the amount of detail. I don't need all of the detail, all I need is one floorplan with walls and doors. I don't care where the desk or chair is, just the walls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 Then open a drawing with the walls on it and WBlock them out. Insert in your new master drawing. Another option. Freeze all layers that have nothing of value on them except the wall layer. Now add your symbols. Plot it. Copy it. Hand this drawing out to your techs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaKeSHift_Generation Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 I found one way around it. Print to PDF, then use a PDF converter to turn it back into a dwg. It makes a mess but atleast it's something I can work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 I found one way around it. Print to PDF, then use a PDF converter to turn it back into a dwg. It makes a mess but atleast it's something I can work with. Yikes. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaKeSHift_Generation Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 well, it's the only way I can figure to keep everything inplace until I clean out the details I don't need without loss of information that I do need. PDF convertor works pretty well, just doesnt like the arc's or like segments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsjr70 Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 I know this is very old but I have a similar problem. I need to import a drawing into a photometric program but it only reads down one layer of refs. Is there a way to combine it all to one file? Not worried about size or being able to work with the CAD file, once I get it imported to my photometric program I will never use the CAD again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 You could open the Xref manager and then Bind all xrefs into your drawing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsjr70 Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 That was the first thing I thought of but when I right click on any of the references "bind" is in gray and wont allow me to select. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 Sounds like you have nested xrefs, which complicates everything. How many xrefs are attached to your drawing, and how many of them have nested xrefs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsjr70 Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 I havent counted but there are over 100 nested refs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 Over 100? Yeah, that's a problem. I can't really give you any advice on how to handle this situation because the various xrefs probably have certain parameters set, like visibility, color, linetype, etc., so if you start detaching xrefs or binding them into other xrefs to remove the nesting, that could potentially screw up the integrity of your drawing. Maybe someone else might have some ideas? Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsjr70 Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 Thanks for your help. I am still scratching my head trying to figure out who designs a 12 story apartment in one file this way... At least they could have used revit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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