X Ref Template

[Adam Coates]

Hi All

 

I am currently using Autocad 2018 LT and we use it for drawing event set ups using multiple pieces of equipment for Lighting, Sound, LED video set etc etc. I currently have a DWG that holds all or our stock blocks of these pieces of kit from which we can then take a room from a venue and drip them in. The problem I am having is that the file ends up starting as 11mb and can get very big very quickly. Is there a way to use an x ref to a template that I can then pull some of these block from when required rather than them being stored on the main drawing itself without having two or three templates open where they are stored?

 

Cheers

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[ReMark]

Curious as to whether or not the main drawing that holds all of your blocks has been cleaned up via such commands as Overkill, -Purge and Audit?

[Adam Coates]

Hi ReMark

 

Yes it has. 

 

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[BIGAL]

Sounds like you have tried copy and pasting items with two drawings open the template and the new dwg ?

 

You can do some basic macros in LT so you could have a menu for bringing in the most commonly used blocks, you have to have the blocks though as a single dwg. If you have access to full Autocad/Briscad can be exported pretty easy with a lisp.

 

You could group blocks in separate dwg's "tables.dwg" bring them all in delete what you dont want then purge blocks. 

 

 

[RobDraw]

You can use NCopy to get objects from an XREF.

 

Have you tried Design Center?

[BIGAL]

Some info Design centre

 https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-lt/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/AutoCAD-LT/files/GUID-B2BA9E9E-942F-4E01-89C9-DBA1AB9A2C6A-htm.html 

Also talks about Tool Palette worth looking into as well. 

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-lt/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2019/ENU/AutoCAD-LT/files/GUID-6B20D7DF-447A-4A8D-8FF1-8339CF54FFBD-htm.html

Edited February 19, 2019 by BIGAL

[Cad64]

I agree with the Design Center approach, but I think it's a bad idea to keep all your blocks in one dwg file. If anything were to happen to that file, you will lose all your blocks. It's just my opinion, but I think it's better to have a structured library of individual dwg's than just one drawing file containing all your blocks.

 

Take a look at Bigal's link for Tool Palette's. This would be a good way to handle your blocks. You could build a custom tool palette that would allow you to drag and drop blocks into your drawing from the palette without needing to have Design Center open.

[RobDraw]

If I were to keep all my blocks in one file for easy access, you could be sure that I would have them all saved separately to a secure structured library.