Attaching external references

Attaching a separate drawing to the current one creates an external reference. The external reference appears in the drawing as a block definition, but the drawing entities are linked rather than added to the current drawing. If you modify the linked drawing, you can reload the external reference so that the current drawing reflects the latest version of the external reference.

When you attach an external reference, its layers, linetypes, text styles, and other elements are not added to the current drawing. Rather, these elements are also loaded from the referenced file each time you reload the external reference. External references can themselves contain other, nested reference files. When you attach an external reference, any nested references contained in the file also appear in the current drawing. If you do not want nested references, you can attach the external reference as an overlay.

You can attach as many copies of an external reference file as you want. Each copy can have a different position, scale, and rotation angle.

To attach external references

Advanced experience level

1. Do one of the following:
• Choose Tools > External Reference.
• On the Tools toolbar, click the External Reference tool ().
• Type xref and then press Enter.
2. In the prompt box, choose Attach.
3. Specify the drawing file to attach as an external reference, and then click Open.
4. Specify the insertion point for the external reference.
5. Specify the x, y, and z scale factors and the rotation angle, or choose Done to accept the default values.

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Changing the path for external references

Detaching external references

Inserting and binding external references to drawings

Overlaying external references

Reloading external references

Xref Clipping