Use reference drawings

In this exercise, you will learn to use reference drawings.

With the reference drawing feature, you can combine two or more drawings while still keeping the different drawings in separate files. The program will create a link from the parent (or master) drawing to the reference drawing. A reference drawing cannot be edited in the parent drawing. A reference drawing is automatically opened when the parent drawing is opened.

Note: The reference drawing is a separate drawing file and it must be found on the computer when opening the parent drawing. It is recommended to save the reference drawing in the same folder as the parent drawing.

A reference drawing is handled in the parent drawing similarly as a symbol. Therefore, editing also affects the reference drawing which can easily be selected when selecting other elements, making it harder to edit parent drawing elements. Hence, it is recommended to create a separate layer for the reference drawing and lock it after inserting the reference drawing.

Do the following:

  1. Start a new drawing by selecting File > New, and save the file as ElectricalPlan.drw by selecting File > Save as.

  2. Create a new layer for the reference drawing as follows:

    1. Select the Home tab > Layers group > Layer dialog. The Layer dialog opens.

    2. Click the (Create new layer) button to add a new layer.

    3. Enter AREF as the name for the new layer and press Enter.

    4. Set the new layer as current by clicking the (Set to current layer) button.

    5. Close the dialog by clicking  OK.

  3. Attach a reference drawing as follows:

    1. Open the External references window by selecting File > Settings > Show External references window.

    2. Click the (Add new reference) button and select Reference drawing.

    3. Select the drawing file you want to add as a reference. The Attach reference drawing dialog opens, and you can define various settings for the reference drawing. The default values are usually good.

    4. Accept the default settings by clicking  OK.

  4. Zoom so that all objects in the drawing are displayed: select the Tools tab > View group > Zoom.

  5. To only see the layer you need to draw your own design on, turn reference drawing layers off as follows:

    1. Select the Home tab > Layers group >  (Turn off) button.

    2. Select the objects you do not want to see one by one. If you click a location with no objects, the function is terminated and you need to start it again if you need to turn off more layers.

    3. After you have selected all "unwanted" objects (whose layers are now off), end the function by pressing Esc. Alternatively, click on a location where no objects can be found.

    All reference drawing layers are listed in the Layer dialog. The reference drawing layer name always has the name of the reference drawing as a prefix. The name is separated from the layer name with the| character, for example ARCHITECTURAL|CENTERLINE. You can turn the reference drawing layers on or off just like the layers of the parent drawing.

  6. Lock the reference drawing as follows:

    1. Select the Home tab > Layers group > Layer dialog. The Layer dialog opens.

    2. Set layer 0 as the current layer by selecting it and clicking the (Set to current layer) button.

    3. Lock the AREF layer by selecting it and clicking the (Lock selected layers) button.

    4. Close the dialog by clicking OK.

Tip: If you want to display a DWG or DXF reference drawing with only one color, you can set a conversion file for the reference drawing. Select File > Settings > Documents tab and select, for example, the conversion file Thin9.cnv so that all lines are displayed using color 9. The conversion file does not change the colors in the reference drawing file itself; it is only displayed using this conversion.

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