Strategy for dividing a drawing out into x-refs

Joe Dunfee

 If you are up to date on the Unpurgable Layers thread, I described my effort to simplify a drawing that had become too cumbersome with many layouts and layers.  Briefly, I put a lot of the basic building parts in a separate drawing that I X-ref back into the drawing.  But, that actually ended up creating a lot more layers, even if the number of layout tabs were reduced. But, my viewport layer settings were all lost in the process.

Another weakness I came across with X-refs is that they are blocks, and so the utilities I was using to freeze layers inside viewports don't work.  I know the LAYOFF and LAYFRZ commands can select an object inside a block to freeze/off it, but, I am not aware of a similar command for viewport layers.  Is there one?

So, I now think I may just go back to a back-up I created before I started, and just accept that my drawing will have a lot of layout tabs.  Perhaps it would be easier if when I started at the beginning, I planned on using the X-ref.  But, even that does not addresses all the difficulties of an Xref.   Any arguments against that statement?

-Joe

Louis_Verdonck

Hi Joe

To VPFreeze xref layers: make the viewport the active viewport (double click inside the viewport), then launch the LayFrz command and choose Settings > Viewports > Vpfreeze. Click the entities of which you want the layers to be frozen in this viewport.

Joe Dunfee

 Thankyou Mr. Verdonck.

I will mention an issue that confused me about this command before.  When you first use LAYFRZ, the settings sub-command seems to be a default that you should be able to use by pressing return.  But, that does not work. Rather, you must type S to enter the settings. It also seems to remember those settings.

I am puzzled why the command does not seem to be aware of if it is in model space, or in a viewport.  So, if you set it to to a VP Freeze, the command cannot be used in model space until you change the settings back.  I suppose I could make to separate macros to change between the two modes.

But, I must also confess that I am not clear about all the options this command offers.  So, perhaps I am just misunderstanding something about it.

-Joe