Topic Title

I am glad that DataCAD added multiple redefining xrefs in DCAD11.06.exe. I would also like to see multiple redefining paths added as well.

If we have a reuse, we temporarily rename the old job folder to purposely create orphans. Then we can open the detail sheet, go to the orphan manager and redefine the path of all modified details to the new folder in one shot. Save the drawings and fix the name on the old job again.

Adding the multiple redefining paths in the xref manager would save a few steps.

Thanks,

This new feature is a step in the right direction for managing Xrefs, but
your wish for multiple path redefining is far more important. We re-use
jobs all the time and copy them into a new folder. I'm currently involved
in just such a job and I've been all day redefining paths. A path redefine
feature would save quite a bit of time and headaches.

A search/replace command on the Xref paths would work best, I think.
Most jobs use Xrefs within the same job folder, and most re-use jobs
have maybe only one character in the whole path that changes. Having
to navigate the stupid Windows tree for each Xref takes a lot of time.

Hello Ian & Steve:

This is exactly what the RFM in v11.06.00 does, guys! You can redefine a group of XRef's that all reference the same file -- and change them all to referencing another file; all at once!

Orphans and in the RFM; they both do this.

Hi Neil,

It does redefine multiple xrefs (that are the same) to another file, but I want 20 different xrefs to be redefined to another path.

My example is a job with details. If I have a job number 1234 with details. Now I want to reuse the details in another job 9876. I would copy the detail sheets and modified details (which are xreffed into the detail sheets) from 1234 and paste them into 9876. If I open the detail sheets in 9876, they are still xreffing from 1234. Since the names of the modified details are the same... I just want to redefine the path to 9876.

My wish is to multiple redefine paths in the xref manager.

This has my vote. I agree that the multiple file redefine is a major improvement, however, it needs to go this last step with redefining the paths of multiple files.

We have a database of standard plans that are reused over and over. Currently I copy the entire folder to another location and then redefine each XREF. If I could just select every XREF and redefine the path at one time that would be a major timesaver!!

Hello Ian:

I get it now...but, I'm not sure how this would work?

You can at least do the groups that are all the same file -- redefined to the same file.

But, unless you use the same file name for different projects, or always use the same exact layers in all the different files -- then how can you redefine more than one file, to the same number of different files all at once? You would have to indicate: this file is redefined with this file; and this other file is redefined with this other file, etc. I don't see how this would be any easier than doing each group, redefined to another file; each group gets done in one step?

I do keep the file names the same as the standard plans, so for my use this would be ideal. It would work very much (identical actually) like the Orphan Redefine path function.

Infact Ian's suggest of making the XREFs Orphans by renaming the original job or folder works as needed. It would just be nice to have the ability to redefine the paths of multiple XREFs in the manager without the extra step of renaming the original location folder.

Hello, Neil:

I have the same wish as Ian, so let me explain. Let's say I have a
project located in the path c:\client001\job001\drawings\ and there are
many subfolders inside this with several hundred datacad files, 15 detail
sheets each with Xref'd details and many hundreds of Xrefs within this
project ranging from title blocks to half-tone background layers behind
other plans.

Now, my client wants to re-use this project across the street
on another lot, with a few minor revisions, etc., and he wants the new
name of this project to be job002. The easiest thing to do for a re-use
of a project that uses only one datacad file is to copy it from one place
to another. But in this case, there are hundreds of files all Xref'd into
each other. In this re-use, every layer in every file, every file name, and
every subfolder, and the *relative* locations of all files and subfolders to
one another are *exactly* the same. The one and only change in this
entire new project upon copying it is one character in the new path, from
job001 to job002.

Why do we have to go into every file and redefine every single Xref when
all we would *logically* need to do is to make a global Xref path name
change from "job001" to "job002" once the project is copied? What should
take 10 seconds sometimes takes an entire day.

Here's how I see something like this working: Instead of using Windows
to copy our job over to a new folder, we could use DataCAD. Since all
Xref paths are imbedded into each datacad file, an option within Datacad
would allow us to edit the text content of the Xref paths as each file is
copied to the new location. Just like a search/replace feature in a word
processing program, we could specify that any time the character
combination "job001" occurs within a Xref path, Datacad would change
this to "job002" upon copying it to the new location... or something very
similar.

Since it is a copy, all layers would remain the same, all file names would
remain the same, all Xrefs would remain the same, so no file would ever
need to be opened, NO REDEFINE WOULD EVER BE NEEDED... simply a
change in Xref PATHS upon copying each file to its new location. Then
when we open any of the newly copied files, it would act just like the files
in the old job, except it would reference files in IT'S OWN JOB.

We already have in the "SaveAS" feature an automatic redefine of Self-
Xref paths. This new idea would simply take that feature to change every
path of all Xrefs without the need to open a file. Make sense?