C3D xref doesn't work

Does someone have the xref'd drawing open? Or was it last shut down improperly??ÿ?ÿ

Are the points locked?

?ÿ

@mark-mayer No, I even copy the linework and the points and past them into a new drawing.?ÿ

@john-putnam it is unlocked. I double-checked that.?ÿ?ÿ

These are the errors messages?ÿ

** AeccDbFace objects cannot be edited in place. Errors found in references to other objects: ** AeccDbQueryStatement objects cannot be referenced. ** AeccDbLabelStyleCollector objects cannot be referenced. ** AeccDbLabelStyleText objects cannot be referenced. ** AeccDbPointsNode objects cannot be referenced. ** AeccDbPointGroupsNode objects cannot be referenced. ** AeccDbPointStyle objects cannot be referenced. ** AeccDbSettingsNode objects cannot be referenced. ** AeccDbTreeNode objects cannot be referenced. ** AeccDbLabelNode objects cannot be referenced. ** AeccDbRootSettingsNode objects cannot be referenced. ** AeccDbPG objects cannot be referenced.

My advice would be to not edit the xref in place, as it seems pretty clear that it's telling you you can't do that. Just open up the drawing separately and edit the xref on its own.

I highly recommend?ÿnot trying to edit an xref in place. Just messy. Autocad doesnƒ??t do references great. I far prefer microstation implementation of references. Just have the reference also open.?ÿ

C3D has always had this problem as far as I know. If all you have in the xref dwg are basic AutoCAD entities, xref in place works just fine. Once you start throwing C3D-specific things into the mix, xref in place gets a lot more volatile and will throw errors.

Best way I've found to work around this is to just xref all drawings to each other and then move between them to make edits.

Doing a RefEdit with an Xref that contains point objects causes problems, especially if the current drawing also has points in it. The point objects don't play well with RefEdit, in my experience.

I use RefEdit quite a bit, with drawings that don't contain points, without issue but you have to be careful because it can bite you.?ÿ

@squirl?ÿ

I'm curious as to why you would edit an xref in place. I'm in the same camp as @RobertUSA when it comes to editing them in their own drawings. Are there any advantages to editing them in place? The OP said something about not wanting to edit the original file, but edits made in place do reflect back, don't they?

Posted by: @blitzkriegbob

@squirl?ÿ

I'm curious as to why you would edit an xref in place. I'm in the same camp as @RobertUSA when it comes to editing them in their own drawings. Are there any advantages to editing them in place? The OP said something about not wanting to edit the original file, but edits made in place do reflect back, don't they?

I've used it when referencing "in house" drawings, maybe from another phase of work, when maybe a block isn't coming through correctly or if I want to copy something out of the reference while I have it attached so I can place the object in the exact same location. It's a quick and easy way to change something "on the fly" without having to open a second drawing and reload or re-attach.

NCOPY is an option but we've experienced a "limit" with how many times that command can be used.

The edits made in place are actually happening within the xref. Before closing the command you have the option to save or discard changes.

Like all things AutoCAD, there are about 12 different ways to do the same thing. It's really all about preference.

I've also recently noticed in C3d 2021, REFEDIT doesn't work on non-uniformly scaled blocks. You now have to use BE (BlockEdit) to modify a block.?ÿ

In the past, if a block came in incorrectly (ex, without hatch fill to show found/set) I would use REFEDIT to modify the block with the appropriate hatching and save changes.