External References (XRefs)

External References or ‘Xrefs’ as they are more commonly known by, are great to associate other drawings, CAD and otherwise, with your TurboCAD drawing. When you use an Xref the external drawing is not actually inserted into your current TurboCAD drawing; rather it is linked to your drawing

What this means is that if there are any changes made to the referenced drawing are displayed when the current drawing is opened or reloaded. In addition, the Xref allows you to build your drawing without significantly adding to TurboCAD’s size.

What makes TurboCAD’s Xref support so good?

Unlike other CAD applications, which typically support only a couple of file formats for externally referencing, TurboCAD is able to externally reference any of the CAD and graphic file formats it supports – over 2 dozen!

What are the benefits to using Xrefs?

• Collaboration with your design team. Xrefs allow you to better coordinate your work with the work of others and thereby better keep up with the changes being made by other designers.
• It is a great way to assemble a master drawing from other component drawings that may have been created in other application and undergo changes during the design process. They work equally well for Architectural and Mechanical drawings. Here’s and mechanical assembly with references to multiple component parts:

• Version control. When you open your TurboCAD drawing, each referenced drawing is automatically reloaded, so it reflects the most recent design iteration of the referenced drawing.
• Elimination of naming problems. Keep the names of layers, dimensioning styles, text styles, and other named elements in your drawing separate from those in referenced drawings.
• Merge (bind) attached referenced drawings permanently with your current drawing when the project is complete and ready to be archived.

Note: Like a block reference, an xref appears in the current drawing as a single object. However, you cannot explode an xref without binding it first