Drawing References

The Drawing Reference concept offers the user the possibility to define references to other drawings (referred drawings or Reference Drawings) from the current one (the referring drawing). A reference drawing is an ordinary drawing and could for example serve as a background in the referring drawing. It is possible to collapse the drawing reference, that means, remove all underlying geometric information in the drawing reference. The opposite way, to return all underlying geometric information is called to expand the drawing reference. When storing a drawing all expanded drawing references will automatically be collapsed. This means that only the references will be stored on the data bank, thus avoiding double storage of the same information. When the drawing later is retrieved from the data bank, all such automatically collapsed drawing references will be expanded. Moreover, when printing the drawing, all referred drawings will be printed even when collapsed.

Note: The only functions that are able to expand drawing references are File > Open, File > Print and File > Drawing Reference > Expand. This means that for example the hidden line facility will ignore collapsed drawing references.

The major benefits of drawing references are:

• Multiple storage of drawing information will be reduced

• The drawing reference is "live", that means, modifications in the referred drawing will affect all drawings referring to it (see above)

• The geometric information in an expanded drawing reference is protected, that means, cannot be modified.

The limitation of the function is:

• It is not possible to refer to a drawing already referring to other drawings or containing sub-drawings.