Expert: J. B. Borge - 1/8/2008

Question
QUESTION: When ever I send a drawing to any other computer than mine I cannot see some of the xrefs or blocks where the xref or block is it places a path for that object. the real disturbing part is that not all xrefs and blocks do this only a few.

ANSWER: Ray,

If the party your sending your file to, is in the same common network as you, then ensure y'all are mapped the same network drives. For instance, your M:\ drive (xref repository) is maybe mapped differently compared to the other users in your company.
If you are sending the file elsewhere (outside your network, like customers), then your xref files should be binded to the drawing.
Blocks on the other hand shouldn't have any affect regardless where u send your dwgs to. It resides in the drawing until its unreferenced and purged out.

Hope this helps, let me know!
Jory Borge

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for the quick response. I can send the file internally and it will leave out key parts of my drawing. It just started doing this as I have found out probably a month. I just had a project go bad when the part was delivered and it was missing key flight instruments and swtitches. I never ever saw a difference in the files as it always opened up correctly on my machine.  So I need to bind them to the drawing and then it will send a copy of the xref with the drawing?

Answer
Yes, when you attach a dwg as an xref, you're just linking it to your current drawing, it doesn't actually reside there. The advantage to this is that changes to that xref will be propagated easily thru your current dwg. However, when your current drawing is sent outside your network, the link is lost.
'Binding' detaches the xref and converts it into a block. This is the way we send up-to-date dwgs to our customers. Additionally, you can also delete/purge out frozen layers, unreferenced blocks, objects, etc. so only the pertinent information are contained in that dwg & minimize file size.

Hope this helps, let me know!
Jory Borge