Adding & Removing Xrefs

Attaching a new external reference (a revised model file, a common grid, a frame) to dozens of drawings is a one-minute task in Indium.

Adding an Xref

1. Open the Xref Manager (Ctrl+3) and add the host DWG files.
2. In the file list, select the files that should receive the xref.
3. Click the Add xref (paperclip) toolbar button and pick one or more DWG files to attach.
4. Configure the attachment in the dialog:

• Reference type: Overlay or Attached
• Path type: Relative or Absolute
• Coordinates / Scaling / Rotation: insertion point, scale factors, and rotation angle
• Layer: the target layer, chosen from the layers common to all selected files
• Layout: the target layout common to all selected files, or By tab order with a tab number

5. Click Attach. New rows appear in the table, marked as added. The Instances view also shows a preview row for each new placement, where you can adjust its position, scale, rotation and layer before saving.
6. Click Save to write the attachments into the drawings, then reload to verify.

Files that don’t contain the chosen layout are skipped with a warning, as are files you tried to attach to themselves.

Removing Xrefs

1. Select the xref rows to delete in the table.
2. Click Toggle remove xref (trash icon) to mark the rows for deletion. Clicking again unmarks them.
3. Click Save. The marked xrefs are detached from their host drawings. Detaching removes every placed instance of the xref. While a row is marked, the Instances view shows its instances as deleted. To remove a single placed instance without detaching, delete its row in the Instances view instead.

Note

Nested xrefs (shown as parent \ child) are read-only and cannot be removed this way. Detach them in their parent drawing instead.

Related

To fix broken or moved xref paths instead of adding/removing, see the path conversion tools in Xrefs.