2004

Attach, Update, and Bind External References | 677
Storing an xref drawing along with the final drawing requires that the draw-
ings always remain together. Any change to the referenced drawing will
continue to be reflected in the final drawing.
To prevent unintentional updating of archived drawings by later changes to
referenced drawings, bind the xrefs to the final drawing.
Binding an xref to a drawing makes the xref a permanent part of the drawing
and no longer an externally referenced file. You can bind the entire database
of the xref drawing, including all its xref-dependent named objects (blocks,
dimension styles, layers, linetypes, and text styles), by using the
XREF Bind
option. For more information, see “Resolve Name Conflicts in External Ref-
erences” on page 675.
Binding xrefs to a drawing is also an easy way to send a drawing to reviewers.
Rather than sending a master drawing plus each of the drawings it references,
you can use the Bind option to merge the xrefs into the master drawing.
Note You cannot bind xrefs that contain proxy objects. For more information,
see “Work with Custom and Proxy Objects” on page 724.
To bind an xref to the current drawing
1 From the Insert menu, choose Xref Manager.
2 In the Xref Manager, select an external reference and then choose Bind.
3 In the Bind Xrefs dialog box, select one of the following options:
■ Bind converts the objects in the xref into a block reference. Named
object definitions are added to the current drawing with a prefix of
blockname$n$.
■ Insert also converts the objects in the xref into a block reference.
Named object definitions are merged into the current drawing without
adding prefixes.
4 Choose OK twice.
Reference toolbar
Command line
XREF