It is sometimes desirable to show the same devices in a given mode more than once in a project. Some examples include:
To avoid duplicated device IDs and incorrect bills of materials, reference the existing drawings instead of making copies of items or drawings. This article describes how to accomplish this using tools of the CAD platform.
In this document, "auxiliary views" will mean any additional views of items, such as detail views, side views, etc.
The techniques described can also be used to reference non-Promis.e drawings on promis.e project pages. This displays a view of the external drawing on the page with or without embedding it.
Auxiliary views can be created by "attaching a reference" in MicroStation / MicroStation PowerDraft. Updates to the referenced drawing will be reflected in the drawing to which the reference is attached. A drawing can reference itself or another drawing; the process is the same. The reference can be "clipped" so that parts of the referenced drawing are hidden.
To attach a reference:
Settings of particular interest on this dialog are:
To clip the referenced drawing:
If the clip boundary shape is to be hidden, there are two common ways of approaching this:
Assign the shape to a hidden level:
Create a new level named "ClipBoundary", for example, using Tools > Levels > Level Manager from the main MicroStation menus. Turn off the display of the new ClipBoundary level. Right click a column header in the Level Manager and enable the "Global Display" column. Clear the check mark in the "Global Display" column for the ClipBoundary level. Close the Level Manager. Assign the boundary shape to the hidden ClipBoundary level using Element > Information orTools > Properties > Change Attributes > Change Element Attributes.
Clip with a Fence instead of shape:
Use the Tools > Selection > Fence > Place Fence tool to draw a box for the clip boundary instead of drawing a boundary element. Select Tools > Clip Boundary on the References dialog. On the resulting Set Reference Clip Boundary dialog, select "Active Fence" for the Method instead of "Element". Click on the drawing area to accept. The reference will be clipped and the boundary shape will not be visible.
Note: Toggling layers in the source drawing will not affect attached references.
To turn levels on or off in a referenced DGN file after it has been attached:
To embed the attached file
Right-click the file in the References dialog and select Merge Into Master. When complete, the referenced file will be embedded in the DGN file, will not update when the source file is updated, and will no longer appear on the References dialog.
The appropriate method to use to create auxiliary views in AutoCAD depends on whether the source for the view is on the same drawing or a different drawing. Auxiliary views of items on the same drawing can be created by creating a new viewport. Auxiliary views of items on a different drawing can be created by creating an external reference, which can then be clipped to hide parts of the referenced drawing.
To create an auxiliary view of items on the same drawing, another viewport can be created on a layout tab:
The border of the viewport can be hidden by moving it to a hidden layer.
Use this LAYOUT view for plotting, but be sure to go back to the model (type MODEL) when adding items to the page because is it possible but undesirable to add components on the AutoCAD LAYOUT tab.
Consult AutoCAD Help for details about the MVIEW, LAYOUT, MODEL, and PSPACE commands.
To create an auxiliary view of items on another drawing, create an external reference:
To clip an external reference:
Consult AutoCAD Help for details about the XREF and XCLIP commands.