Recently in an AutoCAD training an age old question came up - how do I change the path of XRef from Full Path to Relative Path? The answer has always been to open XRef Manager and type in some combination of “..\” in the text string under Saved Path. This pathing concept has become easily digestible in recent times, but still remains a challenge overall.
In the screen shots below the file Wall Base.dwg is shown as XRefed with Full Path as is evident from the Saved Path. Under the historical method I would have to type “.\Res\Wall Base.dwg” in the Saved path.
This was the case until now. Not anymore!
AutoCAD 2013 makes it really easy by introducing the graphical way of achieving the same result - right click on the XRef and chose Make Relative from Path cascade. Refer to the following screen shot:
Isn’t that simple! Now go ahead and change your existing XRefs from Full Path to Relative Path. And use Relative Path from now on.
Gaurav Bagga
Ideate Infrastructure Solutions Application Specialist
Gaurav is a well rounded Application Engineer and Project Manager for Infrastructure Solutions at Ideate based out of San Francisco. He has over 15 years experience in construction industry and has been helping numerous small, medium and ENR 500 firms maximize their CAD investment for the last ten years. Gaurav is an Autodesk Certified Instructor and Autodesk Civil 3D Implementation Certified Expert. He has taught at several conferences, CAD Camps and Autodesk University. He has taught AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Land Desktop and Map 3D to thousands of students and helps Ideate develop the Infrastructure Services curriculum and courses. With his extensive CAD technology background he helps Bay Area engineering and surveying firms analyze and improve their design and drawing production process thereby improving productivity and the bottom line. Follow Gaurav on Twitter: @BeGeez
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