Group Control through Xrefs
2 small drawing files are used to illustrate group control through Xrefs. You can download these files here, and follow along the steps below. Make sure to store all of the drawings in the same folder as the Xreferences are attached with relative paths.
Warning; changes to group structure cannot always be undone successfully. If you make a mistake or find the procedures below aren't working for you, you might need to unzip or download a fresh set of .dwg files.
Overview
There are 2 drawings in the .zip download.
"Master.dwg" has 3 text objects, the numbers 1, 2, and 3; these are each on a group with a similar name, groups "1", "2", and "3".
"XrefBm.dwg" contains 3 beams colored red, green, and blue and they are assigned to the groups "BlueBm", "RedBm", and "GreenBm".
"Master.dwg" already has the "XrefBm.dwg" referenced in. In the excercise we will get group control over the Xrefs, then import groups from them and enable these groups to act independantly over both native drawing objects and objects residing in the Xreferences by using "Distinguish groups from dwg".
First, open "Master.dwg" and confirm that the Xref is found and loaded. If it is, your display should be similar to the one above, less my annotation. The 3 text objects are linked to their respective Groups shown in the console. Turning off the Groups in this drawing will affect the text objects, but not the Xref objects. Verify that the Groups will control the text objects only, then go to HSB_SETTINGS.
In HSB_SETTINGS, on the "Groups" Tab the selection of this option is key. It's use is obvious, the Groups in step #1 above didn't affect the objects in Xreferences because this option wasn't selected. Click the check box as shown and return to the drawing to verify that the Groups now control all objects.
Now that we have selected for it in options, turning off Group "2" turns off both the text native to this drawing and beams in the Xreference. Groups 1 and 3 will also control the red and blue beams, but this relationship between drawings with complex Group structures is impossible to track.
Go to the "Groups Advanced" tab in the HSB Console, and click on the "Import groups from xrefs" button. You should see verification on the command line, and have the group structure shown on the "Groups" tab after the operation.
Now we have all the groups defined in both drawings, but they aren't all working to control Display. As you can see above, none of the"..Bm" Groups have any effect. They would have been properly imported had we left "Toggle Xrefs layers..." in settings selected.
If we reselect "Toggle Xref layers..." HSB will assign new IDs to the local groups, however to illustrate the "Distinguish groups from dwg" command we will do this manually in "XrefBm.dwg". After making this change in "XrefBm.dwg" we will need to reload it into "Master.dwg", then reimport groups and select for group control of Xrefs.
- Open "XrefBm.dwg" and verify that the red beam is on the layer "0~HSB100+Z0~".
- On the "Groups Advanced" tab of the console click "Distinguish groups from dwg" then select the "Master.dwg" file.
- Notice the layer the red beam is on has changed, the layer has been renamed to distinguish it from layers in "Master.dwg".
- Save "XrefBm.dwg" and close it.
- Return to "Master.dwg" and reload Xrefs.
After returning to "Master.dwg" and reloading Xrefs, reimport the groups from Xrefs using the appropriate button on the "Groups Advanced" tab.
The imported groups now control Xref objects and the native groups control the text objects. Real world drawings with more complex group structures quickly complicate these concepts. In general, don't expect to be able to control multiple Xrefs with groups, and don't import groups with identical names from one drawing into another.
Go back into HSB_SETTINGS and deselect the option for "Toggle visibility of XRef layers too".
Return to HSB_SETTINGS yet again and select to "Toggle visibility of XRef layers too". Without this selected, no object in Xrefs will be affected by groups no matter how they are named or assigned.
