External Reference Paths dialog box

This feature is for advanced users, and should be done by a system administrator.

If you use pathless external reference filesDrawing files often reference other files, including other drawings, as well as plot styles, images, standards, and font files associated with the drawing. Those references, or dependencies, are simply an embedded record of the path to the referenced objects or files. in a project, you can use this dialog box to set up external reference file search paths for your AutoCAD or Microstation drawing files. This dialog box allows you to enter paths to search for any pathless external reference files that are found in AutoCAD or Microstation CAD drawings. You can enter relativeA relative path contains a portion of a path to a file based on your current location in the folder hierarchy. For example, ..\ filename.npr is a relative path pointing to a location one folder up from your current location. An absolute path, on the other hand, contains the entire path to a file, starting from the root. For example, C:\ files\newforma\filename.npr is an absolute path. or absoluteAn absolute path contains the entire path to a file, starting from the root. For example, C:\ files\newforma\filename.npr is an absolute path. A relative path, on the other hand, does not contain the entire path, but is "relative" to where you are currently in the folder hierarchy. For example, ..\ filename.npr is a relative path, which means go up one folder from your current location to locate filename.npr. paths. Project Center uses an intelligent path stubbing technique that enables you to reuse the search paths on multiple projects as long as each project uses a common folder structure for CAD drawings.

For example, if all of your CAD files are always in a folder called \CAD under your top project folder, you only need to provide the portion of the search path that begins with \CAD. Project Center constructs the full search path by comparing the folders in the full path of the host drawing file with the project based XREF paths you supply.

For example, let's say a project drawing containing pathless XREFs has the following absolute path: \\ Server1\Projects\143\CAD\Arch\BV-1021.dwg. The left-hand column below lists the project based XREF paths that you would enter for the project. The right-hand column lists the absolute paths that will be constructed and searched based on the location of the host drawing file:

 

Project Based XREF Path          Absolute Path that NPC will search

\CAD\Arch              \\Server1\Projects\143\CAD\Arch       

\CAD\Arch\Xref         \\Server1\Projects\143\CAD\Arch\Xref

\CAD\Arch\Detail       \\Server1\Projects\143\CAD\Arch\Detail

\CAD\Arch\Blocks       \\Server1\Projects\143\CAD\Arch\Blocks

Project Center also searches for any plot support files required by the AutoCAD file so that it has 100% plot fidelity. These include .CTB, .SHX, .PC3, and .TTF files (True Type fonts).

File System Paths to Search for DWG and DGN External Reference Drawings

Enter one path per line for each XREF location, as described in the example above.

When searching XREFs in DGN files, and XREF resolving is done by Project Center Server indexing (loading from cache), Project Center looks for the XREF in the current directory. If you don’t load from cache/indexing, then Project Center uses the search paths.

Select PCF for DGN Paths

Click to locate the .PCFA PCF file is a Project Configuration File that is used by DGN users to configure variables used by MicroStation. MicroStation uses multiple configuration files to set up variables for the user, project, site, application, and system levels. The PCF file configures project related variables, such as the XREF search paths (RFDIR). The PCF file is usually created by the CAD manager. Its location depends on how users sets up their systems. file to use to automatically populate the reference file paths in your project.

 

To access this dialog box

You can access this dialog box in the following ways:

●        Click External Reference Paths from the Project Folders tab of the Create Project dialog box or the Edit Project Settings dialog box.

●        Select one or more projects and click Change Project Settings > Project Folders > External Reference Paths from the Tasks panel of the Project Center Administration activity center Projects tab.