{"id":6396,"date":"2020-09-09T17:42:47","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T12:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/?p=6396"},"modified":"2020-09-09T17:45:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T12:15:47","slug":"autocad-2021-xref-compare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/autocad-2021-xref-compare\/","title":{"rendered":"New in AutoCAD 2021: Xref Compare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is the <strong>second article in our series<\/strong> about new features in <strong>AutoCAD 2021<\/strong>, and is about how the platform streamlines tracking changes in DWG xref files.<\/p>\n<p><strong>As in the case of the compare function in the Drawing History palette<\/strong> described in <a href=\"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/drawing-history-palette\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" style=\"outline: none;\">our earlier article<\/a>, when you open a host drawing, AutoCAD 2021 immediately tells you in the <strong>n<\/strong><strong>otification area of your screen if the xref that opened has changed<\/strong> from the last time you opened the host drawing.<\/p>\n<p>The changed areas are outlined in <strong>amber<\/strong>, the changed xref details shown in <strong>green <\/strong>and the previous xref details shown in <strong>red<\/strong>, as in the screenshot below:<\/p>\n<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"6408\" width=\"731\" data-init-width=\"777\" height=\"620\" data-init-height=\"659\" title=\"2020-09-06_13-51-41\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/2020-09-06_13-51-41.jpg\" data-width=\"731\" data-height=\"620\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/autocad\/features?plc=ACDIST&amp;term=1-YEAR&amp;support=ADVANCED&amp;quantity=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" style=\"outline: none;\" target=\"_blank\">Autodesk .com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>You can separately turn off:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the <strong>previous <\/strong>xref elements of difference<\/li>\n<li>the <strong>new <\/strong>xref elements of difference<\/li>\n<li>elements of the new xref <strong>where there are no changes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>elements in the new xref that are not being compared (honestly, <strong>we can&#8217;t figure out <\/strong>what those could be&#8230; )<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Turning off areas<\/strong> where there are no changes and areas which are not being compared will result in a dispaly like this:<\/p>\n<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"6414\" width=\"731\" data-init-width=\"773\" height=\"672\" data-init-height=\"711\" title=\"all-but-differences-off-autocad2021\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/all-but-differences-off-autocad2021.jpg\" data-width=\"731\" data-height=\"672\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/autocad\/features?plc=ACDIST&amp;term=1-YEAR&amp;support=ADVANCED&amp;quantity=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" style=\"outline: none;\" target=\"_blank\">Autodesk .com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Since you now know how the xref has changed, you can, <strong>without leaving the compare window, make changes to the host drawing<\/strong> so that it aligns with the new xref.<\/p>\n<h2>The Benefits<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>The<strong> differences between xref versions are automatically identified<\/strong>, reducing errors that could arise from doing it manually to zero.<\/li>\n<li>Since the previous xref and the new xref elements of difference can be simultaneously displayed, and the host drawing changed from the same comparison window, there is <strong>no need to keep the host drawing open in a separate window <\/strong>and move <strong>back and forth<\/strong> between it and the comparison window.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>These are&nbsp;<strong>small improvements<\/strong>, but together with the other small improvements in AutoCAD 2021, the&nbsp;<strong>total<\/strong>&nbsp;improvement in the program is&nbsp;<strong>truly significant<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Need Drawings?<\/h2>\n<p>We&#8217;re <strong>experts in 2D and 3D drafting<\/strong> (and have been at it <strong>since 1986<\/strong>). In all probability we have produced countless drawings like the one you need. To discuss details of a drawing you need, please message us from the <strong>contact form on the right side<\/strong> of this page. We&#8217;ll get back to you in <strong>one business day<\/strong>, guaranteed!<\/p>\n<p>Have a great day,<\/p>\n<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"4801\" width=\"244\" data-init-width=\"244\" height=\"59\" data-init-height=\"59\" title=\"lucky-transp.png\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/lucky-transp.png\" data-width=\"244\" data-height=\"59\"><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the second article in our series about new features in AutoCAD 2021, and is about how the platform streamlines tracking changes in DWG xref files. As in the case of the compare function in the Drawing History palette described in our earlier article, when you open a host drawing, AutoCAD 2021 immediately tells&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cad-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6396"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6425,"href":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6396\/revisions\/6425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagnumgroup.net\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}