Adding and Removing Objects from Blocks and Xrefs

Adding and Removing Objects from Blocks and Xrefs
In the previous exercises, you removed objects from the Kitchen block by using the Erase command.
You can also move objects from a block or an Xref into the current drawing without erasing them. To do
this, choose Tools  Xref And Block In-Place Editing  Remove From Working Set while in the Refedit
command. This removes the objects from the block or Xref without erasing them. Likewise, you can add
new objects to the block or Xref by choosing Tools  Xref And Block In-Place Editing  Add To Working
Set. Both menu options invoke the Refset command, with different options applied.
To see how Refset works, try the following exercise:
1. Close the Unitxref.dwg file.
2. In the Planxref file, zoom in to the kitchenette to get a view similar to the top panel of
Figure 7.14.
3. Double-click the unit plan drawing. You can also choose Tools  Xref And Block In-Place
Editing  Edit Reference In-Place and then click the unit plan.
4. Click the unitxref|KITCHEN listing in the Reference Edit dialog box, and then click OK.
5. Use the Move tool to move the two burners on the right just to the right of the kitchenette,
as shown in Figure 7.14.


6. Click the Remove From Working Set tool in the Refedit toolbar, or choose Tools  Xref And
Block In-Place Editing  Remove From Working Set.
7. Select the two burners you just moved, and then press ↵.
Notice that the burners become grayer to show that they’re removed from the working set. They
remain as part of the Planxref drawing, but they’re no longer part of the Kitchen block.
Now, add a rectangle to the Kitchen block in place of the burners:
1. Draw a 7˝ × 16˝ (18 cm × 40 cm) rectangle in place of the moved burners, as shown in Figure 7.14.
Anything you add to the drawing automatically becomes part of the working set.
2. Click Save Reference Edits on the Refedit toolbar, or choose Modify  Xref And Block In-
Place Editing  Save Reference Edits. You’ll see a warning message stating that “All reference
edits will be saved”. Click OK.
3. Zoom out enough to see the other units in the drawing (see Figure 7.15).
You can see that the burners have been replaced by the rectangle in all the other Xref units. The
burners you moved are still there in the lower-left corner unit, but they have been removed from
all the Xrefs. It’s as if you extracted them from the block and placed them in the Plan drawing.
During the Refedit command, any new objects you create are added to the working set automatically.
When you drew the rectangle in step 1, for example, it was automatically included in the
working set, which is the set of objects included in the block or Xref you’re currently working on.
You didn’t have to specifically add it to the working set.



If you want to include existing objects in the working set, choose Tools  Xref And Block In-
Place Editing  Add To Working Set, or choose Add To Working Set from the Refedit toolbar.
You’ve completed the exercises in this chapter, so you can exit AutoCAD without saving
these changes.