Understanding the Reference Edit Dialog Box Options

Understanding the Reference Edit Dialog Box Options
The Reference Edit dialog box offers you the option to isolate specific blocks in the Xref by selecting
them from the hierarchy list. You may have noticed the two radio button options: Automatically Select
All Nested Objects and Prompt To Select Nested Objects. The default option, Automatically Select All
Nested Objects, lets you select any object contained in the selected object in the hierarchy listing. If you
select the Prompt To Select Nested Objects option, you’re prompted to select objects on the screen before
the Refedit toolbar appears.
In addition to the options you used in the exercises, the Reference Edit dialog box also offers the
Settings tab with some additional options.



Create Unique Layer, Style, and Block Names
When you use the Refedit command with the Automatically Select All Nested Objects option
turned on, you can import nested blocks into the current drawing. For example, if you selected the
Bath block in the hierarchy list in the previous exercise, you would have access to the Tub and Toilet
blocks in the Bath block. You could then copy either of those blocks into the current file.
When you make a copy of a block from an Xref, AutoCAD needs to assign that block a name. The
Create Unique Layer, Style, And Block Names option tells AutoCAD to use the original block name
and append a $#$ prefix to the name (# is a numeric value starting with zero). If you were to import
the Bath block, for example, it would become $0$bath in the current drawing. This ensures that the
block maintains a unique name when it’s imported, even if there is a block with the same name in
the current drawing. If you turn off the Create Unique Layer, Style, And Block Names option, the
original name is maintained. If the current drawing contains a block of the same name, the
imported block uses the current file’s definition of that block.