TABLE OF CONTENTS There are zillions of ways to share design data with AutoCAD. Not only is it essential to share data with outside consultants, but sharing is equally important within your in-house team. How you share depends on the relationship you want to have with the design data, and the applications you use.
This chapter examines the ins and outs of exchanging data via the clipboard, DesignCenter, and i-drop. You'll also be able to increase Xref performance, underlay DWF files, and learn top-secret techniques that will save you loads of time. This chapter gives you tips on how to share and play nicely AutoCAD-style.
There are several ways to get the stuff you've drawn from one drawing into another. Cut, copy, paste is the most intuitive way to move data between two drawings, whereas the DesignCenter is better used for multiple drawings and symbol libraries. If you're accessing drawing content on the Internet, then i-drop is the technology for you.
The Clipboard sure beats the old fashioned way of moving drawing data with the WBLOCK and INSERT commands. When you cut, copy, and paste drawing entities with the Windows Clipboard, folders, files and filenames don't even enter into the picture.
There is more to using the Clipboard than meets the eye, at least as far as AutoCAD is concerned. Cut (Ctrl+X), Copy (Ctrl+C), and Paste (Ctrl+V) will do the job, but you'll lose the objects' place in space if you use the Clipboard...
