Use data shortcuts and external references

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Now that we've created all of our options inside Civil 3D and we've created some sheet sets in Civil 3D,

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let's talk a little bit about data management.

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Inside Civil 3D, there are two ways to reference information into a drawing inside of it.

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There's the standard way that most AutoCAD users are used to, which is external references or Xrefs.

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But Civil 3D has a new option available, which is called a data reference.

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In general, Xrefs are considered to be a Graphics-Only representation of objects created in another drawing.

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A data reference is a Information-and-Graphics link to a Civil 3D data set created in another drawing file.

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What this means is that objects that are created in a drawing and brought over as an Xref can be displayed into a drawing.

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But the visibility is controlled by the original drawing, not the host drawing.

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Whereas a data reference, when it's brought into a drawing, the visibility controls for that object are being controlled by the object styles

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inside of the host drawing rather than the display settings of the source drawing.

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And this is important to note, because you can modify what a drawing that has data sets in it or data shortcuts it,

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by choosing different object styles that would be different than the parent file.

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So, you can set up a parent file that is setup to be a standard drawing and you can have a new drawing that has data shortcuts in it,

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and have that set up as a slope analysis drawing only,

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and you don't have to continue changing your view styles based on which sheet you want to print out.

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You also don't have to worry about things being updated and changed,

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because the host drawing contains all the data and the reference to that data is in your other drawing.

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It's important to note that you can get Civil 3D information from an Xref.

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If you Xref Civil 3D information into a drawing, you can still create labels and label certain information from Civil 3D,

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but you cannot control the visibility of those surfaces or those objects.

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So, it has to look how you want it to look and then you would label on top of it.

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With a data shortcut, you can label it and you create new objects off of it.

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So, that's a little distinction there.

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What you have to also be aware of is that you cannot bring over all objects to Civil 3D as data shortcuts.

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There are only a select few objects that you're allowed to bring over has data shortcuts and they're contained over here in the Prospector tab.

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If you look under Data Shortcuts, you'll see that you can create data shortcuts for surfaces, alignments and with alignments' profiles,

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pipe networks, pressure networks, and corridors, and view frame groups.

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So, any other object inside Civil 3D cannot be brought over as a data shortcut.