Ozzie,
We have all the civil information, curbs, inlets, edge of pavement etc. and then all the architecture. Even on occasion we have separate survey drawings and there associated information.
Currently we reference in the drawings per the VW recommended approach into our base which we then prepare our designs on. That then along with the other disciplines gets referenced into what we call our sheet files. The purpose behind this is to have the flexibility of more than one person working on annotation, grading or even planting while all using the same background.
Are you familiar with AutoCAD? If you are then you know that even when referencing in drawings you can easily control visibilities with a simple tool like the one in vectorworks but this tool works through to referenced files as well. Is there a similar approach in VW?
Robert