Changing A Reference

[Nathan_B]

A project I'm working on is composed of two Vectorworks files. The plans, sections, elevations and other drawings are in one file ("Drawing File"), and the door and windows schedules are in another file ("Window Schedule"). Our Window Schedule has viewports to every window in the project so that they can be dimensioned on the Window Schedule sheet. The viewports on the Window Schedule sheet have a 'view' to a reference of the drawings contained in the Drawing File. What's happened is that the drawings have been further developed and changed and the file name for the Drawing File has changed. Our office uses a file naming convention that starts with the date. The current Drawing File starts with 10-07-09, while the file the Window Schedule is referencing starts with 10-06-07. When I try to change the reference I get an error that says "An error occurred while updating from the referenced document "10-07-09.vwx."

How can I resolve this issue?

[islandmon]

perhaps a new reference > Drawing file, then a new reference >Viewport.

In other words.. since the ReferenceFilePath was changed by renaming of the " Drawing File",

it is mandatory to reestablish the primary FilePathReference prior to utilizing any secondary ViewPortReferences to it.

[Nathan_B]

I found a way of resolving it by creating a viewport on a layer, creating a new reference to the new file, then moving it into position so it lines up with the old reference, then I deleted the old reference viewport (I think this is more or less what you suggested islandmon). This isn't a very good way of doing it though, or Vectorworks doesn't make it very easy. First, it opens the door to errors. Second, the old reference viewport had a very specific setting of class visibilities which I had to go through again. Why can't I just right-click on the reference under the navigation pane and change the reference that way, while retaining the position of the old reference and all its class visibilities?

[Pat Stanford]

I think you are always going to have problems with referencing they way you are naming your files. If the file name changes every day, then the reference is going to break every day.

It might be better to use a folder with the date and put the files without the date in the folder. If you then use relative referencing, you can move the folder (or go back to a complete previous version of the drawing set) or rename the folder without breaking any of the references.

When I am on a big project that is what I do. I have a folder called Current Versions. Every day I work on the project I duplicate the folder and name it Versions 10-07-09 (or whatever).

HTH