Chapter 8: Using Blocks, Groups, Xrefs, and DesignCenter

Overview

One of AutoCAD's best qualities is its ability to let you get the most mileage from your drawings. AutoCAD includes several features that help you organize your work so that a single drawing can serve multiple purposes. You can also create sets of objects that can be easily reproduced and modified. To get the most out of AutoCAD, you'll want to be as familiar as possible with these organizational features.

One of the most frequently used features is the block, which is a collection of objects that behaves like a single object. Blocks can be duplicated easily, like images from a rubber stamp. And if you need to make a change to several duplicate blocks, you can change one block, and all the copies of that block update to reflect the change.

Groups are similar to blocks in that they are collections of objects that behave like a single object. One difference between blocks and groups is that individual objects within a group are much easier to edit. Copies of groups do not inherit changes from edits made to a group. You can think of the group as a tool to help you keep similar objects together.

Finally, you can import entire drawings if you want to use parts of a drawing as a background. For example, for a large project, one drawing might show the entire floor plan, and several others might show only enlarged portions of that plan. This way, you can get "double duty" from one drawing by using it in several other drawings. Drawings that are imported this way are called external references, or xrefs for short.