Attach Reference

Opens the Attach Reference dialog, which is used to attach one or more models to the active model.

You can access this tool from the following:





  • Ribbon: Drawing > Attach > Reference
  • Toolbox: Reference

Except where noted below, the controls of the Attach Reference dialog are analogous to those in the Open dialog Open dialog .

When working with a read-only file such as an i-model, you can use this tool and you can view its impact on the original drawing but the changes will not be saved.

Setting Description
Save Relative Path If on, the path for the reference is saved with the file name.
Selected Files (list box) Opens/closes when you click the down/up arrowhead at lower left of the dialog. Displays a list of files that have been selected for referencing.
Add (Selected Files list box open only) Adds highlighted files in the file selection list to the Selected Files list.
Remove (Selected Files list box open only) Removes highlighted files from the Selected Files list.
Attachment Method Attaches the reference by the method selected. The most common method is Coincident, which means that the coordinates of the referenced model's design plane are aligned with those of the active model without any rotation, scaling or offset.

When the active model has a geographic coordinate system (GCS) attached, you also have the methods Geographic — Reprojected and Geographic — AEC Transform. To attach a reference with Geographic – Reprojected or Geographic – AEC Transform, the reference that you are attaching should also have a GCS assigned. If the reference doesn’t have a GCS, the reference is attached using the Coincident World attachment method.

Key-in: REFERENCE ATTACH [ [configuration_variable:]<filename> [,model_name] [,logical_name] [,description] [,view_name] [,scale] [,nesting] [,ON|OFF] ]
Key-in: RF= [ [configuration_variable:]<filename> [,model_name] [,logical_name] [,description] [,view_name] [,scale] [,nesting] [,ON|OFF] ]