Apply a comparison with Xref Compare

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As handy as DWG compare is

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in all honesty,

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I find that X

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ref compare is probably used more.

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Let's consider a scenario

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you're in an A E office and your drawings are made up of other disciplines, drawings

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somewhat like we have been working with,

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we have an architectural floor plan

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and some structural members X reffed into it.

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So what happens?

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The structural team makes a change and you'll get a notification,

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what changed?

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It can be subtle and you may not see it.

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That's why X

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ref compare is so valuable.

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No more phone calls, emails or DMS trying to find out what happened.

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Just use XREF

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Compare

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and the good thing is now that you know how DWG compare works, you already know how X

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ref compare works.

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Let's take a look at it.

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I'll start by making a change to our X

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file.

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I'll select a structural member, right click and select open extra.

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It will open in a new tab.

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I'll just put a big circle in this open area and save the changes.

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I'll go back to my floor plan and as soon as I do a balloon notification will appear,

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telling me that the X

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ref was modified.

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There's also a check box which will launch the X

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ref compare tool. When I select the reload link,

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I always like to know what's changed. So I don't think I've ever unchecked it.

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Let's click on the reload link. Now,

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the XR

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comparer will fire up looking much like the D

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WG compare we just saw.

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Of course, we see the circle, we just added

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color coded green

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with a yellow revision cloud surrounding it.

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The doc toolbar has fewer tools

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as its missing import objects and export snapshot.

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The settings box is slightly different. Also,

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let's click on the gear icon to bring it up.

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There's an extra control here. Now

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with X

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compare

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some items are not considered for comparison.

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So they aren't assigned a color

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by using the lightbulb icon. You can toggle their visibility as well.

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I'll click on it and everything that wasn't considered for comparison is turned off

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just like the D

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WG compare,

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click the X in the toolbar to dismiss the comparison.