BIM 360 Docs Viewer is not showing the XREF files in AutoCAD Plant 3D

Autodesk Support

May 6, 2024

Products and versions covered

Issue:

Users reported that the BIM 360 Docs Viewer is not showing the XREF files in AutoCAD Plant 3D

Causes:

The command XATTACH was used to reference the drawing as an XREF into the host drawing.

This command is used by either clicking Attach DWG on the External References dialog window:

Attach DWG Dialogue Screen in AutoCAD Plant 3D.png

Or by entering XATTACH on the command line and hitting enter.

Xattach Text Box as Displayed Within AutoCAD Plant 3D.png

Solution:

To avoid this issue, always use the command PLANTATTACH to XREF drawings when working on AutoCAD Plant 3D collaboration projects.

PLANATTACH function as displayed in AutoCAD Plant 3D.png

Follow these steps:

  1. Check out and open the host drawing in AutoCAD Plant 3D.

  2. Use PLANTATTACH to reference the XREF drawing into it.

  3. Check in the host drawing.

  4. View the host drawing using the online docs viewer.

     

Alternatively, for (xref) files outside the P3D environment.
If the end viewer does not have Model Coordination, ie only has Docs, an Model Coordination user can publish the Model Coordination aggregated view to Docs for their consumption.


An additional workaround to view, Plant 3D models withn external Xrefs that aren't Plant 3D models, in ACC without seeing the path, is to either utilize NWCOUT or employ the Coordination module as displayed in the following workflow:

Plant 3D NWCOUT workflow.png

Products:

AutoCAD Plant 3D;

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