Frequent tipster Danny Korem shares a trick using rtext to create an automated and dynamic list of all referenced files in your AutoCAD file.
“If you are interested in listing a bunch of attached xrefs to a specific file, here's the drill: At your Command line, type Rtext (it stands for remote text) and opt for the diesel option. Within the dialog box, type $(xrefs,3). Then pick a point for entering the list, and Enter to finish.
“The list is dynamic; therefore, if any changes are executed in the xref manager (e.g., attach/detach DWG), the changes will be reflected in the list. Check out the rtext help in the Express Tools and, if you'd like to opt for a different rtext, you can use the rtedit to edit an existing remote text. If exploded, rtexts will become mtexts.
“The syntax for the $(xrefs) diesel function is $(xrefs [, flags [, leader [, trailer]]])
Flags: A collection of bitflags with the following meanings:
- 1 = (default) include xref file name (not exclusive with flag 2)
- 2 = include xref block name (not exclusive with flag 1)
- 4 = don't display file name extension
- 8 = don't display path
- 16 = show nesting with additional spacing
Leader: A text string inserted before each xref entry.
Trailer: A text string appended to each xref entry except the last.
“Also note that Rtext supports xrefs and images. Rtext can substitute attributes with built-in fields to quote drawing properties and act as a title block.”
Notes from Cadalyst Tip Reviewer Brian Benton: This could be very useful. The information is there in your reference manager, but it is difficult to extract into a form that you can export or use. Rtext is an Express Tool command and was often used to display drawing data before fields came into the picture. Fields work better than rtext in many cases because they are more easily inserted into text, dimensions, notes, tables, blocks, etc., but there are some things that rtext objects can do that fields don’t do as easily.