bentleyuser.org - Making Live Nested Reference Attachments Into Direct Attachments

Making Live Nested Reference Attachments Into Direct Attachments
by Lynne Taylor - 02 April 2003

Have you managed to get your head around the Live Nesting and Copy Attachment reference options in V8 yet? Have you accidentally Live Nested a reference when you really wanted direct attachments instead? In V8.1, the Make Direct Attachment option allows you to flatten live nested references making them direct attachments of the active file.

Using Live Nesting (in conjunction with the Nest Depth value) to attach a reference that has at least one attachment, means that its nested attachments will also appear in the active file (the number depends on the nest depth value). When you look at the attachments in the References dialogue box, however, you will see only the parent reference.

To see the hierarchy of any nested references, you have to use the pull-down menu in the Reference dialogue box.

Using the alternative attachment option, Copy Attachments in conjunction with the Nest Depth value you can automatically attach child references of a parent attachment.

This will, however, make the child references direct attachments of the active file instead.

The “Make Direct Attachment” option in V8.1 allows you to make a nested attachment (attached using Live Nesting) into a direct attachment of the active file (as though it were attached using Copy Attachment).

Highlight the child Reference(s) and go to Tools Make Direct Attachment.

The direct attachment now appears with the original parent attachment in the references dialogue box

The redundant nested attachment (in the hierarchy) is denoted with quotation marks in the Display, Snap and Locate columns of the Reference dialogue box.