About Externalizing Local Components and Folders (AutoCAD Mechanical Toolset)

You can externalize local definitions of components and folders and save the definitions in an external file.

The components and folders based on the externalized definition then become xref components.

You can specify a template at the time you externalize the component or folder. Settings such as units and the elements of the drafting standard of the resulting drawing file are based on the template. If the settings that the geometry in the externalized component or folder conflict with the template, the settings in the template take precedence.

Note: When you externalize a component, the system computes the best fit for placement of component views and may not reflect the placement of views in the current drawing.

If you created a (local) annotation view of an xref component, you can externalize the annotation view back to the source drawing of the xref component. You cannot externalize to any other external file.