After creating data shortcuts, you can create references to those data shortcuts in the active drawing, which is called the consumer drawing. Only one copy of a reference object can be imported into a consumer drawing. If a reference copy exists, the referencing menu option is not available.
When you create references to data shortcuts that are stored in subfolders, the subfolder structure is replicated in the consumer drawing.
Objects can be referenced only from the active project, which is listed in Toolspace, on the Prospector tab.
Tutorial Exercise: Referencing Data Shortcuts
For more information about the behavior of surface references, see To Work With Surface References.
For more information about the persistence of data reference geometry in drawings, see About Data Shortcuts.
Promote references to independent objects.
A promoted reference becomes an independent object, and is no longer automatically updated if the original source is edited.
You can recover from minor changes such as a moved or renamed drawing.
When a data shortcut reference is broken, the icon is displayed next to the invalid data shortcut in Toolspace, on the Prospector tab for the host or consumer drawing.
Broken references typically occur if a source drawing has been renamed or moved to a different folder. If you can identify the new name or location, it is quite easy to repair the references. If the source drawing contains multiple data shortcuts, once you identify the drawing you are prompted to repair all of the references.
If the source drawing contains other broken references, the Additional Broken References dialog is displayed. You can click the Repair All Broken References button, or click Cancel to repair only the broken reference you selected.
You view the full path to the source drawing for a data reference object.
Open the source drawing for a data reference.
This is useful if the source object requires editing.
The source drawing for the data shortcuts is displayed in a new document window.