A hard pointer reference protects an object from purge. For example, an entity contains a hard pointer reference to a layer. Therefore, you can't purge a layer that is pointed to by one or more entities. When a new database is written out from an existing one (for example, in a WBLOCK operation), all hard pointers are copied into the new database.
Other examples of hard pointer references
- A leader entity contains a hard pointer reference to a dimension style.
- A text entity contains a hard pointer reference to a text style.
- A dimension entity contains a hard pointer reference to a dimension style.
- An mline entity has a hard pointer reference to an mline style.