im not sure about the "orphaned" problem, but I usually use the etransmit function in autocad. It is found under the "file" tab.

Thank you.

Hi

so, i never really thought about this before, but the acad xref command is pretty much analogous to the so-called "links" in quark, pagemaker, illustrator, and indesign, except for the fact that you are cross-referencing drawings instead of images. hmmm...that's pretty deep. i hope you spontaneously combust.

I think your sender has to "bind" the xrefs before sending the drawing. That's an option when you open the xref window, I think...it's a all a bit murky for me...but ask your sender to bind all the xrefs, then resend. Good luck.

Oops, sorry, thought you were on the receiving end not the sender. Duh! Like I said, I'm a little murky today.

you can also send the file that is "orphaned" and just put it in the same directory

if an xref is missing from a DWG, autocad automatically looks for it in the same directory as the DWG you're working in.

binding is ok, but sometimes it gets cumbersome as old data gets locked into the file and can't be updated.

do an e-transmit... itll create a zip file of the drawings and all of the files that need to be attached for it to be the same.

or if you send the files seperately just repath the xref.

I agree with the e-transmit. I send files that way all the time. Orphaned XREFs are when one of the XREF drawings has another XREF inside it (this is called a Nested XREF), but it cannot find that one. I find nested XREFs to be a completely professional annoyance. I have a few that show up like that on a very large project I'm working on now. We're partnering with another firm; however, usually the items that are Orphaned are not of importance to the drawing they are shown as Orphaned in. If you can keep this goal in mind while creating your drawings, always try to keep your XREFs simple or at least minimize the number of XREFs you use.

make sure to choose "full path" when you x-ref and you wont have this problem.

why full path? not everyone will have the same drive letter system and that more than anything causes xrefs not to load correctly.

how do you e-transmit multiple sheets in one email?