How to Edit Blocks and External References in BricsCAD

Quick answer: REFEDIT lets you edit block references and Xrefs in place, working on either a portion of the reference or the entire thing, directly within the context of the current drawing. This is the REFEDIT workflow only briefly mentioned as an alternative to the Block Editor elsewhere in this hub.

The Related Commands

XFADECTL vs XDWGFADECTL

Worth keeping straight, since the names are similar but the variables serve different purposes: XDWGFADECTL, covered elsewhere in this hub, fades external references generally on screen. XFADECTL is specific to an active REFEDIT session, it fades entities that aren’t part of the current working set, to visually distinguish them from what you’re actually editing. Both accept values from 0 (no fading) to 90; XFADECTL defaults to 50.

Editing an Xref or Block Reference

1. Double-click the Xref, click the Refedit tool button on the Refedit toolbar, or run REFEDIT directly and select the Xref or block when prompted. The Reference Edit dialog opens, showing the reference’s Path (blank if it’s a block, since blocks have no external path), its Reference Name (including any references nested within it), and a Preview as it was last saved (this preview doesn’t update live once you save changes back).
2. If multiple nested references show in the Reference Name tree, select the one you want to modify; use the expand/collapse button to reveal nested references. You can only edit one reference at a time.
3. Choose how nested entities get selected: Automatically includes every entity and nested block in the reference, while Prompt asks you, after the dialog closes, to select exactly which entities and nested blocks you want to work with. Only that selected working set gets temporarily extracted for editing; the rest of the current drawing displays faded (via XFADECTL) to distinguish it from the working set.
4. Set your options: Enable unique layer and symbol names adds a $#$ prefix to named objects in Xrefs if selected, or leaves their names untouched if cleared; Display attribute definitions for editing controls whether block attribute definitions get extracted and shown during the session; Lock entities not in working set prevents manipulating anything outside the working set, whether in the reference itself, the host drawing, or other Xrefs, similar to how locked layers behave.
5. Click OK to start editing the working set; the dialog closes.
6. Optionally click Add to Refedit to add more entities to the working set; they’re removed from the host drawing and added to the reference once you save back.
7. Optionally click Remove from Refedit to remove entities from the working set; they’re removed from the reference and added to the host drawing once you save back.
8. Finish with either Refclose and Save, which writes your changes back to the Xref’s source drawing or the block definition, or Refclose and discard, which ends the session without saving, leaving the source or definition unchanged.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I edit more than one nested reference at the same time? No, only one reference can be edited at a time, even if several are nested within the one you selected.

What happens to entities I remove from the working set with Refset? They get added back to the host drawing once you save the session, no longer part of the reference being edited.

Does the preview in the Reference Edit dialog update as I make changes? No, it only reflects the reference as it was last saved, it doesn’t update live during your current editing session.

What’s the difference between REFEDIT and using the Block Editor (BEDIT)? REFEDIT edits a reference in place, directly within the context of the current drawing, and works on both blocks and Xrefs. BEDIT opens a dedicated, separate Block Editor session using the block’s own local coordinate system, and works on blocks only.