Update Details

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Power Tip: Replace Details

• Update Details Overview
• Updating a Detail with a New Number
• Preventing Automatic Detail Updates
• Related Webinars
• Troubleshooting

You might need to make edits to some of your details from their source drawing files. For example, you might change some of the detail text, or make extensive edits to linework within a detail. If you've used these details in any of your designs, you're now left with outdated details in those drawing files.

We developed our Update Details tool for this exact situation. Rather than going back and placing each edited detail again, you can simply use Update Details. As long as you've saved the edited details under the same names (or "addresses") in the Detail Explorer>, all details in the current drawing will update to the latest version, overwriting the outdated versions.

Update Details now fires automatically when you open a drawing, ensuring that all details placed in that drawing are current. If you don't want to update the details in a drawing, mark the drawing file as Read-only. The details in the drawing will not be updated.

Update Details Overview

As mentioned above, Update Details opens automatically when you open any DWG file. If you've edited any of the details placed in that drawing and saved them as overwrites, those details will be replaced by their most current versions.

However, if you need to open the tool manually, here's how to open it:

F/X Details ribbon, Update Details button

You'll see a message confirming the number of details in your drawing that have been updated.

Updating a Detail with a New Number

You might need to edit a detail and save it with a new number. If you've placed this detail in a drawing, you can update it with the new version, including the new number, using the Detail Manager.

Open the Detail Manager for your project, highlight the detail you want to update, and click Replace.

Navigate to your edited detail with a new number, and click OK to replace the original.

The detail in your drawing will be replaced with the new version with the new detail number.

Updating Details: An Example

You may be working on a project with an interim submittal – for instance, a 75% submittal. If the project requires several details, you may want to create an unfinished level for your details (for example, without text, callouts, hatch patterns, etc.) but also express the basic intent and layout of the proposed detail. You can save and add these unfinished details to your project, place them in your drawing, and reference them with callouts and/or Reference Notes.

Once your submittal is approved, you can open our Edit Detail tool and edit each detail, finishing up the text, dimensions, etc. You can then save and overwrite each detail. Once you've edited the details on a particular sheet, you can use Update Details and bring in the most current versions of all details on that sheet.

Preventing Automatic Detail Updates

Because the Update Details tool fires automatically when you open a drawing file, all details you've placed in that file will be updated automatically. But what if you don't want those details to be updated?

For example, you might have completed and tendered a project. If that project includes details, you won't want those details to update once the project has gone out to bid. The risk of unwanted updating is especially prevalent in projects that include standard details that may be in other projects and prone to being edited.

To prevent the details from updating in one of your drawings, you can simply mark that DWG file as Read-only. As a result, the file will not be editable, and the details placed in the drawing will not be updated automatically.

For instructions on marking a file as Read-only, or taking away a file's Read-only status, see our article on Read-only Files.

Related Webinars

• Details for Beginners: Take a full tour of our detail system, where you’ll learn how to navigate our detail library, find the details you need, and use them in your drawing set. (1 hr 1 min)
• Detail Tips And Tricks: Learn some advanced techniques and best practices to create details that communicate your design intent clearly, including how to batch save details. (59 min)
• Getting Started with the Detail Tools: We'll show you the basic tools you need to familiarize yourself with on the F/X Details ribbon, including setting your Details Preferences. (58 min)

Troubleshooting

Issue: You want to prevent the details in a drawing from updating automatically