Working with xref components issue

[kostas_designer]

Hi all,

i have tho following question:
I am working on an instructions book for a complex machinery.
Being perfect for the purpose, I am using SU for all the steps of the assembling.
So I created a "master file" where i have the whole machinery completely assembled, and then i begin assembling it from scratch saving a separate SU file for each step.
The issue i am facing is this: some of the parts of this machinery may be modified while I'm still working on the instructions. Swapping the new parts in every file is out of the question, of course.
So i was thinking to save every single part as an external file and then import it as a component to every assembling file. When i update the "source" component, does this automatically updates all it's instances in the other files that it has been imported?
Is Tig's Xref manager the right plug-in for that?

Thank you

[TIG]

If you change an external SKP that's a component within another SKP it isn't automatically updated.
Within the containing SKP you can select the component in the component-browser and 'reload' it.

My Xref Manager [now a little old and in need of an upgrade!] let's you insert external SKPs as 'Xref' components into a main SKP. These are not automatically updated either - BUT when you run the manager it does list all of the Xrefs and their status [e.g. needs reloading because the external SKP is newer than the one in the main SKP] - allowing you to reload selected ones etc as desired. Very long lists are a problem as it uses UI.inputbox and really needs a new webdialog! There is also a PC based option to auto-reload ALL changed SKPs when you open the main SKP - of course if some are half-baked that might not be what you wanted!
There is no equivalent to ACAD's Xrefs where changing it in one dwg automatically changes it in the other etc, and the main dwg is small as it does not actually contain the other dwgs but rather e xternal reference s to them - unlike SKPs where they exist in both SKPs - the only link being that the inserted component knows where it came from as it has a filepath' attribute that can be read...
You may well be best off simply keeping a good note of what is used and using 'reload' as needed...

[kostas_designer]

Thank you for the super-quick answer, Tig!
Indeed, it is not the same as the Acad xref function.
The fact is that I'll have to deal with several components, at least 100 of them in every single step, so the xref manager's list could be a problem BUT i guess it will occur rather rarely to use it, in that case it could be very handy, although tricky to use.
How can i enable that PC based option to reload all Skps automatically?
I'll give it a try to a dummy file to see how it works.

[TIG]

There is a menu option to auto-reload changed xrefs on startup - 'Xref Setting'

It opens a dialog which lets you set the type of Xref Checking that runs when you first open a model containing Xref
Components - you can choose two options if the chosen setting is 'Open Xref Manager If Needed' and it finds anything that
needs fixing then it opens 'Xref Manager' (see below).
Note than changes done initially at startup are NOT subsequently undo-able.
If it is set to 'Do Nothing' then there is no initial checking.

Unfortunately it doesn't do the reload automatically you still need to OK the dialog...

[kostas_designer]

Yes, it sounds perfect.
I'll try both options and see which is best for my work-flow.

Thank you again (for both helping and the plugin ;o) )