Working with data shortcuts

How you work with data shortcuts in AutoCAD Civil 3D depends on whether you are the creator of the shortcut or the shortcut has already been created by another user.

Tip    Data shortcuts contain references to source drawings. The best practice is to keep those source drawings in the same data shortcuts folder that you created in Preparing your local workspace. This will guarantee that the source drawings will be synchronized to your local workspace with the data shortcuts.

To work with data shortcuts:

1. Start AutoCAD Civil 3D and prepare a project folder as described in Preparing your local workspace.

2. If a data shortcut that you want to work with already exists in the Prospector tree and you open an existing drawing from there, you will be prompted to synchronize the data shortcuts to your local workspace. If you create a new drawing, you can synchronize them manually as described in the following task.

   If the data shortcuts that you want to work with do not already exist, create new ones as necessary. This will first create the XML files in a new folder structure in your local workspace. These files and folders will be automatically copied to the vault project folder when you save or close the drawing and your local workspace is synchronized with the vault. The data shortcuts will be synchronized to the local workspaces of other users when they also configure their local workspaces as described in Preparing your local workspace and open project drawings from the vault.

To manually synchronize data shortcuts:

• In AutoCAD Civil 3D, in the BlueCielo menu, click Synchronize Data Shortcuts to Local or Synchronize Data Shortcuts to Vault.