• Data Shortcuts provide Civil3D with a way to share information between drawings without making extra copies of the source data. 
• This allows control of the design from a single point and diseminates it to other dependent design drawings in a controlled fashion.
• When a source drawing is edited and changes the data which has a data shortcut, the data in the target drawing is synchronized to reflect that update in the source drawing. 
• For instance to show storm and water pipe crossings in the Sanitary sewer profiles, you need to create a reference in the Sanitary sewer working drawing for all the relevant data for storm and water networks, surfaces, and any associated alignments. 
• The terminology is rather difficult. 
  • Create Shortcut- to export the data shortcut from a source drawing to an XML file
  • Create Reference- to import the XML file so the data in the source drawing will be in the current(target) drawing
  • Synchronize- to update the data in the current drawing from the source drawing
  • Promote-to detach the shortcut reference and create independent objects in the current drawing which do not change and cannot be updated again

1. To create a Shortcut
   1. From the Top Menu > General > Data Shortcuts > Edit Data Shortcuts
   2. This opens the Data Shortcut Dialog box
   3. Select icon for "Create Shortcut by Selection"
   4. Click on a part of the surface, alignment, pipe network,
   5. It appears in its category as a list.
   6. Repeat this until you have all the data objects for which you wish to make shortcuts.
   7. Click on the icon for "Export Shortcuts to XML file"
   8. Browse to your project folder where the working drawings are and type a filename for the export. (For instance, if you exported surfaces, you could name it "Surfaces.xml.
2. To create a reference
   1. From the Top Menu > General > Data Shortcuts > Edit Data Shortcuts
   2. This opens the Data Shortcut Dialog box
   3. Select icon for "Import XML file"
   4. Browse to the file you just saved and select it.
   5. All data objects will appear in their respective categories
   6. Right click on the name of one of the data objects and select "Create Reference"
   7. Fill in the dialog box (Usually just accept defaults)
   8. Note:  If you only want the data, you can select "No Display" for the labels and object.
3. To synchronize the references
   1. This is automatic when you first open a drawing.
   2. Click on the blue notification bubble in the lower right corner of your screen when reference data changes in a source drawing.
   3. From Data Shortcut dialog box
      1. Right click on the data object name
      2. Select "Synchronize"
   4. From Prospector Tab of Toolspace
      1. Right click on the data object name
      2. Select "Synchronize"
4. To delete a broken alignment data shortcut (for instance)
   1. Remove it from the list of data shortcuts
   2. Navigate: Toolspace>Alignments>'Alignment Name'
   3. Right click on Alignment name
   4. Select 'Promote'
   5. Click yes.
   6. Right click on it again
   7. Select 'Delete'
   8. Click yes

Some problems with data shortcuts

• Slow opening reference drawings with errors
  • This happens when something changes that prevents the data shortcut from being properly referenced.
    • It could be the original data object was renamed
    • It could be the source filename was changed
  • This also happens when one of the data objects in a data shortcut refers to another object for which a reference has not been created.
    • When Sewer (target drawing) uses Storm (source drawing) to create pipe crossings in the sewer profiles, all alignments referenced by Storm must also have references created in the Sewer Drawing.