When you archive final drawings that contain xrefs, you can choose how you store the xrefs in the drawings.
When you archive final drawings that contain xrefs, you have two choices:
Storing an xref drawing along with the final drawing requires that the drawings always remain together. Any change to the referenced drawing will continue to be reflected in the final drawing.
To prevent unintentional updating of archived drawings by later changes to referenced drawings, bind the xrefs to the final drawing.
Binding an xref to a drawing makes the xref a permanent part of the drawing and no longer an externally referenced file. You can bind the entire database of the xref drawing, including all its xref-dependent named objects (blocks, dimension styles, layers, linetypes, and text styles), by using the XREF Bind option.
Binding xrefs to a drawing is also an easy way to send a drawing to reviewers. Rather than sending a master drawing plus each of the drawings it references, you can use the Bind option to merge the xrefs into the master drawing.