you raise some excellent points. That reminds me that a batch command needed to be included as a wish list item. It had been discussed before but never formally made into a voteable item. Check back again soon to see it

The mega firm / our way or highway syndrome is a real one and Xrefi support would really go a long way to closing the loop with respect to cross platform translation. The notion of a paid for upgrade to PowerDWG is a also an important aspect to things as it starts to clearly prioritize the issue and might help put it in context for Engineered Software.

In fact if I were to prioritize PoweDWG features from most to least important they'd be:

1. Xref support to bind all inbound references automatically
2. Support for Global Origin to help match coordinate spaces
3. Automatically merge paper space/model space elements in one pass
4. Batch processing (like the old external translator had)
5. Clipping and Fill to Hatch support

I'm on the fence with respect to items 3 and 4 -- the could easily flip positions as batch is a big deal. It really depends on what's happening at a given moment in my work flow.