Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published March 2009

Split Viewports in Model Space

Whether you're working on large drawings, or simply have a need to be zoomed in to more than one area in the drawing at a time, one approach is to split the Model space window using the VPORTS command. [View ViewportsNew Viewports]

When I was training the CABGOC team in Angola, Maria, Mateus, and Pedro found this feature particularly useful for working on their 3D piping drawings.

Instructions to Use Multiple Viewports in Model Space

1. While in Model space, on the Viewports toolbar, click Display Viewports Dialog ("Named" on the View tab of the Ribbon) to open the Viewports dialog box with the New Viewports tab current.
2. the listing for Standard Viewports, you will see several arrangement options.

Note: The arrangement named "Three: Left", means Model space will be split into three viewports, with the big viewport on the left. The illustration with the floorplan shows that arrangement.

3. After choosing viewport arrangement, click OK and your Model space screen will split per your selection.
4. Activate one of the viewports, then zoom or pan to the desired location. Each viewport can have a separate display of the same drawing.

Note: You can launch an edit command such as Move, in one viewport and select the objects and specify a basepoint, then click in another viewport to place the objects (you may want to turn off Ortho).

5. Open the Viewports dialog box, then click in the "New Name" field and enter a name for this arrangement as shown in the illustration, then click OK.

6. the list of Standard viewports, click "Single" then click OK to return to the normal Model space configuration.
7. To restore the named viewport, open the Viewports dialog box, then click the Named Viewports tab to display a list of named viewports in this drawing.
8. Select your named viewport, then click OK to display the saved viewport arrangement.

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