I'm still printing from model space (stupid or...)

Its aboth time I ask this question and start maybe seeing benefits of printing from layout view.

O.k. Ill describe what I do and how I do it. Im usualy drawing arhitectual floor plans of bulidings. There are usualy around 15 drawings that I need to print to finish my project.

What I do is i start drawing everything in model view, ground story, 1st story, 2nd story, 3rd story, roof, elevetions view... this is all in one .dwg file.

Usualy some time before end I start drawing my papper borders around my floor plans, then offset the rectagle to add a frame to the printed drawing and the add my title block wich I fill up using MTEXT.

I then copy and paste that "papper dispay" around every floor plan display that will come out from my printer.

Here how usualy my project looks before finish...

Title block contains some informations that are static for every floor plan like "firm name" , "client name", "project number" and some that need to be changed, like "floor plan name" (1st floor, 2nd floor, roof, elevation), sheet number, drawing scale.

After Im finished with everything I hit PLOT, slect paper size with whoam I already framed all of my drawings, PLOT AREA ---> Window, and frame my drawings, wich will nicely fit to my paper.

Am I and idiot?

"Am I and idiot?"

And here I thought you had a CAD question.

There are advantages to using paper space and layouts that you would benefit from.

Specifically using fields in a title block which you can change globally for the drawing or even to display the layout tab (as a sheet name for example). Also the ability to control layer visibility on a viewport by viewport basis allows you to avoid redundant copies of your floor plan for an electrical or roof plan, etc. The biggest advantage would probably be the publish command so you can plot all the sheets at once, or plot multiple collated sets.

All in all, layouts were made for people exactly in your situation. Read through these tutorials for more information.

One more thing that always scared me for implementing layouts in the future...We use roll for printing and almost never the paper sizes that are going to be printed are of the same size...I see a problem here couse everytime I saw somebody using layout and title block to get the drawings out where for specific paper sizes A4 A3 A2 A1 A0....NEVER for a roll paper

Would this be a problem for me when using layouts or not?

One more thing that always scared me for implementing layouts in the future...We use roll for printing and almost never the paper sizes that are going to be printed are of the same size...I see a problem here couse everytime I saw somebody using layout and title block to get the drawings out where for specific paper sizes A4 A3 A2 A1 A0....NEVER for a roll paper

Would this be a problem for me when using layouts or not?

I don't know if I understand what you are asking here. But in the office I'm in we use rolls of paper as well and it works out fine using paper space and layouts. You can change each layout to be a different paper size. One of the benefits of using layout tabs is that you have all these drawings together in the same file but you can seperate them. So you can have one tab that is the first floor that you have set up to print an A4 size sheet and another tab with the second floor set up to print an A3 size sheet.

I hope I answered your question.

Ah Yes, we've all been along that path (and I know of a few people who have been using AutoCAD for a long time who still do this). When R11 introduced that particular feature (albeit called Paperspace then), I nearly wet myself because it totally changed the way I worked - I've never looked back:roll:

I see your biggest problem using your current method being the (everyone's favorite) Engineer coming back to you and wanting to alter one of the cores just a little bit... Here you are hours later still making the change on 15 floors (BORING)... I'd suggest you most definitely get your head around Layout space in the first instance and then look into XREFs for your building cores, floor footprints and the like (the reusable stuff you have replicated from one floor to the next).

They'd be the 2 most handy functions you will use and it will save you stacks of time and effort... I can see you wanting to perform miracles by drawing every level in the one drawing - yeah, you can do that, but you'll end up producing 10,000 layers to be able to display them as you desire. Don't get too excited with trying to get the whole building in the one drawing - use XREFs to allow you to keep it across several. If you team up XREFs with Layoutspace, you'll be able to keep the Layers and drawings generally under control.

Happy learning (we all do it every day)

Don't you sometimes want to print out a small section of the plan. A W C area say with details of fittings. But you dont want the drawing as a whole to bleed off to the rest of your print. You want to add notes to the detailed bit of plan which is drawn to a different scale.

You can add a very small key plan in one corner of the sheet to show where your detail plan comes from.

Then you can pick up a group of details and add a photograph. For these separate views you need view ports drawn to different scales.

The only trouble with all this is that and old person ,like me, who has been using model space for years as you describe does find it very difficult and frustrating to extend the skills to use paper space and layouts flexibly.

Max Fordham age 75

Welcome to CADTutor Max. You're still a youngster even at age 75.

We have a large number of "older" CAD drawings done entirely in model space. I think they will stay that way for a long time to come. If someone sat down with you and took the time to patiently explain the use of paperspace and layouts I think you would, in a short period of time, come to realize their benefit.