layouts

[bjenk8100]

Hello,

I am somewhat of an autocad newb but i know the fundamentals. However, I never really understood why there is more than one layout tab at bottom of autocad09 window. Is it so you can print parts of your drawing at different sizes or single objects in a drawing take on a whole layout to show details? In addition I was wondering if you can have two model space tabs in one drawing. I like the way excel has it setup where you can have multiple spreadsheets active in one screen. The only way I have been able to anything that resembles this is to make multiple viewports. Is this possible in Autocad09? Also, does anyone else have this problem? Whenever I open or close autocad 2009 it freezes for about 20 seconds and I cannot do anything. I think it is loading and/or saving but none of my other programs on my PC do this.

[Tommy78]

The multiple layouts (you can add more) is like you said for multiple views of your drawing or to make detailplans.

The modelspace tabs are not a part of autocad but autodesk made a free extension which makes this possible, find it here:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13303551&linkID=9240618

At starting up my autocad also takes a bit of time, i tink it's normal, also depends on how many palettes you have open by default.

[ReMark]

AutoCAD 2009 should not "freeze" for 20 seconds when fully opened. Now it may seem like its loading slowly but that can have several causes. Is this behavior new or has it always been like this?

Multiple layout tabs in our office are used to setup different sheet sizes for our process piping and instrumentation drawings. Thus, an engineer can print out a drawing in 24x36, 18x24, 11x17, 8.5x11 or 11x8.5 format all with their own appropriate titleblock and border and all from a single drawing. Make sense?

[bjenk8100]

yea that is what i figured but was making sure i was not missing something.

thanks

[Randolph]

(i wrote this the other day, but could not submit it)

hi bjenk,

in your model space, you draw for example 3 ground plans and 2 elevations of a building. say you have different printers and printer configurations.

make several layouts and call them for example

Floor 00 A3 1:100 colour
Floor 00 A3 1:00 b/w draft
Floor 01 ...
Elevation SW A4 colour
Section AA A2 pdf-printer

Open an MVIEW on every Layout. MVIEW windows should be on an own layer (make unprintable). No you can see through the mview window onto your model space. double-click into the mview, and you can move and zoom your drawing, so that you see the desired part of your model. You will find functions for scaling in the mview toolbox.

double-click outside to return to paper space. no you can add frames and texts which will only appear in the printout and will not be seen in your model.

Easier, make 1 layout with mview and all specifications, copy it (very strange procedure: rightclick on tab, and choose "copy or move layout ... don't know what freak programmed this procedure) and change the desired specs, for example, pan from floor 00 to floor 01.

Easiest way to change specs of a layout, is, rightclick on the tab, choose print, make the changes (like the printer or the paper size) and click "Apply to laylout". If you don't want to print yet, click cancel. If you don't click "apply to layout", all changes will be lost next time you want to print.

The workflow is somewhat a heap of crap, but once you resignate, it works.

Also, you can make several mviews on 1 layout and define different scales, shademodes, or also 3D-views of your model.

Have fun!