Viewpoints and plotting

[MisterJingles]

Hi all

 

I need to plot drawings on a plotframe (Frame with company details etc). What I did was I opened the plotframe as a drawing and simply copied and pasted it into the modelspace of the drawing I want to plot. First problem is that the plotframe is tiny in my modelspace compared to my drawing.

 

I then created a new layout and created a viewport in which I could see my drawing (scale problems here are a whole other story for me)

I got it to fit in the plotframe but when I wanted to plot all it shows me in the plot preview is whats in the viewport, not the frame.

 

Why?

[ReMark]

All objects should be drawn in model space. Plot frames (titleblock and border?) belong in paper space (sometimes referred to as a Layout). Why? Because you can create one or more viewports to look back into model space and see all your objects and the viewports can be scaled independent of each other if need be. However, since you'll be plotting from your layout you can keep the plot scale set to 1:1 despite the scales of the viewports. I think you are trying to scale your plotframe to fit your model space drawing.

[rkent]

What layer is your frame on? It could be on a non-plot layer.

What selection did you pick for plot area in the plot dialog? extents, layout, window, or display

What plot scale did you pick?

 

Just to get you headed in the right direction select Extents and Fit to paper and see if everything plots. Report back what happened.

[MisterJingles]

Ok I came right by again copying the empty plotframe from one drawing and pasting it into(paperspace this time, not model as last time) the new drawing.

 

I then created a viewport inside the plotframe border at a scale of 1:1 and the drawing was far too big. I then double clicked inside the viewport and just zoomed out until it fitted (end result was a scale of 0.0008.) I didnt enjoy this as it seems unnecessarily tricky to centre it, and also I needed to move the drawing to be lengthways inside the plotframe, not widthways. How do I change that? Meaning that the drawing sits at an angle of approx 45deg when I want it at 0deg.

 

 

I then went to plot, window, highlighted the frame with the drawing in and plotted it. Is that the correct way?

What is meant by Extents? I obviously see the option there but what exactly is it implying?

 

rkent - By doing it the way I just explained, would my plotframe even be on a layer? I would think not as I didnt do anything with layers in plotting this.

I get the feeling Im doing this the very long way around. Am I right?

[rkent]

For us to help you it is important that you try the steps suggested and report the results.

You don't say what scale factor you selected in the plot dialog and you don't report back whether the frame plotted this last time.

When you paste something into autocad it will be on the layer that is current at the time of the paste. So what layer is current when you are doing all of this?

 

Extents means that everything in the current layout is taken into consideration, a window lets you define an area smaller than extents.

Is the frame a block or individual objects?

[ReMark]

It is advisable to create a separate layer for your plotframe (titleblock/border). It is also advisable to create a layer for the Viewport(s) you use. This layer, in Layer Manager, can be set not to plot even though it will be visible onscreen.

[ReMark]

Might I also suggest you right-click on one of your toolbars and from the resultant drop-down list enable the toolbar called Viewports. When you're working in a layout you can use this toolbar to set the scale of your viewport(s) accurately. I caution you against using the option Scale to fit unless you really don't carry about the scale AutoCAD will assign to the viewport.

[MisterJingles]

rkent - I thought by stepping out what I had done I had mentioned all the points you asked, if not its because in my ignorance I did not understand the question and so I apologise.

I did not place the plotframe on any layer, as you have mentioned it was obviously placed on the current layer (This confuses me though because at the time all layers were activated so which would it be on? Is this what you meant?)

Like I said, I did come right by doing it the way I stepped out above but I think this is "the wrong way to get the right result". And yes the frame DID plot this time.

Regarding the Extents, I guess thats what I would use if I had a single layout dedicated to the plotframe, and would use Window if I was plotting something on a layout with other objects. That clears it up thanks.

 

ReMark - I have been selecting that viewports toolbar everytime but will place it onto my permanent toolbars rather. The scale you mention is obviously the one on that toolbar and I have been leaving it as Scale to fit, how would I know what to set it to? If I leave it as 1:1 it comes out far too big

 

Guys please forgive my poor questions and answers, Ill get there...sometime in 2016

[chelsea1307]

The scale depends on what you need to fit into what space and general scales vary by what kind of work you do. a quarter scale drawing or 1/4" = 1'-0" is used quite often by me doing HVAC drafting, while someone doing land surveying might use 1" = 100' or somthing along those lines.

[rkent]

MisterJingles,

Are you still watching this thread? I think I owe you some more help but I got distracted here at work with .... um ... work.

[MisterJingles]

rkent - I apologise, the weekend arrived so I was away from the PC. I will go through the thread again today and try out the suggestions. There is also an Autocad teacher coming to spend a few hours with me this evening so tomorrow Ill continue this if I have more questions.

Thanks for following up.

[MisterJingles]

Ok I sat with a tutor yesterday and she cleared up some of the problems I was having.

There are some fundamentals I was not aware of when using Cad in general, such as using layers correctly etc.

 

The thing which helped me out with this particular problem was firstly knowing how to set a scale (Yes you read correctly, I wasnt even using a scale), and then also using the layouts correctly to plot off.

My drawings are plotting correctly now, with practise it will become even easier.