CREATING NEW LAYOUTS IN AUTOCAD

Layouts

Once a drawing file has completed, this needs to be printed either to paper or a non-editable format to be issued. It is important to understand how to setup a drawing ready for printing and at the required scale.

Modelspace and Paperspace

An AutoCAD file is divided into two “spaces”.

Modelspace is where project information is produced full-size, often to real-world coordinates, and more often than not as a series of references or XRefs.

Paperspace is a composition environment where views of the information in Modelspace are arranged, usually with a title sheet, to produce a final printed drawing. A Drawing file (.dwg) can have multiple Paperspace compositions, called layouts. Each layout has a defined paper size within which a scaled down view of Modelspace is created to fit on the paper.

To move between Modelspace and Paperspace, click the Quick View Layouts button on the Application Status Bar. This will show a preview of the Modelspace and Paperspace layouts. Select your required space by clicking on it.

Layout Tabs

You can display permanent tabs for Modelspace and the Layouts (similar to Excel) by right-clicking on the Model button from the Application Status Bar. From the right-click menu, choose Display Layout and Model Tabs.

Layout tabs allow you to switch more quickly between Modelspace and Paperspace layouts. Click a tab to switch directly to the desired layout without having to see a preview first.

Creating New Layouts

When working with a floor plan, multiple layouts may be required. For example, it may be necessary to produce an A1 layout at 1:100 of the entire GA and a separate A3 layout at 1:50 which views a particular area of the same plan in greater detail.

New Paperspace layouts can be added in several ways.

If the Modelspace and Paperspace layout tabs are hidden, right-click on the Quick View Layouts button and click New layout.

If the Modelspace and Paperspace tabs are displayed, right-click on one of the layout tabs and click New layout.

Note:   It is not considered best practice to work in the way in most companies. Normally a file would contain only one Paperspace layout. The additional drawings would be produced in separate files, each with only one Paperspace layout, using XRefs (refer to module 10-References) to compose the layout.

Deleting Layouts

If a layout is no longer required it can be deleted.

If the Modelspace and Paperspace layout tabs are hidden, click the Quick View Layouts button on the Application Status Bar. Right-click on the preview of the layout you wish to remove and click Delete.

If the Modelspace and Paperspace layout tabs are displayed, right-click on the tab of the layout you wish to remove and click Delete.