USING LAYOUTS WITH VIEWPORTS AT VARYING SCALES

This tutorial requires the following AllyCAD drawing: Layout.dr4.

Click here to download and open 'Layout.zip'.

Select File > Open and select the 'Layouts' drawing.

The Drawing settings for the Layouts drawing are shown below:

The Drawing has been drawn on a number of layers as shown below:

The drawing of the beam and all the section views are drawn on their own layers along with the dimensions for the view.

All notes are drawn on their own layer.

The reason for this is that when you change the scale in the layout, it changes the size of the text.

Select Settings > Layer Settings and turn off the Notes layer by clicking on the 'Vis' notes icon (the layer is not visible when the icon is greyed out).

You would do this if you did not want the text scaled in you layout drawing and wanted all the notes to be a uniformed size.

Click on OK to continue.

Named View

Save a View with a name within a drawing. This view will be saved in the drawing and we will be able to return to the same named view later on.

Select View > Viewports > Named View and a dialog box will be displayed listing any saved views or allowing us to add an entry for the current view.

Click on the Add button and you will be prompted:

Name the next view Beam and press Enter.

You will be prompted:

Indicate the two opposite corners of a rectangle to encompass the 'Beam'.

You will be prompted:

Name the next view Section A-A and press Enter.

You will be prompted:

Indicate the two opposite corners of a rectangle to encompass the 'Section A-A'.

You will be prompted:

Name the next view 'Section B-B' and press Enter.

You will be prompted:

Indicate the two opposite corners of a rectangle to encompass the 'Section B-B'.

You will be prompted:

Name the next view 'Section C-C' and press Enter.

You will be prompted:

Indicate the two opposite corners of a rectangle to encompass the 'Section B-B'.

Press Esc or click on the done icon.

Once all the views have been added the Named Views dialog box should look similar to the one displayed below.

Click on Close to continue.

Select Settings > Layer Settings and click on the 'Vis' tab (the visible and hidden layers are reversed). Click on the Notes layer and then on the “Make Current” button. Now click on the Beam layer Vis” icon (the layers are not visible when the icon is greyed out).Only the Notes layer should be visible.

Click on OK to continue.

You would only do this if you wanted the text to be inserted at a uniform scale.

Select the first note to add by clicking on it or using a selection box to select it.

Select View > Viewports > Named Viewport from Selection and you will be prompted

Add a new name for the viewport and press Enter.

Press Esc and then select the next note.

Select View > Viewports > Named Viewport from Selection and you will be prompted;

Add a new name for the viewport and press Enter.

Press Esc and then select the next note.

Continue until all the notes are selected as shown below.

The viewports are now added. You can now create a layout and add the viewports to the layout.

Select Settings > Layer Settings and click on the Beam layer and then on the “Make Current” button. Now click on the “Vis” tab (the visible and hidden layers are reversed).

The Notes layer should not be visible.

Layouts

A layout is used to paste different views of your AllyCAD drawing for plotting. You would insert Named Viewports into the Layout.

Inserting a Layout

Select Layout > Insert Layout and you will be prompted:

The layout can be renamed if required, name it 'Print 1' and press Enter.

The Layout Settings dialog will be displayed.

Click OK and you will be prompted:

Select No as you have already defined your viewports. If you select Yes, the viewport will automatically be displayed.

The Layout tab is added next to the Drawing tab at the bottom left of the screen and is the active view.

Adding Viewports

We can now add any of the predefined viewports to the layout.

Select Layout > Add Viewport and you will be prompted:

The Beam viewport is displayed with the scale at 1:5.

AllyCAD will automatically calculate an integral common scale that will fit the selected viewport into the printable area.

The Use drawing’s layer visibility allows you to view only the layers that are visible in the drawing if it is checked. If it is not checked then all the layers will be visible.

Change the scale of the Beam viewport to 1:10 and press Enter.

Position the viewport in the required position in the drawing and click to insert it.

The function repeats.

Click on the Use Named View drop down menu and select the Section A-A viewport.

You will be prompted:

The scale that is now automatically selected is 1:2 as it would best fit into the printable area.

Change the scale of the Section A-A viewport to 1:5 and press Enter.

Position the viewport in the required position in the drawing and click to insert it.

You can now scale the various viewports as required.

The function repeats.

Add the Section B-B and Section C-C viewports at a scale of 1:5.

Click on the Use Named View drop down menu and select the Beam N1 viewport.

You will be prompted:

The scale that is now automatically selected is 1:1 as it would best fit into the printable area.

Change the scale of the Beam N1 viewport to 1:10 and press Enter.

Position the viewport in the required position in the drawing and click to insert it. You can magnify in so as to position it correctly.

The function repeats.

Continue to add all the notes to the various views using a scale of 1:10.

The borders around the viewports can be removed by selecting the viewport and then viewing its properties by either right clicking and selecting Properties or selecting View > Properties.

Change the Draw Clip Polygon to No.

The Clip Polygon is no longer drawn.

You can select everything by pressing Ctrl + A if you would like to remove all the Clip Polygons at once. Everything is highlighted.

Change the Draw Clip Polygon to No.

All the Clip Polygons are removed.

You can now add to the layout. This will however not be updated in the drawing tab. If you make changes to the drawing, it will be updated in the layout.

Select Draw > Rectangle and add a border around the layout.

Select Draw > Text > Single-line Text and add some text to the layout.

It is important to note that the snaps and jumps work within your layout but note they do not work within the viewports.

Scaling a viewport in the layout window, scales what we created in the original viewport in the drawing window.

It might be better to use the Plot function as this automates layout procedures for you.