USING PLOTS WITH VIEWPORTS AT VARYING SCALES

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

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

Select File > Open and select the 'Plot' drawing. Click on Open to retrieve the drawing.

The Drawing settings for the Layouts drawing are shown below:

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 "Notes".

You will be prompted:

Name the next view Table of Cont and press Enter.

Name the next view Table of Cont and press Enter.

Indicate the two opposite corners of a rectangle to encompass the "Table of Cont".

You will be prompted:

Name the next view Extruded View and press Enter.

You will be prompted:

Magnify into the area shown below (You could use a Zoom Window):

Indicate the two opposite corners of a rectangle to encompass the "Extruded View".

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 View > Redraw or press "R" to return the drawing to the paper extents.

Plots

The Plot function generates a layout which is automated to insert a Title Block to make drawing ready for printing.

Select Plot > Generate and the Plot Setup dialog will be displayed.

Select the following.

":\Shared Documents\Knowledge Base Software\AllyCAD2010\Sheetfiles\ Cad Plan.sht" sheet file, in Windows XP.

For those of you using Windows Vista, your path should be similar: "\Users\Public\Documents\Knowledgebase Software\AllyCAD2010\Sheetfiles\ Cad Plan.sht".

Click on Next to continue.

The following Plan Setup dialog will be displayed.

Click on the Add button to add a Plot.

The following command prompt is displayed and the print border is shown.

Move your mouse and you will see that there is a border attached to the mouse. Position the border over the portion of the drawing to be included in the plot and click to drop the sheet.

The following prompt is displayed.

Click on No to continue and the Plan Setup dialog is again displayed with the coordinates for the plot shown.

Click on Finish to generate the Layout Plan drawing.

If you are plotting more than one Layout, AllyCAD will save them sequentially i.e. "Plan1", "Plan2" etc.

You will be presented with a Layout drawing open on your screen.

The new Layout is appropriately named Plan 1 and is shown at the bottom of your screen.

All additional changes can now be made in the Active Window. You can print to the plotter from here or you can save the drawing in the desired applicable format.

Adding viewports to the Plot

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

Select Layout > Add Viewport and you will be prompted:

The Notes viewport is displayed with the scale at 1:2.

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 Notes viewport to 1:15 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 Table of Cont 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 Table of Cont viewport to 1:15 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 Extruded View 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 Extruded View viewport to 1:7.5 (this would make it double the size) and press Enter.

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

Select Dimension > Leader/Arrow and AllyCAD will prompt.

Click in the position of the arrowhead and AllyCAD will prompt.

Click to draw in the arrow to the Extruded view and right click to end.

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.

Select both the Notes and Table of Cont viewports and view the properties.

Change the Draw Clip Polygon to No.

The Clip Polygons are no longer drawn.

Do not remove the Clip Polygon from the Extruded View viewport.

Adding a Viewport over another viewport with a Custom Clip

We will firstly create a new plot and then add a viewport over the plot viewport and clip out the background behind the added viewport.

Click on the Drawing Tab as you can only create a plot form the Drawing view.

Select Plot > Generate and the Plot Setup dialog will be displayed.

Click the Next button and the Plan Setup dialog will be displayed.

Click on the Add button to add a Plot.

The following command prompt is displayed and the print border is shown.

Move your mouse and you will see that there is a border attached to the mouse. Position the border over the portion of the drawing to be included in the plot and click to drop the sheet.

The following prompt is displayed.

Click on No to continue and the Plan Setup dialog is again displayed with the coordinates for the plot shown.

Right click on the Plot 1 "Yes" tab to turn this plot off.

Click on Finish to generate the Layout Plan drawing.

If you are plotting more than one Layout, AllyCAD will save them sequentially i.e. "Plan1", "Plan2" etc.

The new Layout drawing will open on your screen and be named Plan 2.

Adding viewports to the Plot

We now need to add a Viewport to our last Layout we created.

Select Layouts > Add Viewport and select the Extruded View viewport from the Use Named View drop down list.

The viewport will be attached to your mouse at the wrong scale.

AllyCAD will prompt.

You can now change the scale. In this case the scale we will use is 1:10.

Note: Check "Use drawing’s layer visibility" to allow your Viewport to be dropped into your Layout with the invisible layers integrity maintained. Click on the green tick to accept our changes.

Position our Viewport in the top left corner of our Plan 2 Layout, and click once with your mouse to drop the Viewport.

This is a repetitive command, so as you move your mouse away the Viewport is still attached to your mouse. Press Esc to terminate the function. Your screen should be updated as shown.

Cropping a Viewport

To add a Custom Clip Region to a Viewport we need to have entities drawn in defining the clip region. These entities may be defined by drawing Chained Lines, which in essence are single entities, or we can define this boundary with the aid of a Lightweight Polyline or a 3D Polyline.

Note: This Custom Clip Region will retain the entities inside our boundary and discard or crop the entities that fall outside.

Select Draw > Polylines > Lightweight Polylines and the following dialog box will be displayed.

Draw in a boundary using the Plan Region of the Sheet File as a template and click from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 and back to 1 as shown below.

Right-click and select Finished to end the function.

Click inside the Plan 2 Layout and select the bigger of the two Viewports.

Your plan inside your Title Block should now be highlighted.

Right-click on the highlighted Viewport and the following dialog will be displayed.

Select Add Custom Clip to Viewport and the following prompt will be displayed.

Take your mouse and pick the boundary you have just drawn.

Your screen will be updated, and the area behind our typical detail will be cleared.

Press Esc to deselect our plan. Your drawing should be updated immediately as shown.

Select the Lightweight Polyline with your mouse and press Delete.

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 > Text > Single-line Text and add the scale (1:10) to the Extruded View viewport.

Your layout should now be ready for printing.

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.