When working with large or complex AutoCAD drawings, repeatedly zooming, panning, and resetting views can become time-consuming. Named views provide a simple way to save and quickly restore important drawing perspectives, helping you work more efficiently and maintain consistency.
What Are Named Views?
AutoCAD-based products (such as AutoCAD Map, Architecture, Plant 3D, Civil 3D, etc.) are spatial by nature. The drawings being generated by them can encompass a large area, both in 2D and 3D. Interesting perspective or isometric views can be established for design and presentation purposes, which can be enhanced with rendering styles and lighting effects.
Many such views will end up in construction drawings in terms of traditional drawing types like plans, sections, elevations, and plan and profile sets.
To create such views can be challenging, but you can name views. Named views capture the current vantage point of a drawing under a specified name that can easily be restored in the drawing window. Named views can be used in Model Space or in an active layout viewport of Paper Space.
There is a useful tool, simply called View from the command line, the keyboard shortcut being V. It is also available through the View tab>Named Views panel, or in the top left corner of the Drawing Window in the middle of three bracketed areas similar to:
[+] [Top] [2D Wireframe]
When this method is used, all 10 standard views and whatever custom views are present in the drawing are available to be restored.
When invoked, it brings up the View Manager, which is a handy tool for managing the views.
The View Manager dialog box sets, creates, deletes, modifies, and renames named views. It also manages model views, layout views, preset views, and camera views. You can select a named view and click Set Current to make it the current view.
Creating a New Named View
To create a named view, set up the vantage point as you want it to be saved, the zoom level, visual style, and perhaps even the layer state that you want to keep. In the Home tab>View panel, select View Manager or type V as the keyboard shortcut. This invokes the View Manager dialog box.
In the View Manager dialog box, click New, as shown below.
Fill out the New View / Shot Properties dialog box, as shown below, including the View name, Boundary, Settings, and Background areas.
Note: The View category option refers to views that are used in sheet sets, such as plans and elevations. The categories are created in the Sheet Set Manager, and not the subject of this blog.
You can choose to have the current window set as your Named View boundary, or you can Define window by clicking that option and then selecting the icon to zoom outline the area of the view.
There are more options available when you expand the dialog box with the arrow.
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You can save the layer snapshot with the view, so that when the view is restored, the layer state at the time of creating the view will be restored as well. This is enabled by default, so use this with caution because it may change your layers whenever you restore a view.
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UCS sets a UCS to be saved with the view. This is the User Coordinate System, a useful (but rather complicated) tool for working both in 2D and 3D environments.
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Live section enables you to activate a section plane, if one is available in the drawing. Once a live section is on, it stays on until you deactivate it through the Section Plane shortcut menu option.
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Visual style will set a visual style to be saved with the view. You can pick a visual style from the drop-down list or leave it as the current visual style.
You can also add specific Backgrounds to your views to add more realism or to highlight your design in the drawing window. These backgrounds can be a solid, gradient, or image, as shown below.
Solid backgrounds can be any single color, while gradient backgrounds can be a mix of two or three colors, as shown below.
Images can be any of the standard image files that the AutoCAD-based software can view. In the Background dialog box (shown below), click Browse to select an image and then click Adjust Image to modify the image as required, in terms of the location, offset, and scale of the image.
Finally, you can Save sun properties with the view. This will specify whether sun and sky data is saved with the named view.
When all done, click OK to save the new view.
Work Smarter with Named Views
Named views are a powerful tool for working within complex AutoCAD-based programs. Through proper management of these views, your work can be streamlined and be more efficient. Check it out!
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