Views and Layout Viewports in AutoCAD® 2018.1 update

In AutoCAD 2018.1, a few significant improvements have been made to working with views and viewports in the layouts. The layout viewports can now be created from named views and also directly from the layout itself if a named view of a desired area is not available. Using the New View and Insert View commands, you can easily and quickly create multiple layout viewports of different scales and sizes. This has made the whole process much simpler and now it is really easy to create defined views on the fly and set the scale while inserting those views as viewports in a layout.

Create Named Views

You can create named views in the model space and then insert those views as viewports into a layout. In the View tab>Named Views panel, click (New View). In the New View/Shot Properties dialog box, enter the name for the view and using the Define window option, create a window around the required area of the drawing.

The defined view is saved in the Views drop-down list from where you can select and insert them in the layout.

 Insert Views into a Layout

When inserting a view of the model on paper, you can set the scale at which the model should be printed. Using the new Insert View command, you can set the scale before placing the view so that you can clearly see how the view fits on the sheet. When you use any of the previous Viewport commands to create model views, you have to set the scale after you place the view on the sheet.

Insert Named Views into a Layout:

You can now easily insert the already created named views as layout viewports and scale them to the appropriate size at the same time. The following steps enable you to insert the named views as layout viewports.  

1. Ensure that you are in a layout and in Paper Space.
2. In the Layout tab>Layout Viewports panel, expand the   (Insert View) drop-down list. The user-created named views are displayed in the gallery.
   
   
3. In the Insert View gallery, select the view that you want to insert. The view window attaches to the cursor.

4. Verify that it has the appropriate scale, otherwise right-click and select a different scale.

5. Click to place it.

• After placing the view, you can use the various grip options to resize, move, and scale the view and the layout viewport.

Create a Viewport directly from the Layout:

You can also create a new view from the Layout and then insert it at the same time. It is useful if there is not a named view available for a portion of the drawing that you want to create a layout viewport of. It does not the save the view but it is a fast and easy way of creating and inserting a view on the fly. The following steps enable you to create and insert a view directly from the layout.  

1. Ensure that you are in a layout and in Paper Space.
2. Determine the layer on which you want to add the viewports. Set that layer to be the current layer.
3. In the Layout tab>Layout Viewports panel, expand the   (Insert View) drop-down list and select New View.
4. Note that you are now in the Model space. You are prompted to define the portion of the model you want to display in Paper space. Select the first corner of the window of the required area.
5. Select the opposite diagonal corner of the view window so that the rectangle is around the area you want to be defined as a view.

6. Press <Enter>. You are switched back to Paper space, and the view window is attached to the cursor.

7. Right-click to select the view scale.

8. Click to place the viewport of the defined view in the layout. 

I hope that you will find the creating views and inserting them as layout viewports features handy in creating named views ahead of time and then inserting them as required viewports easily and efficiently.  

About the Author

Learning Content Developer<br><br>Renu has worked with Autodesk products for the past 20 years with a main focus on design visualization software. Renu holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and started her career as an Instructional Designer/Author where she co-authored a number of Autodesk 3ds Max and AutoCAD books, some of which were translated into other languages for a wide audience reach. In her next role as a Technical Specialist at a 3D visualization company, Renu used 3ds Max in real-world scenarios on a daily basis. There, she developed customized 3D web planner solutions to create specialized 3D models with photorealistic texturing and lighting to produce high quality renderings.

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