[Search tip detail and code files using keywords, tip number, author name, etc ]
 
Draw Multipoint Viewports
Tip# 4002 By James Olszewski On 22-Oct-2012
5
Rated By 1 users
Categories : Viewports
Software type : AutoCAD 2013
Rename File To : No Files to download.
Don't limit yourself to the standard rectangle.

James J. Olszewski shares a trick for prepping your AutoCAD viewports to be clipped or stretched.

"Some CAD users are unaware that viewports can be anything other than the restrictive rectangle initially provided by AutoCAD upon opening a new drawing. That viewport is reduced all along its length or height, which can be very limiting. What I do instead is draw a multipoint viewport. Even if it's an overall rectangular shape initially, I include not just four corners but at least two additional points on each of the four sides. I draw a closed polyline along the sides of a rectangle, then use the VPorts command from the Viewports toolbar to convert it to a viewport.

"I do this when I begin a drawing, making it much easier to crop the view to exclude or include a variety of details in the viewport. It also expedites notching out around notes or legends that may get added to a sheet later. It is helpful to use the VpSync command when creating new or overlapping viewports so that everything meshes together as needed."

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Reviewer Brian Benton: Users can create viewports by first making a closed polyline. Once this method has been used, editing the viewport is easy enough: Just grip-edit it. The VpSync command is an Express Tool. It will align the viewports so that they look at model space in one continuous view. The viewports themselves don’t move, but the view inside them is moved and scaled so that they are all in line and in scale.

 

Average Rating:
5


User comments
Comment by BARNHOUSE,DEBBIE
Posted on 2012-10-22 10:31:24
Wonderful tip! Helps speed it up when finishing the last details on the drawings! Thanks!
Comment by Bachman,Lisa
Posted on 2012-10-22 16:15:26
If you have made a rectangular viewport and later decide you need to add vertices you can also draw a polygon however you want the viewport to be, pick the viewport, right click and pick viewport clip. Now you will have a viewport that you can edit like a polyline (add, remove, move vertices). I recommend that you put the polyline on the same layer as the viewport before you do this since it somehow combines the two. When you list them with a crossing it says there are 2 entities but they act as one.
Comment by Bratko,Joanna
Posted on 2012-10-22 22:03:40
I found it much easier to use VPCLIP command. What is does is clip Vport in paper space to any shape/ polygon you create.
Comment by Hein,Dave
Posted on 2012-10-23 21:11:31
I've put four (4) Vports on a Tool Palette. Two are for regular rectangular Vports... one on a layer that will plot and one on a layer that would not, and the other two are for polygon Vports, again one on a layer that plots and one that won't. The layers are defined in the properties of each within the palette.